No guts, no glory (Yahoo! Sports)
February 4, 2010
Forget about grooves and the McCarron vs. Mickelson spat over the wedges, though it sure would be a thrill to watch them go at each other in next month’s Match Play tournament. Come on, Scotty, get your game going, instead of your trap, so you’ll be eligible for Dove Mountain. Maybe Lefty will give you two strokes a side.
In the meantime, there is a much more disturbing issue to address in the way the game is being played. It has to do with something more important than clubs. It has to do with balls. Seems the players have lost them.
We’re not talking Titleist here or Top Flight. We’re talking the cojones type. They’ve gone the way of the persimmon wood.
More From Michael Arkush Rocco is ready to roll in 2010 Jan 28, 2010
Exhibit A: Tim Clark, two weeks ago at the Bob Hope Classic. You know Clark. He’s the diminutive South African who has plenty of game. He outdueled Tiger Woods at last year’s Match Play, and was Team International’s premier player at Harding Park during the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco.
Well, Clark, in almost 200 appearances, has never won on the PGA Tour, and that’s a shock. At least, it was a shock – until we witnessed what he did with his second shot on the par-5 72nd hole two weeks ago in Palm Springs. Dick Clark would have shown more guts.
Tied for the lead, only 231 yards from the pin, Clark laid up on his way to an eventual par. He lost by one stroke to Bill Haas who, by the way, did reach the green in two and two-putted for an easy birdie.
“I certainly didn’t want to throw away the tournament,” Clark explained afterwards.
Tim Clark failed to go for the green in two on the 18th hole at the Bob Hope Classic in late January and finished second.(Jeff Gross/Getty)
You didn’t exactly want to seize it either, did you, Tim?
Exhibit B: Michael Sim, last week at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Sim is only 25, and the young are supposed to be fearless, going for the prize whenever there is a glimmer of succeeding.
Not Sim. Only 246 yards from the pin on the reachable, par-5 finishing hole, he too laid up. His third shot then spun off the green, leaving him an awkward chip in an attempt to tie Ben Crane for the lead.
Sim came up short. He got exactly what the timid deserve, second place.
Clark and Sim, not surprisingly, will not be criticized by their peers. Tour players, Scott McCarron excluded, don’t usually eat their own.
“You have to play to your strengths,” said Luke Donald as he prepared to hit balls at Riviera. “You have to feel comfortable in the shot.”
Donald then brought up the poster child for the conservative approach, Zach Johnson.
“He laid up every time on the par 5s [at the 2007 Masters] and picked up a green jacket,” Donald said.
Yet, for every Zach Johnson, there is a Chip Beck. In the 1993 Masters, needing 236 yards to carry the pond on No. 15 during the final round, Beck, who trailed by three, laid up with a 5 iron. He wound up with a par and lost by four.
“I didn’t want to throw away my chances to win,” Beck said.
So is this unwillingness to risk disaster by playing it way too safe a trend? I hope not, but instead of Johnson or Beck there is another golfer the modern tour pros should emulate.
He never won a thing. In fact, he’s not even real. He’s Roy McAvoy, the character Kevin Costner portrayed in “Tin Cup.”
Roy went for the green over and over and over in his attempt to beat the Don Johnson character and win the U.S. Open. Admit it: We thought Roy was absolutely insane, as one ball after another found the drink, but we loved every excruciating second of it.
“It is way more exciting when someone goes for it,” suggested Tin Cup’s director, Ron Shelton. “To be a great golfer, you don’t have to go for it. To be a star, you do.”
Shelton does not come down hard on Clark or Sim. He knows they are trying to make a living and further establish themselves. The difference between second and finishing fourth or fifth is substantial.
But the go-for-broke mentality is why we adored Arnold Palmer, despite the times his gambles did not pay off. Especially when the gambles didn’t pay off. He tapped into that part of us that loves going on the roller coaster.
Same goes for Mickelson. For all the criticism, much of it justifiable, he has received when he was adventurous at the wrong times, we wouldn’t want it any other way.
Fountain of youth
Michael Allen can’t say how long it will last, but one thing is certain: At age 51, Allen is savoring his unexpected run of stellar play on tour.
No, not the Champions Tour. He is playing with the kids these days.
“Just because a guy is 25 doesn’t mean he’s going to beat you,” Allen said.
Gazing at the players on the Riviera driving range earlier this week, Allen says he was like many of them in his younger days, trying so hard to get better that he forgot the most important lesson of all – to have fun.
“Am I Ernie Els?” Allen said. “No, but I’m doing what I love to do.”
Last Sunday at Torrey Pines, Allen fired a 7-under 65 to finish in a tie for 5th. He tied for 25th two weeks earlier at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
So why didn’t Allen, who captured the Senior PGA Championship in his debut last year on the Champions Tour, fare better in his prime? In 344 starts prior to this season, he recorded only 14 top 10s, and has never won.
“I wasn’t very good,” he responded. “But I’m getting a lot better.”
Maybe this is his prime.
Although he’ll play the bulk of his schedule on the PGA Tour, Allen will still enter a handful of Champions Tour events.
Why hurry? He shot another good round, a 2-under 69, on Thursday at Riviera.
A.K. says he is OK
The 2009 season was a dud for Anthony Kim, and a big disappointment for fans who thought his two victories from the year before and his sparkling performance in the Ryder Cup when he demolished Sergio Garcia signaled the arrival of a new star.
In 22 events, Kim compiled only three top 10s and finished No. 39 on the money list. Stardom was put on indefinite hold.
This year will be different, claims Kim, who is making his first tour start this week at Riviera. On Thursday, he fired an even-par 71.
“It was a step back, but I think that I learned quite a bit from last year,” Kim said. “I was hitting it so far off line, I’ve never had to hit so many irons off tees because I was scared of hitting it into the water or out of bounds, and learning how to manage the golf course better.”
Kim is no stranger to controversy. He got criticized for skipping the Bob Hope in Palm Springs, where he has a home, to play in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. He tied for 13th.
“It was a tough decision … but I would like to be an international player,” Kim said. “I would like to play in European Tour events and help grow the game of golf because that’s really what we’re trying to do on the PGA Tour anyway. If I play good here and there, it can’t be anything but a positive.”
Michael Arkush is an editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Michael a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Comments
Got something to say?
