Duels in the sun

Lee Westwood missed out on the final day yet again as his quest to win the unofficial ’5th Major’ effectively ended in a watery grave on the infamous 17th hole at Sawgrass. Tim Clark deservedly won by one shot, being one of the few players to actually break par in the final round, played under very testing conditions on the lightning fast greens.
Aside from the battle for the trophy there were some interesting sub-plots developing. If Phil Mickelson had emerged victorious, with Tiger Woods finishing lower than 5th, ‘Leftie’ would have overtaken him in the world rankings. In the event, he gave it his all on the final day but wasn’t able to challenge the leaders. Tiger, meanwhile, looked a shadow of his former self as he only just made the cut (having missed it the previous week) and seemed to be playing through the pain barrier. At the end of the 3rd round he gave his peculiar take on this with some customary ‘Tigerspeak.’ Asked if he had been experiencing any pain he replied, ”No, zero. Absolutely 100%’.             Abandoning his 4th round half way through he later admitted to having a long-term shoulder injury making nonsense of previous statements and proving, once and for all, that he doesn’t only ‘spin it’ on the greens. What happened to that new found transparency Tiger?
On a national level, Alvaro Quiros had recently knocked Sergio Garcia off his perch in the world rankings, ending ‘El Niño’s’ ten year stint as Spain’s highest placed golfer. This reign, sadly, lasted all of a week as, even though both golfers had forgettable tournaments, Sergio managed to scrape enough world ranking points together to retake the lead as world number 27 to 33 respectively.

Local favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez didn’t even make it to Sawgrass (even after ticking all the qualification boxes on merit) deciding to support the European Tour in Italy instead . Playing his way out of contention in the final round, he remained decidely upbeat about his decision not to cross the ocean saying his goal was to, ”enjoy life, not make money.” Which, If I may be bold enough, leaves one important question Miguel Angel: who pays for your cigars then?

Tags: Golf Competitions, Golf Tournament