Couples Close, but Badds is Badder

I've been raving and reminiscing about Fred Couples, Riviera, and all of the great moments I've had involving the Nissan/Northern Trust Open over the years.  But Freddie did it again.  He wowed us all by posting another top-10 finish at age 51.

On Friday, Couples set the tournament on fire by firing a 66 and taking the 36-hole lead.  He hung in there on Saturday, shooting a 70 to wind up in the final threesome on Sunday, one stroke behind Aussie Aaron Baddeley and tied for second with local Diamond Bar native Kevin Na.  Baddeley shot a 67 on Saturday to take the lead from Couples and set the stage for a highly anticipated fourth round.

Early on Sunday, it appeared that the magic synergy between Freddie and Riviera was working in his favor once again.  He started birdie-birdie-birdie on the first three holes, including a chip-in from the base of the hillside on Hole 2 and took a two shot lead.  But the wheels starting coming off on Hole #6, where Couples seemed to have caught a case of "the rights". He missed the green on the par-3 sixth to the right, causing him to make bogey and followed up on the seventh with a blocked tee shot that started a slide down the leaderboard.  For the rest of the round, he seemed to miss many shots short and to the right, including critical tee shots and 12 and 16.

On the par-4 seventh, he found the deep rough to the right of the fairway, and was forced to punch out.  The recovery shot found a fairway bunker on the left side, and nestled close to the lip.  He blasted out with his third shot but came up woefully short of the green.  On his final approach, he hit a low pitch shot that appeared to be on line but checked up surprisingly quickly.  He was left with a two-putt double bogey.  To make matters worse for Freddie fans, Baddeley holed a difficult putt from the fringe to make birdie and cause a three shot swing to take a three shot lead.  After the round, Couples was quoted as saying that he never felt right for the rest of the day after his second shot on the hole, suggesting that he had tweaked his perpetually bad back with a violent swing from the cabbage. 

Couples started the final nine three strokes behind but hit a good drive on the short but devilish 10th.  His drive wound up right at the front of the green, but a tucked hole location in the back of the green made the approach difficult.  To get close to the hole, Fred had to flop a high pitch shot near the fringe to the right of the green, flirting with a ridge and possibly the bunker.  He did the unthinkable, and seemed to somewhat scoop his shot, which squirted short and to the right and caught the edge of the bunker.  What was a potentially easy birdie wound up being a bogey and probably sealed Freddie's fate for a comeback.  Baddeley made a steady birdie to put himself five ahead of Fred.

Baddeley would open up the door a bit at 12.  He drove into the right rough, and his second clipped a tree limb and fell into the worst possible place - the barranca.  He gouged out to the left fringe but did not get up and down and wound up with a double bogey.  After a birdie on 11, Couples parred 12 and found himself only two behind.  This hole was quite reminiscent of the 1992 tournament, where Davis Love III took a big lead into12 only to relinquish it with a triple-bogey to set the table for a Fred Couples victory that year.

In 2011, it was not meant to be.  Baddeley holed a long, twisting putt on 13 to seize the momentum back.  With a bad tee shot on 16, Couples sealed his fate, falling four behind.  A bogey on 18 pushed him even farther down the leaderboard.  He finished in a tie for seventh, five shots behind Baddeley, who carded a 69 to capture his third PGA Tour victory, and his first since the 2007 FBR Open.

For Baddeley, this victory comes at an ideal time.  The President's Cup will be held at Royal Melbourne this year, making the event extra attractive to Australian players.  International Team Captain Greg Norman is known for being a mentor to Baddeley, and must be rooting for him to make the team on his own merit.  After winning the Australian Open in 1999 and 2000, Baddeley was hailed as the most promising golfer to come out of 'Down Under" since Norman himself.  Now 29 years old, "Badds" has had a somewhat disappointing career so far, winning only twice on the PGA Tour until he ended his three year drought at the Northern Trust.

Freddie missed a chance at history.  At 51 years old, he would have been the second oldest player to win a PGA Tour event, bested only by Sam Snead, who won the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at at age 52.  For the galleries of Riviera, they had a chance to see their old favorite contend once again.  Although the Couples magic petered out on the back-nine Sunday, he still gave us all a thrill.  I wouldn't be surprised if he makes another run in 2012, and has multiple wins on the Champions Tour this year. 

Nissan Open Memories - Part 2

With the 2011 Northern Trust Open at Riviera starting in just a few days, I decided to finish my stories about my favorite memories attending the tournament.

Freddie's Alley - Riviera Country Club is well known as "Hogan's Alley" thanks to the success that golf legend Ben Hogan had at the site.  But another player dazzled the Riviera fairways and galleries during more recent years.  Armed with his laid back attitude, wry smile, and smooth golf swing, Fred Couples hit his peak of popularity in the early to mid 1990's.  "Boom Boom" was known for aggressive play, long drives, and for being one of the most affable players around.  Freddie won 15 PGA Tour events in his career.  Eight of them came between 1990 and 1994, including his only major championship victory at The Masters in 1992.  Californians from Pebble to San Diego. and L.A. to Palm Desert seem to have adopted Couples as one of their own.  His style and personality just make him feel like one of us. His success at Riviera has made him an absolute crowd favorite, even to this day.  Couples has often been quoted as saying that Riviera is one of his very favorite courses.  Given his track record, it is easy to see why.

The facts - Couples has twelve top-10 finishes in this event in his career.  In 1990, he would fire an 18 under par 266 to win the tournament, besting Gil Morgan and my perennial favorites Peter Jacobsen and Rocco Mediate, who tied for third.  His second win at the Nissan came in 1992, beating Davis Love III in a playoff.  Amazingly,   Fred was also the runner up in 1993, 1994, and 1996, losing to Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, and Craig Stadler, respectively.  That means he finished either first or second in five out of seven consecutive years.  You simply do not see players with that kind of record on any given course or tournament.

For me, it all started in 1989 at my first Nissan Open.  I was there for the final round and got my first glimpse of Couples as he tied for 7th that year. My favorite and most memorable day watching Freddie happened in 1992 during the third round of the tournament.  Entering the back-nine, David Love III was at four or five shots ahead of Couples and the rest of the field and appeared to be cruising.  On #12, Love opened the door.  He hit his drive into the trees on the right of the dogleg-right hole.  Trying to reach the green, he nicked a tree branch and his ball fell into the deep barranca that crosses the fairway.   My dad, who never cared much for David Love, was tickled when he barely advanced his third shot from the cabbage.  He finally escaped the hazard, but came up well short of the green, chipped on, and ended up making a triple bogey.  Luckily, we were there to witness the turning point of the whole tournament.  One shot behind now, this time it was Couples drove his ball deep into the trees down the right side of #13.   It looked like he was in jail but he spotted an alley and moved the gallery out of his way.  We stood behind Couples and had a great view of the shot.  There was a small window between branches where he could shape his shot and he needed a fade to reach the green.  To our amazement, he hit a low, scorching punch-slice that perfectly missed all of the branches and skipped up onto the putting surface. The crowd went bananas and the shot left us with our jaws wide open.   Couples went on to shoot a 64 that day, taking the lead from Love on the back nine with birdies at 16 and 17.  During the final round, the crowd was clearly rooting for Couples.  At the Nissan is very common to hear chants of "Freddie, Freddie, Freddie" and to hear a lot of hooting and hollering after every long drive or holed putt by the man.   The event went to a playoff between Love and Couples, which was won by Fred on the second playoff hole.   I remember Love commenting after the tournament that he clearly felt that the crowd was against him and that he didn't enjoy the gallery's antics.  Welcome to "Freddie's Alley".

Freddie at the 18th

Chasing Kevin Burton - In 1997, I worked for a little place called The Greens at Park Place, a very unique golf concept called a putting course.  I was the Golf Manager, and was in charge of running events, managing the front-line staff and basically helping my General Manager with merchandising, sales, the membership, and whatever else he needed me to do.  His name was Erik Rogers and he taught me a lot about the golf business.  Erik was a very personable guy who loved the game.  Before coming to run The Greens, he was a PGA Apprentice at Redhawk Golf Course in Temecula, where he knew a young golfer named Kevin Burton.  Kevin was an aspiring tour player, and Erik introduced me to him one day.  Kevin is a quiet family man from Idaho, which made him very likable.

Burton - 2010

PGA Tour Q-School was at La Purisma on the California Central Coast in 1997.  Kevin was in position to earn his PGA card when the El Nino rains of 1997 washed out the final round.  I remember watching the Golf Channel's coverage of the event with Erik on our television at The Greens as they were they live when the final round was canceled.  Kevin was one of the players seen on TV celebrating, and Erik was thrilled at the good fortune of his friend.  He had made the PGA Tour and was about to embark on the dream of his lifetime.

In 1997, Erik invited me to go with him to the Nissan on Thursday.  Kevin was playing in his third tour event,  that year and had kicked us down a couple of "Player Guest' tickets.  I had never before known anyone who had played golf on the PGA Tour, so I was quite intrigued by the experience.  Our plan was to follow Kevin for 18-holes.  Erik wanted to be there for moral support and to see how he would navigate the challenging Riviera track. Erik suspected that Kevin would play well at Riviera.  His game was suited for more difficult golf courses because he was a straight hitter, good with his irons, and typically a good putter.  He was not the type of player who would go really low on any given day, but he was more likely to play steady and grind out four solid rounds.  He had also played in the Nissan Open once before in 1995, finishing in the money as a Monday qualifier.

Kevin teed off at #10 that day and we caught up with him around the 12th green.  He was playing with Brett Quigley, nephew of famous Senior Tour player Dana Quigley, and Kelly Manos, who was a local qualifier and professional from Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach.  Manos had a few fans in attendance who made the drive from Orange County like we did, but for the most part, we had a front row seat on every hole.  Kevin played fairly well, hitting a lot of greens but seemed to have trouble putting.  He missed a lot of birdie opportunities throughout the day and his frustration was clear when he acknowledged us for the first time as he walked off of #8.  After missing a short birdie putt, he saw us as he proceeded to the 9th tee. He shook his head at us then put his head back down to get back into the game.  He hung in there and ended up shooting a 70 on the day, a score that could have been much lower.  He ended up making the cut and cashing his first PGA Tour check of the year later that week.  It was really cool to watch someone I knew play inside the ropes.  Although I was only an acquaintance, I was rooting hard for Kevin to succeed.  Living and dying with every shot was tough. I can only imagine what it must feel like for wives or family members when they watch. 

This event and the whole season for Kevin made quite an impression on me.  Erik would update me basically daily about how Kevin was doing on tour, and it was a struggle.  He only made only about 10 cuts and only two of the checks he cashed were over $10,000.  His overall earnings that year were $78,534 and he finished 178th on the official money list.   Although he lived out a dream by playing a full season on the PGA Tour, he found himself in a difficult position.  What a lot of people don't realize is that PGA Tour players pay for their own expenses.  Hotels, airfare, and caddies are not free.  It costs an awful lot of money just to play in 26 events.  For a player like Kevin who didn't have any major sponsors and who didn't make a lot of cuts in his first year, he probably lost money on the year.  To make things worse, he was too low on the money list to qualify for the Tour in 1998 and did not finish high enough to even guarantee status on the Nationwide Tour. 

Over the years, I have gained a great deal of respect for those guys who are grinding it out year after year and making a living at this game.  There are many golf fans who think making the big show is some kind of gold mine, but it takes an awful lot of talent and an awful lot of heart to make it out there year after year.  Watching Kevin was a mixture of happiness for seeing a guy live out his dream, but also a lesson.   When you work at a golf course, it seems like every day you encounter someone who thinks they are going to make it on the PGA Tour the Senior Tour.  What they simply don't know us how elite PGA Tour players are.  With Kevin, we're talking about a former California State Open Champion,  four time Idaho State Champion, six time Rocky Mountain Section PGA Player of the Year, etc.   I always feel like telling them all about Kevin's story.

Luckily, Kevin has prospered in making a life out of golf.  He became the head coach of the Boise State golf team in 2005 and has had a lot of success running that program.  It couldn't have happened to a better golfer or a nicer guy.  

Rooting for the Underdog - Riviera is known for being a true test of golf.  If you look at the list of champions over the last thirty years, you will not find many "nobodies".  For every Ted Schulz, T.C. Chen, and Kirk Triplett, there are two or three Fred Couples, Phil Mickelsons, and Corey Pavins.  In other words, the best of the best seem to win at Riviera.  But over the years, my dad and I developed a long list of lovable underdogs who we couldn't resist rooting for.

Rocco Mediate - When I first saw Rocco in 1989, I had never heard of him before.  He was a guy who had never won a tournament or finished very high on the money list. My dad and I took an immediate liking to him because he seemed like he was having a great time out there on the course.  He seemed very appreciative of the fans, and just looked like a guy you would get paired up with at the first tee of your local course.  This isn't the Rocco we know today.  He was once a little chunky, and the first time we saw him he looked like he slept in his golf clothes. He was a complete nobody at the time, but his personality just made him impossible not to like. To top it off, Rocco played great at Riviera. from 1990-1994 Rocco had four top-10 finishes including a tie for 3rd in 1990.  He has finished in the top 20 eight times in the last 20 years, despite many of those years suffering from a severely injured back.

Bob Estes - Poor Bob.  In 1995 he fired a 66 in the second round to put him one shot behind Kenny Perry and Corey Pavin going into Saturday's round.  My dad and I followed this threesome for much of the day.  Corey Pavin may be the SECOND most popular player at Riviera, behind Freddie, of course.  Pavin is a local, having played his college golf at UCLA and producing a stellar amateur record in Southern California.  It is very common to hear "Go Bruins" from members of the gallery whenever Pavin is within earshot.  As he played his way through the course, the crowd was clearly heavily in favor of Pavin.  After each tee shot or holed putt, the spectators would loudly applaud in support of Corey.  Estes, on the other hand, had no fans.  Bob isn't the most colorful of players.  He doesn't have a flashy game or recognizable style in any way.  He really is your typical nondescript PGA Tour player.  But to us, he seemed like a nice enough guy, and we felt bad that he was getting virtually no support out there.  So, we took it on ourselves to become the Bob Estes cheering section.    I clearly remember the players walking past us after holing out on 14.  Pavin supporters were very vocal, but my dad and I both let out our own versions of  "Go Get 'em, Bobbaayyy" as he passed us inside the ropes.  It almost seemed as if he heard us, and felt encouraged by the support.  We will never know for sure.  Estes shot a 70 that day and Pavin shot a 68. Corey would go on to shoot 67 in the final round to win the tournament.  Bobby faded with a 73 on Sunday and came in 14th.

In 1999, a very similar situation took place.  Estes again found himself in the final pairing of the day on Saturday, this time playing with Ernie Els and Davis Love III.  Els was at the peak of his popularity in 1999, having already won the U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997.   Love also had a strong following at the time due to his PGA Championship win in 1997 and previously strong record on the tour.  Estes held a one shot lead starting the day but a number of players passed him with low rounds.  Els and Love both shot a 68, Tiger Woods shot a 65, and Ted Tryba's magical 61 dusted Estes and his 72 on the day.  After a long day of not playing particularly well, Bob came to the 18th tee looking tired and somewhat dejected.  Once again, there we were, feeling sorry for him, feeling that he deserved better, and we let him know we were there.  Els teed off to a lot of cheers and applause.  Love, who was known for being a long hitter, launched one to the delight of the crowd.  Estes stepped up and hit third, playing modestly to the middle of the fairway.  Other than a courteous golf clap from the patrons, there was virtual silence, except for two guys.  "Atta Boy, Bob!" - "Nice Shot Bobbayy!".  We got a lot of funny looks that day from people who weren't sure why we were rooting so hard for the unheralded Bob Estes.  The answer is simple, we love rooting for the underdog.  Els wound up winning that year and Bob finished 7th.  If I ever see him again,  I will root for him all the same.  

A Few Other Likable Underdogs - Phil Blackmar.  How can you not love a 6'7" professional golfer?  Big Phil was always easy to spot lurching around the green like Herman Munster, and we loved seeing a big guy like us out there. Duffy Waldorf was famous for his ugly multi-colored hats but he also lived in my home town of Santa Clarita and played a lot of golf at Valencia CC.  Bob Burns was an up and coming professional when we both worked at Valencia CC when I was a high school kid.  Watching him inside the ropes was always a treat for me. Before he made the tour, he once lent me his golf cart and a towel when my idiot friend hit me in the head with his putter, opening a bloody gash behind my left ear, but that's a story for another time.   There always seemed to be random Japanese players in the field every year.  We took a liking to Yoshinori Kaneko.  He always seemed to be very intense on the course and a group of a dozen photographers would follow him wherever he would go.  He actually finished 3rd in 1992.  We liked Omar Uresti just because of his name, and I never met a golf fan who wasn't intrigued at least a little by TC "Two-Chip" Chen.

Bob Burns

Phil Blackmar

 

Nissan Open Memories - Part 1

Every February the PGA Tour visits Los Angeles and Riviera Country Club for what is now known as the Northern Trust Open.  By my count, I have attended the tournament over ten times, mostly between 1989-1997 when my dad and I used to make the trek to Pacific Palisades every year.  And as luck would have it, the tournament was played in my home town at Valencia Country Club in 1998.  In my last blog post, I talked about memories from my very first trip to Riviera.  Now it is time to share five other memorable moments.

An Encounter with Carl Spackler Himself - At one of the tournaments in the early 1990's, my dad and I were following one of our favorite players Peter Jacobsen around the back nine. When we reached #16, we stopped by the green to watch Peter plunk his tee shot into the greenside bunker short of the green.  If you have ever attended a golf tournament in person, you know that it is common practice to mumble things to people in the crowd standing around you, whether you are cracking a joke or giving information to your fellow fans.  As we watched Peter size up his shot, my Dad made a comment to the guy next to him. "Looks like a pretty tough shot".  The stranger muttered back "not for these guys, eh?"  My dad then elbowed me in the ribs and muttered something in my ear.  I asked him to repeat himself.  "It's Bill Murray" he whispered.  I still couldn't hear him so I shrugged it off.  "It's BILL MURRAY" he said in my ear with a whisper. "Don't make a big deal out of it, but he's standing right here" he murmured as he tilted his head in Bill's direction.  I took a peek and standing next to my dad in a grubby sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head and sweat stained baseball cap, was the one and only Bill Murray!  I am sure that Murray was trying to blend in with the crowd so he wouldn't be recognized, but he actually looked like Carl Spackler, his character from golf movie classic Caddyshack. My dad and I are both huge Caddyshack fans (not to mention Saturday Night Live, Stripes, Meatballs, etc.) and we were both surprised and thrilled to see him.  Jacobsen hit his shot and finished up with a bogey on the hole.  As he walked off the green, he saw Murray in the crowd and walked over to us.  He put his arm around Bill and turned toward the TV tower.  Here we were standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill Murray and Peter Jacobsen and the CBS TV cameras were zooming in on us.  To this day, I still have no idea if we actually made it on TV, but it was quite memorable moment.

Chunky Chip by John Daly - John Daly is one of the most polarizing players on the PGA Tour.  Either you love him or you hate him.  Either way, he is always an interesting character and is usually fun to watch.  One year, my dad and I were parked behind the 4th green and John Daly's tee shot came to rest about 15 feet from where we were sitting.  The 4th at Riviera is a difficult 230 yard par-3. Big John came shuffling up the mouth of the green and set up shop right in front of us.  He was smoking a cigarette, which is something you rarely see on today's tour.  He was facing a slick chip shot, severely downhill with a lot of break in it.  The ball was in fairly deep rough and he had about 40 feet to the hole with about 10 feet of rough to carry.   He reached in his bag for the lob wedge and got ready to hit the shot.  He tossed the cigarette to the base of his bag, took a few practice swipes and settled in for the shot.  John took the club back slowly. As it approached the ball, something very surprising happened.  He stuck the club in the ground about 3 inches behind the ball, causing it to move a grand total of about twelve inches.   Everyone in the gallery has done it before - many times.  But to see John Daly do it was a bit odd.  John is known for his temper, and those of us standing around were a bit tense as we waited for his reaction.  He didn't take much time for his third shot, and he pitched it onto the green about 15 feet from the hole.  He snapped up his cigarette and his putter and proceeded to miss the putt, resulting in a double-bogey.  When he returned to his bag we were close enough to him to hear him tell his caddy "I hate this fucking hole" and he slinked off to the next tee.  We got a good chuckle out of that.

Ted Tryba Goes Low  - In 1999, my dad and I went to the Saturday round with two other cronies - Garry Pallister (my college roommate, golf nut, and good buddy) and Ken Hasler (a colleague of my dad's for many years and a close family friend).  I believe this was Garry's first trip to Riviera, so we decided to break off from the old geezers and take a tour of the entire 18-hole track.  As we wandered around, we started noticing that a phenomenon was taking place.  People were talking about a player that was absolutely on fire and lighting up Riviera's back nine.  The player's name was Ted Tryba, a journeyman who had one PGA Tour victory under his belt at the time.   We approached one of the old-fashioned style score boards to see what the fuss was all about.  Tryba had a string of birdies and an eagle on the board and only had a few holes to play.  Holy cow! He had a chance at the course record - a 62, held by Larry Mize, Fred Couples, and Kenny Perry.  We hustled off to find him and Tryba did not disappoint.  We followed him for a few holes and he kept the birdie string alive.  As we reached the difficult 18th hole, he was 11-under par on the par 71 course.  One more birdie, and he would shoot a 59!  Tryba hit his second shot over the green and left himself a difficult chip to go below 60.   Would we witness only the fourth sub-60 round in the history of the PGA Tour?  We could almost see Tryba shaking as he went to hit his chip.  It never came close, stopping 15-feet from the hole.  He made a bogey to settle for a 61, but what an incredible round of golf!  Tryba made nine birdies, an eagle, and one lone bogey at the last.  He ended the day two strokes ahead of Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, and Davis Love III  for the tournament.  On Sunday, Els shot a 68 to take the title, and Tryba would wind up tied for second with Tiger thanks to a final round 72.

Coming Home to Valencia CC - In 1998, Riviera was scheduled to host the U.S. Senior Open and did not want to hold two major tournaments at the course that year.  The PGA Tour decided to hold the event at Valencia Country Club, 40 miles north of the Riv in my home town of Santa Clarita.  I also used to work at Valencia CC when I was a young golfer.  As a volunteer, I used to forecaddy, help out the marshals, and run errands for the pro in exchange for free golf and range balls during the week.  I spent virtually an entire summer playing here every day, so I knew the track intimately.  I was very eager to see how the big boys were going to handle "my" course.  Valencia CC is a beautiful and difficult layout.  It was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and features tree lined fairways, tough par-3's, and fast and tiered greens. Water comes into play on nine of the holes.  This would be the first time I had ever gone to the tournament for more than one day.  I went to the Thursday round by myself.  It had been several years since I had been there last and I had a great time walking the entire track.  I remember a few things from that day, including bumping into David Ledbetter and watching Payne Stewart (R.I.P. Payne) for the last time.  On Sunday, my dad and I went with the same Ken that I mentioned earlier.  What we witnessed that day was actually something that would prove to be very historic.

PGA Tour veteran Billy Mayfair had been on fire all week.  He fired a 65 in the first round to jump out to an early lead.  I watched Billy play a few holes that day and he was putting amazingly well using a funky putting technique that was more of a pop than a stroke.  He also seemed to be cutting across the ball on purpose with one of those odd long necked face balanced Ping putters from back in the day.  It was U-G-L-Y but it sure looked pretty on the scorecard.  Tiger Woods was also in the field and he made his presence felt by shooting a 65 on Saturday to move one shot behind Mayfair at the end of the third round.  On Sunday, it was basically a two man race.  Stephen Ames, Payne Stewart, and John Daly played well, but in the end it came down to a Mayfair versus Woods finale.  The crowd seemed to be very heavily in favor of Tiger.  We tended to root for the underdog over the years and we were heavily pulling for Billy to hang on.  It was quite a contrast in styles.  Mayfair looked like an old shaggy billy goat out there compared to the golden child and PGA Tour poster boy, but he showed that he had plenty of guts and also plenty of game.  Tiger wound up making birdie on three of the last four holes to take a one stroke lead.  A charge like that from Tiger has mentally defeated many of the game's great players, but Mayfair hung in there and answered with a birdie of his own on the final hole to send the tournament into sudden death.  The playoff began at 18 and Tiger pumped his tee shot on the par-5 near the trees and driving range fence that line the right side of the hole.  Billy hit a smooth drive down the center and his second shot was a lay up to about 85 yards from the flag.  Woods was forced to punch out and set himself up for a wedge shot into the green for his third.  He wound up wedging his Nike One ball to about 25 feet - a mediocre effort.  Mayfair then spun his third shot close, nearly holing it and stopping within 6 feet to put the pressure on Tiger.  Woods would miss his birdie putt and set the stage for Mayfair to take the win . Quirky putting stroke and all, Billy drained it to take home his fourth career PGA Tour victory.  To this day, this is the only time Tiger has ever lost in an official PGA Tour event playoff.  He is 11-1, and we were there to witness his only defeat.  Mayfair would go on to win again in 1998 at the Buick Open and proved his mettle by defeating testicular cancer in 2006.

Poor Olin Browne - When you go to a PGA Tour event, you expect to see the very best of the best.  Not only do the players all have the ability to hit great shots, they do it with amazing consistency.  However, once in awhile, you will catch one of the pros really stinking it up.  One year at the end of a long day, my dad and I were making the trek back to the shuttle busses.  There were still players on the course, and as we walked up the right side of #9, we stopped to watch Olin Browne, who had found the fairway bunker nearby.  There weren't many people around, literally just a few of us.  Hole #9 is a long par-4 that plays uphill to a tight green.  Browne had a long way to go to reach the green, maybe 200 yards, and he had pulled a rescue club or a fairway wood for the shot.  He took a very hard swing at the ball and cold topped it.  The ball rolled through the bunker and popped out into the rough, traveling a grand total of about 30 yards.  Browne then proceeded to compound matters by going after a pin that was tucked behind the two deep bunkers fronting the right side of the green.  His third shot came up woefully short and found a sandy landing.  We kept walking and watching, as the hole was basically on the same path as our way out.  When we reached the bunker, we had a front row seat again.  Trying to salvage bogey, Browne attempted to hit his bunker shot in a way that would barely clear the lip of the bunker and settle close to the pin that was tucked behind it.  Unfortunately, he hit the lip and the ball rolled back down, virtually in its own divot.  For his fifth shot, he did it again.  At this point, he paused, stepped out of the bunker and went to his bag to regroup.  He saw us standing there.  We were feeling somewhat sympathetic, but also enjoying the show.  He said something to us. To paraphrase him - "Sorry guys, I really suck, this is embarrassing.  It's been a long day."  As I recall we offered him words of encouragement and he stepped back into the bunker.  He blasted the next shot (his 6th) well over the lip and left himself with a very long and undulating putt. Shots 7 and 8 were putts and he walked away with a quadruple bogey.  Olin Browne was no hack.  He played on the PGA Tour for over 20 years and has made over $9 million in official earnings. We just happened to catch him at his worst on that given day.

The next blog entry will contain a few more of my favorite Nissan Open stories: Freddy's Alley, Chasing Kevin Burton, Rooting for the Underdog, and more.


If you are interested in purchasing tickets for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera in 2011, (Feb, 15-20) I would recommend buying them from the American Golf Foundation.  20% of proceeds go back to local golf charities. Although I no longer work for American Golf, I can personally vouch for the people who run their foundation, and they work very hard to do good things for local charities.
https://www.americangolf.com/northerntrust