Monday, May 19, 2014

Comeback Stories Come Close, But Fall To First Timers

- I was rooting like crazy for Mike Weir to win the Byron Nelson Classic. Seeing where Weir was in his career a few years ago, it would have been an incredible comeback story. Weir's putting ultimately let him down on Sunday, but a solo second is absolutely nothing to turn your nose at. It puts Weir in position to make the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time since 2008, and more importantly, it gets him closer to retaining his Tour membership for next year, a job security he hasn't has in three years.

- I'll be honest, I know very little about recent champion Brendon Todd. I know what I was told during the broadcast, which is that Todd once missed 29 of 39 cuts on the Web.com Tour, but that is the extent of Todd's story that I knew. The way this season has gone, there are bound to be a few champions that make you sit back and go "who?" Let's see if Todd takes this victory and makes us remember his name by having a great season.

- Charles Howell III is on a threshold right now. He is in the middle of a very good season, and after two years of near misses, we will either see Howell win a tournament this season, or we may never see him win one again. He appears to be trending in the right direction, though, so do not be surprised if we see CH3 hoisting a trophy by years end.

- What does Graham DeLaet need to do to get a victory? In the past two seasons, he has 13 top 10 finishes, but zero victories. Nobody has more top 10s without a win than DeLaet. You almost have to wonder if frustration is starting to creep into his mind.

- It's amazing how things work out sometimes. Lizette Salas was in a middle of a tough stretch, where she missed two cuts and hadn't finished better than 22nd since the Kia Classic, and all of a sudden she finds lightning in a bottle and wins the Kingsmill going away. Anyone who has followed Lizette's career knows that it is no surprise that she won, but it is a bit of a surprise HOW she won. While others made a charge, all Lizette had to do was make pars and walk away with the trophy, and that's exactly what she did. Lizette is the perfect example as to what can happen if you just don't let a stretch of bad golf bother you.

- Yani Tseng was Lizette's closest competitor for a while, but a double bogey on the final hole put the end to her chances. Still, it is great to see Yani back in contention again. Yani was so good that you have to wonder what happened to make her fall off like she has. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, as it would be great to see Yani in the mix with some of these young competitors on a weekly basis.

- The teens continue to rule, as both Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko notched top 10's this week. At this point, it's hard to come up with things to say about these two, as all superlatives have been used already. They are two of the best on Tour, and we should expect them to be in the hunt every week.

- Inbee Park retained the number one ranking without even playing this week, as neither Ko nor Stacy Lewis were able to win in Kingsmill. Lewis looked like she had a real chance, but she uncharacteristically fired a final round 74 to knock her out of the top 10. Even stranger is that Lewis was even par going into the final hole, where she had a triple bogey 7 to end her tournament. Her finish this week is only the second time this season she finished outside the top 10.

- For the first time in what seems to be a lifetime, Paula Creamer did not tee it up on Saturday after missing her first cut since 2010. That was a stretch of 82 straight tournaments. I'm sure she's bummed out about it, but all streaks come to an end eventually, and this was among the most impressive.

- I think Miguel Angel Jimenez is going to make the Ryder Cup team after all. He set the goal for himself this year, and nothing seems to be stopping him at this point. He comes in 4th at the Masters, then wins in his only Champions Tour event, then get married, and finally wins on the European Tour, breaking his own record for oldest winner. Jimenez already has the best life ever, but it would be hard to top the month he has had. I no longer doubt the man, and if he wants to be on the Ryder Cup team, then I assume he's going to make it.

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