T.J.'s Take: Five memories

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There was a lot I enjoyed about the past week in golf. Here's the top 5 in descending order.

5. Esteban Toledo and his 11th place finish at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in his home country of Mexico.

T.J. Auclair

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Toledo is one of golf's all-time nice guys. In reality, the 11th-place finish might have been a bit of a disappointment. He began Sunday alone in fifth place and could only muster a 2-over-par 72 to close things out.

But, it was his best finish on the PGA TOUR since a tie for 13th at the 2005 John Deere Classic.

¡Muy bien, Esteban! ¡Muy bien!

4. In his first-round match at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship against Martin Kaymer, country bumpkin Boo Weekley blew my mind yet again.

Kaymer had an 8-inch putt on the first hole and Weekley didn't offer a concession. At first I thought, "Wow! Boo must have done some homework on Kaymer! This guy has the yips with the short stick?!"

Then I realized that using the words "Boo" and "homework" in the same sentence was a major league oxymoron.

Why then, I wondered, would Weekley think of making this 23-year-old German sensation who had already won on the European Tour this year, line up to tap in a gimme on the first hole of a match?

"I'm putting my ball down, and he's looking at me and I'm looking at him, like, 'are you going to tap it in?'" Weekley recalled. "Joe [Weekley's caddie] said, 'Just pick it up.' I'm like, 'Pick it up?' Honestly, I didn't know. That's how that started out."

Seriously, Boo? You make millions of dollars playing golf for a living and you don't know the most basic rule of match play?

Boo is a walking reality show -- you just can't make it up.

3. Because of the time-change in Australia, I'm not sure how many people were able to catch the terrific story of the Nationwide Tour's latest winner, Ewan Porter.

Porter, a 25-year-old Aussie, went wire-to-wire to win the inaugural Moonah Classic, just the 25th event he's ever played on the Nationwide Tour. His previous best was 48th place two weeks ago in New Zealand. I caught some of the coverage on GOLF CHANNEL over the weekend and was amazed to hear that Porter was this close to withdrawing from the tournament prior to the third round because of a neck injury he suffered while getting in a morning workout before his late tee time.

Porter told the commentator he was on the verge of tears when he didn't think he'd be able to go, but received some swift treatment to make the pain tolerable. The result was a 1-under-par 71, which included an eagle to give Porter a one-shot lead with 18 holes to play.

I also found it impressive that Porter was human enough in his interview to admit that it was going to be extremely difficult not to think ahead to the ramifications of what a win would mean on Sunday.

Luckily, the young man didn't psyche himself out -- quite the contrary, in fact. Instead, he played the round of his life, firing a 6-under-par 66 in the final round -- the best score of the day by three shots -- on his way to an astounding seven-shot victory.

Talk about winning in style.

2. Aaron Baddeley in his third-round match against Tiger Woods. That was simply sensational.

If there is such a thing as gaining confidence in defeat, that's precisely what Badds did after forcing Tiger to 20 holes before the match ended, adding to the notion that if you give Tiger just a tiny opening he will capitalize.

On paper, most probably thought Badds was doomed to get smoked. Look at his track record when paired with Tiger: in the first two rounds of the 2007 Masters, the Aussie shot 79-72 to Tiger's 73-74. At Oakmont in the final round of last year's U.S. Open, Badds had a two-shot lead when the two teed it up on the first hole in the final group. About 15 minutes later, Badds scribbled a triple-bogey 7 on his card for the first hole after three-putting from 8 feet. He eventually signed for an 80 and tied for 13th, while Woods shot 72 to finish in a tie for second with Jim Furyk, one shot out of a playoff.

Friday's match had potential to be a rout when Woods birdied the first two holes for a quick 2-up advantage. But Badds wasn't going to sit back and watch the Tiger Show on Friday and squared the match by the eighth hole. While he never led, Baddeley never let up either.

The pair combined for a total of 22 birdies over the 20 holes (12 for Tiger, 10 for Baddeley), only two of which were concessions.

"I'm disappointed that I didn't win because I felt like I could have won, for sure," Baddeley told the media. "But then (I'm) encouraged with the way I played, to push him into making (12) birdies and to lose on 20."

How many times do you make 10 birdies and lose? Which brings me to No. 1...

1. ...Tiger Woods.

Let the head-scratching continue. He made 47 birdies and two eagles over 117 holes at the Accenture Match Play Championship, which is just ridiculous.

He won in every way imaginable. In the first round, he came back from 3-down to J.B. Holmes through 13 holes, only to make birdie on 14, 15 and 16, added an eagle on 17 to go 1-up and with a par on 18 he made it to the second round.

In the second round, Woods made easy work of Arron Oberholser on his way to a 3 and 2 victory.

After the epic battle with Badds, Woods drew K.J. Choi in the quarterfinals. While it was close through the first nine holes, Tiger turned it up a notch on the back and went on to win 3 and 2.

Woods disposed of defending champ Henrik Stenson with a 2 up win in the semifinal to grab a spot in the 36-hole championship match with Stewart Cink.

Tiger saved the best for last, crushing Cink with a remarkable 8 and 7 victory to win the Accenture Match Play Championship for the third time in his career, his fourth TOUR event in succession and his 63rd overall.

What's so significant about 63 wins? It put Tiger alone in fourth on the all-time list, one better than the King, Arnold Palmer.

At the start of the year, Tiger said he had a "reasonable" chance of winning all four majors in 2008. At this rate, is it completely out of the realm of possibility to think he has a reasonable chance of winning every time he tees it up in 2008?

Of course it is. Or is it?