With a putter in his hand, Transitions Championship winner Retief Goosen was perfect within five feet of the cup.
Mar. 23, 2009
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THE GOOSE IS BACK: Maybe it was fate. Here's Retief Goosen, who endured complications from corrective eye surgery, ending a four-year victory drought on Sunday by winning a PGA TOUR event sponsored by Transitions, a company that makes eyeglass lenses.
Or maybe it was just darn good playing. Goosen has always been at his best when the conditions are tough -- he's a two-time U.S. Open champion, after all -- and the Copperhead Course extremely challenging. He took the lead with an eagle at the 11th hole and was never headed, although a bogey on the penultimate hole made that 5-footer for par at 18th a bit of a nail-biter.
Goosen was once ranked as high as third in the world. He's back at No. 22 now after jumping 17 spots with his win in Tampa Bay, his third worldwide in the last year. Don't be surprised to see Goosen contend at the Masters, where he has two seconds and two thirds in his last seven starts. -- Helen Ross
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TREVOR'S FADE: There's one player who didn't factor in during Sunday's final round that really surprised me -- reigning Masters champion Trevor Immelman. He has the perfect swing, the sweet short game and the smooth putting stroke, but Immelman couldn't put any of that together over the last 18 holes in shooting a 4-over 75.
The results will show that Immelman's tie for 19th at Innisbrook is his best performance of the season, but the truth is that he left a lot to be desired.
It's always nice to see the best players peaking as the first major nears. That's precisely what Immelman was doing through three rounds with scores of 68-70-70 for a 5-under total that had him three shots off the pace at the start of the final round. He had to be considered a favorite, if for no other reason than the fact that he's a major winner and the Copperhead Course was playing as difficult as a major venue.
Chalk it up to a bad day when he couldn't get anything to click, but hopefully Immelman gets that all worked out before heading to Augusta. Let's watch him closely this week at Bay Hill. -- T.J. Auclair
ONE TOUGH TEST: There are at least a dozen players who feel like they let one slip away at the Transitions Championship. A bunched leaderboard saw names like Charlie Wi and Brett Quigley trying to capture that elusive first victory. Veterans such as Tom Lehman and Steve Stricker left us thinking that they may have what it takes to get it done around the tough Copperhead Course.
Ultimately it came down to one heck of a tough golf course giving the best players in the world fits as they battled around the back nine. The tough thing about that back nine is the fact that as a player it keeps you off balance. There are no two par 4s in a row. Most of those par 4s can't be attacked with a driver, so you are constantly standing on the tee trying to figure out how to play each hole.
There was only one player who finished in the top 10 who managed to navigate the back nine without a bogey on Sunday -- Quigley, who made two birdies on that stretch and very nearly reeled in Retief Goosen. The only bogey-free round was the 68 shot by Mark Wilson who finished at 3 under.
Whether it is a fall event or a spring event, the Copperhead Course proved once again that it is one of the best tests the players face all year. -- John Maginnes
VENUE FOR THE VETS: Retief Goosen. Jim Furyk. Steve Stricker. Rich Beem. Tom Lehman. Nick Watney. Stuart Appleby.
Sure, it's a list of players who have each won multiple times on the PGA TOUR. But each one also held at least a share of the lead at some point at the Transitions Championship.
Even though it's located between two world-class fields at Doral and Bay Hill, the Copperhead Course has quickly become one of the toughest tournaments on TOUR. This course doesn't allow a player to just ride a hot putter for four days, so it's not a coincidence that grinders like K.J. Choi and Retief Goosen have now won twice on this track.
For only the second time all season, a rookie didn't make any kind of splash this week. After seeing the greens and pin positions the field faced last week, it's easy to see why experience is a prerequisite to winning at Copperhead. -- Ryan Smithson
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| Stock up |
Retief Goosen: We should've seen it coming. The Goose played well at Pebble Beach earlier this year, and the Copperhead Course plays like a U.S. Open venue, which he thrives on. Looks like Goosen's making a bid to regain his Big Five status.
FedExCup rank: 5 (37 last week) |
Charles Howell III: His T2 at Transitions was his best finish on TOUR since winning the 2007 Nissan Open more than two years ago. His stats were impressive, as Howell tied for 10th in driving accuracy and tied for seventh in GIR.
FedExCup rank: 15 (42 last week) |
Brett Quigley: What a two-week run for Quigley, who finished T2 in Puerto Rico and T2 at Transitions, as he posted 68s in each of his last three rounds. He tied for 13th in GIR and was statistically one of the best putters at Copperhead.
FedExCup rank: 19 (53 last week) |
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| Stock down |
Sean O'Hair: The Transitions defending champ missed his first cut of '09, making bogey on three of the last four holes Friday to miss the weekend. It's O'Hair's first missed cut since last September.
FedExCup rank: 18 (14 last week) |
Steve Stricker: OK, he did tie for fourth and moved up a spot in the FedExCup rankings. Still, for the third time this season, Stricker had the lead on the back nine Sunday and failed to convert.
FedExCup rank: 7 (8 last week) |
Mark Calcavecchia: If Calc had made the cut at Transitions -- a tournament he won in 2007 -- he would have played on the weekend for the 500th time in his career. Instead, he logged six bogeys in the second round and missed the cut by a stroke.
FedExCup rank: 45 (38 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| Prediction: Either Brett Quigley, Tim Clark or Briny Baird will win a TOUR event this year. Combined, the three have 804 career TOUR starts without a win. But each one already has at least one top-10 finish this year, with Quigley currently flashing the hot hand (see Stock Up). | The TOUR's crack researchers uncovered this gem: Phil Mickelson has gone six consecutive years with multiple TOUR wins -- that's the most of any active player. And yes, by active, we're including Tiger Woods. |
| Quigley (342 TOUR starts without a win) just wants to keep knocking on the door. "A buddy called me and said, 'If you deal drugs long enough, you're going to get caught, and if you get into position long enough, you're going to win,' That's all I'm trying to do," Quigley said. Perhaps a strange analogy, albeit an apt one. | Speaking of multiple wins, just three players have won multiple Arnold Palmer Invitational titles: Tiger with five, and Tom Kite and Loren Roberts with two each. Tiger, of course, will be seeking his sixth this week. |
| Incredible putting display by winner Retief Goosen, who had 55 putts inside five feet last week ... and made them all. "Almost sounds like Tiger Woods, doesn't it?" Goosen joked. | The winner this Sunday at Bay Hill will pull on the navy blue jacket awarded each year to the champion. But it wasn't always navy blue. From 1979-1990, the jacket was a heavy gray. Sounds like a good change to a more country-club friendly color. |
| No doubt that Spain's Alvaro Quiros is a bomber. His average driving distance on the two recording holes at Copperhead was 317 yards, more than 11 yards longer than Nick Watney in second. For all 52 drives during the week, he averaged 289.3, nearly six yards longer than Watney. | In case you missed it: Tiger Woods will reportedly get a $3 million appearance fee for playing in the Australian Masters in Melbourne in November. Estimates are that his visit -- his first at an Aussie event since '98 -- will generate $19 million in economic benefits. |
| Japanese teen sensation Ryo Ishikawa's nickname is the Bashful Prince. Does he like it? "I don't dislike to be called the Bashful Prince," he said. "But I wonder if they really think I am the Prince. It is kind of uncomfortable to be called Prince." | Jack Nicklaus told ESPN's Rick Reilly that he was planning to retire at age 38, but his kids persuaded him to continue playing. So Jack did ... and won three more majors in the process. Moral of this story: Always listen to your kids! |
| Did someone take Ishikawa to In-and-Out during his trip to Los Angeles earlier this year? After returning to the U.S. this week, he acknowledged that "the last two weeks I miss American hamburgers." | The rumors that Fred Funk had his right leg amputated obviously were greatly exaggerated (he just had arthroscopic surgery). But he still got flowers from fellow TOUR pro Tim Petrovic and his family. "That's a rumor he heard when they were out in Hawaii at the Sony," said Funk, who withdrew after the first round at Copperhead. |
| Tom Lehman failed in his bid to become the first player over 50 to win on the PGA TOUR since a 50-year-old Fred Funk captured the trophy at the 2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic. Lehman will join Funk and his other over-50 pals for the Champions Tour majors later this season. | Sean O'Hair says there are different types of good ball-strikers -- some don't miss fairways, others don't miss greens. Asked about the percentage of good ball-strikers on TOUR, he replied, "10 percent." Everybody else, he added, is just a good golfer. |
| So, how does Jim Furyk look at last week? Was it a positive (he opened with a 6-under 65 to take the first-round lead)? Or a negative (he barely made the cut after shooting a 7-over 78 on Friday and eventually finished tied for 52nd)? | Although it's not yet on this year's PGA TOUR schedule, don't rule out the Sea Island Resort in Georgia from hosting a Fall Series event. Said Commissioner Tim Finchem: "We've got a fantastic opportunity there with the facilities. ... The pieces haven't come together yet, but we hope they do in the next few weeks." |
| Charles Howell III says the Masters "means more to me than anything," but the Augusta native is not exempt this year for the first time since 2002. He'll need to win either at Bay Hill or in Houston to earn an invite. Otherwise? "I might caddy for Tiger in the Par 3," he joked. | Lorena Ochoa's fans were disappointed when the Mexican golfer failed to win the MasterCard Classic in her home country. In five starts at the tournament in Mexico City, the top-ranked LPGA golfer has never won. She held the lead after the second round but fell to Pat Hurst by one stroke on Sunday.
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| The Forward Spin |
This week, Tiger Woods returns for his third start of the year ... and he also returns to one of the most thrilling wins of his 65 TOUR victories.
A year ago, he sank a birdie putt of 24 feet, 2 inches on the 72nd hole to avoid a playoff with Bart Bryant and win for the sixth time at Bay Hill, site of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
In the ShotLink era (since 2001), just three other players have won a PGA TOUR event by one stroke after making a putt of at least 24 feet on their final hole of play -- Padraig Harrington at the 2005 Barclays Classic (65 feet, 7 inches for eagle), Vijay Singh at the 2004 HP Classic of New Orleans (26 feet, 8 inches for birdie) and Spike McRoy at the 2002 B.C. Open (31 feet, 1 inch for birdie).
With a stellar field that includes Woods, Vijay Singh, Anthony Kim (making his first start at Bay Hill), there's certainly potential for another dramatic finish. |
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PGATOUR.COM'S Lauren Deason, Mike McAllister, Helen Ross and Ryan Smithson contributed to this week's Monday Backspin.
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