Return to New Orleans important for Petrovic  PGATOUR.com Correspondent AVONDALE, La. -- Earlier this week, there was a seminal "defending champion'' moment shared by Chris Couch and Tim Petrovic in the clubhouse of the TPC Louisiana, site of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which begins Thursday at the Pete Dye-designed course.  Tim Petrovic won in New Orleans in 2005. (Grayson/WireImage)
Couch to Petrovic: "Hey DC.'' Technically, each player is correct. Couch is the Zurich defending champion, having won in 2006 with a dramatic cross-handed chip-in on the 72nd hole that netted a one-stroke victory over Fred Funk and Charles Howell III. Forgive the confusion. Blame it on the watery devastation wrought on the metropolitan New Orleans area by Hurricane Katrina. See, Couch won at English Turn Golf and Country Club, which served as a suitable substitute after the TPC Louisiana was inundated with flood waters and ripped by wind damage compliments of Katrina. Petrovic, on the other hand, scored his playoff victory over James Driscoll at the TPC in 2005, five months before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi with deadly force. Petrovic is willing to defer to Couch because he has locker No. 1 this week. Petrovic is next door in No. 2. "It's a little strange,'' Petrovic said. But the two latest winners in New Orleans are happy to share the defending champion mantel because just to be right here right now signifies many happy returns to the Crescent City again. "Last year is all sort of a blur,'' Petrovic said. "All the players knew Katrina was such a blow to this great city. We were happy to have a golf tournament to play in as our way of offering support. We were delighted to be there.'' And New Orleans, still in the infancy of its recovery, is delighted the PGA TOUR is back. It provides another opportunity to tell its story -- and underline its many needs -- to the world. Petrovic serves as an admirable spokesman for a city he has adopted as if it's his own. "It has been almost two years since the storm but I'm sure it must feel like 20 to the people here,'' he said. "People really don't realize the extent of the damage. You have to come here and see it to understand.'' Petrovic has, three times now since his victory. He returned to New Orleans in September of 2006 for the New Orleans Saints' Monday night game against the Atlanta Falcons that also served as the re-opening of the Superdome, an event of great significance to New Orleans. "I felt like I had to be there,'' Petrovic said. "You could feel the spirit of the city rise. Just walking to the game people were stopping me to say hello. Everybody's your friend here. I love taking my kids (daughters Bayleigh, 8, and Mackenzie, 5) to the French Quarter and I wouldn't take them downtown anywhere else.''
Petrovic went down onto the field before the game. A man walking behind him stopped him and said, "Hey, you're Tim Petrovic. You won the golf tournament here in 2005.'' He laughed. "Needless to say I've become a huge Saints fan,'' he said. Although Petrovic has never attended a Super Bowl, that symbolic Monday night game certainly matched what he imagines one must feel like. "I've never been to a game where the entire crowd didn't sit down for the entire first quarter,'' he said. Petrovic was lucky enough to be videotaping some of the action with his cell phone camera when Steve Gleason broke through to block a Falcons' punt that resulted in the Saints' first touchdown and touched off the burning of Atlanta, New Orleans style. At that spine-tingling moment, he said, it felt "like the roof literally came off the Superdome.'' "I still have the (video) on my phone and I show it to people all the time,'' he said. Things haven't gone as well as Petrovic would have liked since his victory almost two years ago. He has played in 59 events with only two top 10s (both in 2005), while missing 28 cuts. He stands at 141st on the FedExCup list in 2007 and 142nd on the money list. Part of his troubles can be attributed to an injured knee, which recently has been, in his words, "cleaned out'' in a surgical procedure. "The biggest thing for me is to be patient,'' he said. "I'm just getting to where I can squat to read putts.'' Petrovic will be reading them this week on a course where he has fond memories of his only PGA TOUR triumph. The course has undergone an extensive restoration, part of the changes suggested by players after the inaugural event in 2005. Petrovic played a part in the process. "Lots of players were polled,'' said Louisiana resident David Toms, who won in New Orleans in 2001. "A lot of advice was offered.'' Many of Dye's signature pot bunkers were expanded and the golf course was shortened. Petrovic called that move "refreshing.'' "To have a course re-done and shortened goes against the grain of what has been happening on the PGA TOUR lately,'' he said. "Most of the courses are adding length. I think the course we have here now is awesome.'' |
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