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Ryan Moore has always had Tiger Woods potential, but until yesterday’s win at the Wyndham Championship, he had posted Willie Wood-style results.
After one of the most decorated amateur careers in history, Moore was expected to storm the beaches of professional golf and provide Tiger and the Tour with the challenger they so desperately craved. Moore had teed off on his fellow amateurs in 2004 with one of the greatest seasons in amateur golf history, one that featured wins in the U.S. Amateur, the Western Amateur, the U.S. Amateur Public Links and the NCAA individual title. That’s Tiger Woods/Bobby Jones-type stuff.
He was low amateur at the 2005 Masters, placing 13th and overheating his hype-meter even further.
But once Moore turned pro, it became a tougher slog. He suffered a wrist injury that required surgery and resulted in lackluster results and rampant inconsistency.
Oh, there have been flashes — he fought through sectional qualifying to earn a spot in this year’s U.S. Open, where he tied for 10th. But Moore’s professional career has been far more bust than boom.
This weekend, though, may ultimately prove to be a turning point. Moore closed with a final-round 65 and then dispatched Kevin Stadler and Jason Bohn in a playoff to earn his first Tour win — five years removed from those heady days of amateur domination.
“I haven’t been healthy,” Moore said afterward. “My hand was hurting my very first professional tournament. I can’t really say I’ve been myself the whole time I’ve been out here.
“With those kind of injuries and everything, you start compensating, start doing this or that and you start hitting it one direction. It’s just a constant adjustment.”
The key moment of Moore’s day, and possibly his career, came at the eighth hole. Coming off a bogey at 7, Moore gave himself a little pep talk that propelled him to a birdie and ultimately to a back-nine 31 that included five straight birdies.
“Over time, I haven’t won, I haven’t been in this position that much,” he said. “Lot of it is just confidence. And so I kind of talked myself into it a little bit there and just said, ‘All right. Let’s do this, let’s step over every shot and hit it like you’re going to win this,’ and, you know, it started right there. I hit a good wedge shot, made a good putt and just kind of really started going.”
El Foldo
Sergio Garcia seems to be crumbling before our eyes. After taking a monumental leap forward in 2008, winning the Players Championship and contending for the PGA Championship and FedExCup, Garcia was expected by many of his apologists — of whom I have been one — to capture that elusive major in 2009 and realize his considerable potential while justifying his superstardom. Hasn’t happened.
Seeking his first win of 2009 against a watered-down field, Garcia squandered a three-shot lead midway through the final round of the Wyndham Championship, erasing three early birdies with three bogeys and finishing with an even-par 70 that left him fourth, one shot out of a three-man playoff.
The round was a microcosm of Garcia’s season — just a little bit off in every phase. It was only his second top-10 of the season, and he ended the weekend 89th in FedExCup points.
Garcia is betraying more than a hint of resignation in his public demeanor these days. Not a good sign for a player with designs on golf’s top spot.
“I just didn’t feel it all day today,” he said. “When I was 3-under for the day, I still wasn’t comfortable. You know, I felt like I was fighting, I felt like I was fighting myself and, unfortunately, I wasn’t good enough today so that’s the way it is.”
Wheee!
This weekend’s Solheim Cup was exactly what the floundering LPGA Tour needed. The biennial U.S. vs. Europe event had passion, great shotmaking and good old-fashioned patriotism.
But what it had most of all was the long-awaited emergence of Michelle Wie as a legitimate presence in professional golf. Wie posted a 3–0–1 record to lead the U.S. team to a 16–12 win over Europe at Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois.
She scored a climactic 1-up singles victory over Euro stalwart Helen Alfredsson, a fitting end to a week when Wie was the animated heart and soul of the team.
“I think it was the most fun I’ve had playing,” she said. “I think I’ve said that multiple times this week, but every hole seemed like walking down 18 of a major championship times 100. I mean, these crowds were absolutely amazing, and to have 11 other team members as great as these people, it was just so fabulous. It was just unbelievable, just playing today and the intensity and just playing against such a great team. The Europeans were playing awesome.
“You know, nothing was given, nothing was given out there. We had to fight hard. We had to do everything. So just the intensity, I’ve never felt anything like it before. It was definitely the highlight of my career. I feel like I played great this week. Hopefully that will carry over. But you never know about golf.”
To a woman, her fellow competitors see this as the start of something big. “I would bet you a large amount of money that Michelle will win before the year is out,” said Solheim teammate and elder stateswoman Juli Inkster.
Another week, another major
Just how many majors do they play over on the Champions Tour? Seems like there’s one every other weekend. This was one such occasion, as Mike Reid captured his second Champions major with a playoff win over John Cook at the JELD-WEN Tradition. “I felt like I’d just climbed Mt. Everest,” said an emotional Reid afterward.
That emotion is understandable. Before turning 50, Reid was best known for blowing a three-shot lead down the stretch of the 1989 PGA Championship, the same year he lost a final-round lead at the Masters.
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