The PGA Tour's 2010 season-opener was a bit of a snoozer. Even though Geoff Ogilvy rallied from a two-shot deficit with 10 holes to play Sunday, his one-shot victory over Rory Sabbatini in the SBS Championship at Kapalua was anti-climatic. On a scale of 1 to 5 dog biscuits, Oldgolfdawg would throw it a 3.
Maybe the Arizona Cardinals' 51-45 overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers in an NFL wild-card playoff game earlier was just a tough act to follow. But when Sabbatini slightly missed his tee shot on the 18th hole, the drama quotient took a hit. He didn't get the roll he needed on the 663-yard hole and had to lay up short of the green on his second shot. The miscue came back to haunt Sabbatini, who capped a brilliant 10-under 63 with a disappointing par. It was like watching a running back rush for 200 yards only to fumble away the ball inside the 5 on his way to the end zone.
Ogilvy secured the victory with a workman-like par on the final hole. He shot a final-round 67 to finish at 22-under 270. In posting his eighth consecutive round in the 60s on the Plantation Course , he joined fellow Australian Stuart Appleby as the only repeat winners since this tournament moved to Kapalua in 1999. Ogilvy also became only the seventh player in the 58 years of the winners-only tournament to win in consecutive years.
The Golf Channel broadcasting team of Kelly Tilghman, Nick Faldo and Mark Rolfing didn't sugarcoat Sabbatini's missed opportunity. It was pointed out that Sabbatini missed a 3 1/2-foot putt on the 18th in 2002 that would have forced a playoff.
Like NBC analyst Johnny Miller, Faldo's remarks carry a lot of weight. But Faldo points out players' weaknesses in a more delicate manner. He noted that Ogilvy got off to a fast start in 2009 before fading from view in April. He suggested Ogilvy's swing got stuck in a bad spine angle rut that he couldn't shake.
Miller has often been blunt in his criticism of players. One example came on June 16, 2008, when he referred to Rocco Mediate, during the broadcast of the U.S. Open's 18-hole playoff, as "looking like the guy who cleans Tiger Woods' pool."
Oldgolfdawg enjoys hearing the insights of analysts as wise and knowledgeable as Miller and Faldo. But a kinder, gentler, machine-gun hand goes well with Faldo's affable personality. Sometimes we just don't need a sledgehammer.
Fred Stenson's Canadian epic, The Trade
14 years ago
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i love the hammer.
ReplyDeleteSo oldgolfdog,
when lining up your 3rd putt, do you stike it
firm?
Pete .... When I'm lining up my third putt I fall back on a phrase I first heard uttered by Greg Gula: "Just ram it, babe." If that fails, I beg for mercy from playing partners and hope they give me a four-jack out of compassion... Thanks for keeping things light. If the blog seems a little too tightly wound, it's only because I hope to monetize it someday. But right now it's just me and you, Hoss, and it might stay that way forever. It's mostly a labor of love and hopefully will keep me connected with good friends such as yourself. I'm thinking about writing a post about Deer Ridge in the near future. Any chance the Gula/McClintick Classic is heading there again in 2010?
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