Lorne Rubenstein | |
Slam Bam with a Battering Ram
October 26, 2005
Slam bam, thank you ma'am, or, as has more often been the case, and just was, man.
Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images |
Lucas Glover knew he should tip his cap, but beyond that, he says he was in shock. |
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Lucas Glover holed a long bunker shot and won the Funai Classic in Orlando on the weekend. Is there any shot in golf more thrilling than the unexpected one on the last hole that ends the tournament?
Birdie Kim did the same thing in the U.S. Women's Open earlier this year.
She was miles and miles from the hole in a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole at the Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver. Morgan Pressel was back in the fairway. Kim, who took on the name Birdie to differentiate her from other Kims on the LPGA Tour, was true to her name.
Slam bam, thank you ma'am. Her ball came out of the bunker, skittered along the green and fell in the hole. Pressel, back in the fairway, couldn't believe what she saw.
"I was like, I can't believe this is happening to me," Pressel said after she bogeyed the final hole when she needed a birdie to tie Kim.
Kim could barely believe what she had just done.
Photo: © Harry How/Getty Images |
They say every shot can make someone happy and someone else sad. Teenager Morgan Pressel was on the sad side of Birdie Kim's bunker shot. |
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"Actually, I am not a real good bunker player," she said, having estimated it would take her more than 50 shots to replicate her slam-dunk. She didn't say how many more than fifty.
"Also I change my sand wedge about two weeks ago. That club is not used yet to me. So I have a lot of misses this week with bunker shot. Finally I make it."
She also said, "Never," when she was asked what she thought of her chances at the beginning of the week to win the biggest championship in women's golf.
Now, a caveat. Technically, Kim's hole-out on the last hole didn't wrap up the victory for her. She had to wait to see what Pressel would do. But still, what were the odds Pressel would match her birdie? Not good. Pretty bad. Pretty high. So we'll call it a slam bam, thank you ma'am shot for the sake of a good story.
Ditto what Glover did on Sunday in Orlando.
Photo: © Doug Pensinger/Getty Images |
Birdie Kim wasn't thinking slam bam when she hit her bunker shot on the 72nd hole. |
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He still had to wait in case Tom Pernice birdied the hole. Pernice missed a birdie putt from 15 feet, so the glory was all Glover's.
The shot he holed was a shocker, even to him. That's the nature of slam-bammers. They stun everybody, even the players who make them. Glover's look was one of incredulity.
"My bunker game has been horrendous this week, and pretty much all year, to be honest," Glover said after his round, when, he indicated, he was still four feet off the ground with excitement. "I've been short all week. So I squared the club face up a little bit more, give it a little bit more, and it went in. I can't explain it, it's just the way it happened."
That's the way it is for slam-bammers. They're inexplicable.
We can assign the shots to fate, but what kind of explanation is that? We can say they just happen, which at least accepts the random nature of the shots. We can invoke Gary Player. Wasn't it Player who said something like "The harder I practice, the luckier I get?" Anyway, it's an old saw worth trotting out here for a brief display.
Another intriguing element attends slam-bammers, and that's dead silence.
There's the moment of ecstasy, and then there's nothing. A player feels shock. First comes the storm, then the calm. Such is the reverse order of what transpires after a slam-bammer.
Check it out. Kim's look was one of being stunned into quiet. Glover's eyes bugged out.
Photo: © Craig Jones/Getty Images |
Jenny Chausiriporn's amazing putt didn't win the 1998 U.S. Women's Open but it still remains unforgettable. |
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Or maybe you remember Jenny Chausiriporn's reaction when she holed a 40-foot putt on the final green of the 1998 U.S. Women's Open at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin. She needed to make the birdie putt to have any chance of getting into a playoff with Se Ri Pak, who was playing behind her.
Chausiriporn's brother Joey was caddying for her. He advised her to play a foot of left to right break. She went back and forth before hitting the putt, trying to feel the speed. She hit the putt exactly where she aimed, and with what appeared to be just about the right speed.
Who could know? It was a long putt. But it looked good. And it fell in.
She was stunned, and covered her mouth in a gesture that asked, "What have I done?"
Pak didn't birdie the final hole and went into a Monday playoff with Chausiriporn, a 20-year-old Duke University junior.
They were tied after 18 holes and then Pak birdied the 20th hole to win. Nice win. But we remember Chausiriporn's slam-bammer.
We also remember Bob Tway's hole-out from the front bunker to win the 1986 PGA Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images |
Bob Tway's bunker shot in 1986 was one of a few that came at Greg Norman's expense. |
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I was standing beside the green and had that reaction of amazement with some kind of verbal exclamation, followed by silence. Tway jumped up and down in the bunker. Poor Greg Norman stood by and watched.
Norman was also the standby golfer the next year when Larry Mize holed out from 110 feet to win the Masters against him in a playoff. Mize also jumped up and down. Norman had a long putt to tie, but really, that would have been too much. You just don't overcome slam-bammers.
Three years later Norman was slam-bammed again, when Robert Gamez holed out with a 7-iron from 176 yards to win the 1990 Nestle Invitational at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando.
Gamez figured he needed a birdie to tie Mize, with whom he was playing. Mize had a one-shot lead. Norman was back on the 17th tee when he heard a roar up ahead.
Slam bam.
"I knew exactly what happened," Norman said later. "A roar like that, you figure somebody holed out. Right then I knew I had to birdie the last two holes."
He didn't.
"I hit it flush. It just went in," Gamez said.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images |
You can't really talk about slam bams without mention of Larry Mize's Masters chip to deny Greg Norman. |
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Then there was Shaun Micheel, who stiffed a 7-iron from the left rough to seal the deal in the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester. It was all over, just like that.
"I had 161 yards to the front, a little bit into the wind a little bit left-to-right with a perfect lie," Micheel said. "I hit that just normal. It was an absolutely perfect, perfect number. And to hit the ball two inches from the hole, I knew it was pretty close. I had asked somebody how close it was and they weren't paying attention or didn't really care to tell me, which is fine with me. I saw it was only two inches; I figured I could make that one. I don't know what else to say."
Slam bam. The rest is silence.
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