[Tommy]

By Jim Brighters, Golf Editor

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Here are some rantings from the world of professional golf. Sort of.

OH NO SERGIO

There is always an interesting debate that sparks when someone overcomes some serious odds to get a win.

Lets throw out this hypothetical: Say the eighth-ranked player in the world held a six-shot lead with one round to play. Seems unlikely he or she would squander said advantage.

But it happened on Sunday at the Wachovia Championship when Sergio Garcia blew a six-shot lead. Vijay Singh, the No. 2 player in the world and former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk were the hunters. So here's the question - did Sergio choke or Vijay/Furyk go get it and if so, what happens next?

Since I threw in a second part to the question, you know I believe that Sergio did indeed choke on Sunday. Garcia tied the tour record for biggest lead blown in a final round.

The other four players with whom Garcia shares this dubious PGA Tour honor shot over-par in their collapses. Remember Greg Norman at the '96 Masters? Sergio's screw up wasn't that bad, but it was bad nonetheless.

To be fair, Garcia shot an even-par 72 on the final day. Singh and Furyk, who lost in the same playoff Garcia did, both shot 66s in the final round. So Singh and Furyk certainly did earn their spots in sudden death.

Garcia was one of only two players in the top-10 who failed to post a round under par on Sunday. Conditions were good and when you have that kind of talent, even-par does not get it done.

Secondly, Garcia played horribly down the stretch. I mean horribly. Really, really badly. He hit a seven-iron at the flag on 17 when a sadist would have thought, "nah, no thanks." The ball went in the water, then we head to a playoff, where Garcia hit not one, but two horrendous putts on the same hole.

So where does Garcia go from here?

That's the most interesting aspect of last week's meltdown. Garcia is 25 so the career might be at a crossroads. No longer is he the precocious kid who hit the amazing shot at Medinah and ran after it in excitement.

No longer is he the annoying youth with the 54 waggles before contemplating hitting the ball. Garcia isn't going to get away with some of his over-the-top mannerisms he used to.

Garcia now has to get very serious about his career. At 25, he will start headlining the conversation about the best players to never win a major. Several might start asking, "why aren't you in the talk about the Big Five more often?"

It's hard to say a 25-year-old is underachieving considering he has five PGA Tour wins and nine internationals victories. What makes it hard to take is that three of those came before Garcia could legally drink one of those Michelob Ultras he hawks. His best finish in a major came before his 20th birthday so does Garcia have to take it up a notch?

Garcia tinkered with his swing in the last two years and it will work. According to anyone that knows these sorts of things, Garcia's old swing with that ugly hitch in it wouldn't cut it.

So Garcia is heading in the right direction. Is he getting there as quickly as most thought after an amazing 1999 which featured the "Shot of the Year" at the PGA Championship and a Ryder Cup experience? No, but he has a slew of top-10s in majors while a certain fellow four years older won most of them.

Garcia will be in the public eye for a while because he defends this week at the Byron Nelson. Yes, he has the black eye of squandering the biggest lead in tour history, but he's 25, give him time and he'll be the player we think.


QUESTIONS

1.) The Wachovia Championship has built up impressive fields in only three years of existence. Why?

Aside from reports that tournament sponsors shell out better perks than anywhere else, Quail Hollow is the answer. The players love this course and its challenges. It has a good slot in the schedule - far enough out from the Masters where guys can get their rest. One question going around to players was could Quail Hollow host a U.S. Open, and I think with more penal rough, it could.

2.) Why is Colin Montgomerie in the news?

He donated all of his winnings from the Indonesian Open to the Tsunami Appeal fund. The reason being several questions abounded from a questionable ball replacement Monty made at that tournament after returning to a round from a thunderstorm. This is the second allegation against Montgomerie after a 2002 question in the Volvo Masters, which he went on to share the title (sharing the title - isn't that cute? Don't get me started on that one.) I'm not saying anything here about cheating, but Vijay Singh ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the world and you still can't get a column about the man without talking about the alleged incident involving something that happened almost 15 years ago. You don't want to branded with a label, Monty. Well other than an overrated miserable person. (Fellow players love him, so that last shot at him was his perception from fans.)

3.) Annika's streak ended. Have trouble getting to bed?

No, I was pretty tired Sunday night after a ride home that included getting lost. This streak was amazing (five wins in her last five starts), but showed how irrelevant and uninteresting women's golf and Annika's dominance became. You didn't hear that much about it, but if Tiger had seriously threatened Byron Nelson's 11 in a row, it would have been front-page stories everywhere. Oh well. Cristie Kerr won by the way. That's a good thing.

4.) What about Tiger's penalty?

I'm glad this happened because I think that Tiger has gotten away with things because of his popularity. I'm not suggesting he gets preferential ruling from officials, but galleries do questionable things for him. At the Wachovia, his drive at 10 landed near a fence. He tried to move the fence, the crowd got involved and presto, the fence broke. That's absurd. Remember the time in Phoenix when his ball landed near a boulder and about 10 guys moved the thing? Is that fair? Would a dozen guys move a 1,000 pound rock for Billy Andrade? I doubt it.

5.) Got a winner at the Byron Nelson Championship?

Since all five of the Big Five are in this week, I'll go with the only one who hasn't won this event. Retief Goosen. That's solid logic, right? He's never played in the tournament before and I almost can't believe I'm writing this. I've used conventional wisdom since winter and it's time to abandon it. Go with the Goose.


RANKINGS

Men

1.) Tiger Woods 2.) Vijay Singh 3.) Phil Mickelson - was nine-under through 15 holes on Sunday, but the 17th might have been his problem hole. He double-bogeyed that par-three and played that hole in seven-over par. Probably did him in. 4.) Ernie Els 5.) Retief Goosen 6.) Adam Scott 7.) Chris DiMarco - still not happy about his performance last week, but took fourth at the Wachovia and a grand total of no one noticed. 8.) Padraig Harrington 9.) David Toms - hasn't done squat since the Match Play. 10.) Luke Donald

Champions

1.) Hale Irwin 2.) Craig Stadler 3.) Mark McNulty 4.) Tom Watson 5.) Peter Jacobsen 6.) Dana Quigley 7.) Jim Thorpe 8.) Des Smyth 9.) Bruce Fleisher 10.) Gil Morgan

Women

1.) Annika Sorenstam 2.) Lorena Ochoa 3.) Cristie Kerr - why do I love her other than the fact she's gorgeous? How about after playing 36 holes on Sunday and going on to win, she says to ESPN2, "I need a beer." 4.) Grace Park 5.) Mi Hyun Kim 6.) Jenny Rosales 7.) Juli Inkster 8.) Carin Koch 9.) Karrie Webb 10.) Wendy Ward

RANDOM THOUGHTS

I don't want to seem like I'm beating up on her, but Danielle Amiee missed the cut and I'm pretty happy. Not happy for her as a person because I have nothing against the woman, I just don't like the idea of her getting in the field because of a game show.

Mark Calcavecchia has a great seat this week at the Byron Nelson Championship. His playing partners for the first two rounds? Ernie Els and Vijay Singh.


05/10 17:56:29 ET


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[naught33]

great find tommy, very good article

[Tommy]

Thanks naught!