Golf in the Kingom

Golf in the Kingdom

47 year old Kenny Perry emerged the victor in the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, which garnered him just over a million bucks and advanced his chances to make the Ryder Cup team, something he is very anxious to do. It was the journeyman pro’s 10^th win on tour, which positions him in the middle echelon of accomplishment as a pro golfer, those who win between 10 and 20 tournaments. (That’s my own scheme of things. Others may measure accomplishment differently.) Perry pretty much coasted on Sunday, racking up one par after another and getting one well-placed birdie on the back nine, while other contenders began to stumble or fade. His 3-under 69 provided him with a 2-shot victory; but his total of 8-under 280 was the highest winning score in 23 years. That was because the event was pestered by rain, a soggy course and strong winds.

Annika Sorenstam was a non-factor in the Ginn Tribute event in South Carolina, shooting a 75 on Saturday, which ruined her chances at winning. Lorena Ochoa, although scheduled to play, withdrew to attend the sick bed of her father’s brother in Mexico; the uncle eventually died over the weekend, so it was a good thing she was there. Sophie Gustafson went into the final round with a whopping six-stroke lead, something many players would sell their soul to the devil to have on Sunday. It sounded very safe, but it wasn’t. She blew it with a whopping 79, with 5 bogeys and 2 double bogeys to end up 3 strokes back. It was one of the worst collapses in LPGA history. The two girls who leaped forward were Karrie Webb and See Hwa Lee; they ended up tied for the lead at 274. The Playoff ended on the first hole when Webb, who had missed a couple of short putts during her round, missed a 3-footer for par, which would have continued the playoff. Lee turned toward her caddie with a look of disbelief, as if she didn’t really believe she had won the Grand Prize of $350,000, one of the best paydays on the Ladies Tour.

In a good move, Michelle Wie played in the Ladies German Open over the weekend. There was bound to be less pressure on her there, out of the spotlight for change. She played credibly, finishing in 6^th place and finishing under par for the first time in almost two years. However, an 18-year old Korean girl named Amy Yang, who lives in Orlando, FL., outclassed Wie by shooting a sparkling 63 on Saturday and finished up with a 67 to win the tournament. Nonetheless, doing as well as she did Wie should have gained some confidence back by performing up to her talent.

Sticking to the kingdom of golf, John Daly’s turbulent life is back in the news. On Sunday (6/1) there was a long article in the New York Times by Larry Dorman about how he drives his best friend, Pat Perez, also a pro golfer, to despair over attempts to reach him to start changing his behavior and bad habits in order to save himself and to recoup his career before it is too late. Perez is 32, ten years younger than Daly. According to his friend, J.D. refuses to admit he has a drinking problem and that is the main block to change. Butch Harmon, the renowned golf coach, recently cut all ties with him, saying, “The most important thing in his life is getting drunk.” Perez said he doesn’t know what it will take to wake John up to the fact he is walking a plank over a sea of booze. It doesn’t take a wizard to know that he is a heart attack waiting to happen.

Controversy has followed Daly’s career since his first improbable victory on tour, the winning of the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in 1991, when he first demonstrated his awesome drives that seemed to fly into the next county. He was a likeable chap straight off but since then his appeal has slowly been eroded and is in sad shape today. All three of his marriages and divorces have made headlines. In one case all who saw him play that particular weekend saw his scatched up face, supposedly an attack from his last wife, who has had legal troubles of her own. He has pulled out of tournaments because he got an eight on a hole and gotten angry with his game, rather than sucking up the bad score and shaking it off, rather than indulge in a petulant display.. Then there are all his failures at alcoholic rehabilitation and all his ups and downs with sponsors, which are part of his legend. Golf is by and large a gentleman’s game—think of the roll models, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, and Jack Nicklaus—so Daly’s ‘bad boy’ image is wearing thin and quickly becoming his nemesis. He has gotten away with it for a number of years but now people who flocked to him in the past are now saying enough is enough. At the same time his game has deteriorated, while he has not been not receiving the sponsor exemptions he used to get routinely. He has won and lost two fortunes, as he likes to gamble as well as drink. Legend has it he once took the $25,000 he won in tournament and spent it all in two days on partying and gambling. But now his ability to make the big bucks is in serious jeopardy. Perez keeps telling him if he could clean up his act he could make $5 million in no time at all, which is probably true, as he does have a remarkable talent. But the only way to rein in the beast inside him is to admit he has a problem. No positive move will be possible until he does that. Ask any member of AA.