One for the family album: Brian Gay with daughters Brantley (left) and MacKinley (right) and wife Kimberly after Sunday's win.
Apr. 20, 2009
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Brian Gay turned the Verizon Heritage into his own personal playground with his 20-under victory on Sunday, but what else was worth noticing in the field that was 10 strokes behind him? The Foursome weighs in.
HOW GOOD IS GAY? The first victory is always the hardest. It took Brian Gay until his 293rd career start to get it last year in Mexico. While some may have overlooked that alternate field win in the shadow of Tiger Woods' dominating World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, those who followed closely enough knew that Gay had the talent to win multiple titles on the PGA TOUR, and Sunday, he did just that.
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Last year, for example, Gay was 14th on TOUR in scoring average, 12th in driving accuracy and eighth in putting average. You can't put up stats like that and not win.
A record-setting victory -- Gay set a 72-hole record for the Verizon Heritage at 20-under 264 and won by the largest margin in tournament history -- was hardly the only headline from Harbour Town, however. It was the way in which Gay won that was so impressive.
A six-time runner-up on TOUR, Gay had a number of close calls and a bit of a reputation of not being able to close the door. Sunday, however, he slammed it shut, and it won't be the last time he does that. -- Brian Wacker
ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID: Every time I see his name near the top of the leaderboard, I still find it hard to believe that Briny Baird has never won on the PGA TOUR. Especially lately, it seems like the guy is in the mix all the time.
That happened again this weekend at Harbour Town. Granted, Baird walked off with a tie for second after getting lapped with everyone else by a superhero-like performance from Brian Gay, who crushed the field, winning by 10 strokes. It was the second win of Gay's career and the second in the last two years.
Baird reminds me a lot of Gay actually -- a guy who was in contention a lot and a perfect example to the adage, "If you put yourself in position to win enough times, eventually it's going to happen."
It hasn't happened for Baird just yet, but you have to think that will change soon. -- T.J. Auclair
SMALL AND MIGHTY: A lackluster, final-round 73 took some of the shine off his tie for sixth at the Verizon Heritage, but Tim Wilkinson has emerged as a player who is always a threat to go low.
Wilkinson, a 5-foot-7-inch lefthander from New Zealand, fired a 65 on Saturday that put him in the final group with Brian Gay. It had been a slow start to the season for Wilkinson, who qualified for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup as a rookie in 2008.
Wilkinson is becoming the TOUR's newest-generation Fred Funk. He hit 90 percent of his fairways at Harbour Town, missing only one fairway in each of the first three rounds. Wilkinson, who is on TaylorMade's PGA TOUR staff, hasn't made the switch to TaylorMade's new R9 driver -- he is using the R7 Limited model, which came out last fall.
Wilkinson is in the field for this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he finished solo third in 2008 after breaking par in every round. -- Ryan Smithson
FAMILIAR FACES IN UNFAMILIAR PLACES: It shouldn't be a surprise when two former major winners finish near the top of any PGA TOUR leaderboard. But the fact that Todd Hamilton and Lee Janzen tied for fourth at the Verizon Heritage may end up being the biggest unforeseen development of the season.
First, let's take Hamilton. He hasn't won on TOUR since the 2004 British Open at Royal Troon. From the start of the 2005 season until the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard last month, he had made 122 starts with one top-10 finish and 69 missed cuts.
Now take Janzen. He hasn't won on TOUR since that final-round rally in 1998 to claim his second U.S. Open. Since 2005 until the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he made 112 starts with four top-10 finishes and 61 missed cuts.
Each player finished in the top 20 at Bay Hill, though, and seemed to gain confidence. Hamilton then tied for 15th at the Masters, and his tie for fourth at Harbour Town was his best result since Royal Troon. Meanwhile, Janzen's tie for fourth was his best since finishing third at the 2006 Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
Alone, each player's top-five finish was unexpected. But ties for fourth for both in the same week? Doubt many people saw that coming. Still, it's nice to see a couple of familiar names back in contention. -- Mike McAllister
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Luke Donald: The wrist injury is a thing of the past for Donald, and it's starting to show as he finds his form. He had a strong finish Sunday with a 66 that included a birdie on the final hole to get into a tie for second. Expect him to win soon.
FedExCup rank: 15 (32 last week) |
Lee Janzen: A bogey-bogey start in Sunday's final round would have sent some players off the deep end. Not Janzen. The veteran recovered nicely to shoot even par and tie for fourth -- his third top-17 finish in four weeks. He's on an amazing grind right now.
FedExCup rank: 78 (140 last week) |
Todd Hamilton: It was another disappointing weekend for Hamilton, who was a combined 1 under Saturday and Sunday. At Augusta, he was 1 over on the weekend. But he's trending up with two straight top 15s after missing seven of his first nine cuts.
FedExCup rank: 84 (147 last week) |
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Bill Haas: It was another head-scratching week for Haas, who opened with a solid 68 only to shoot a 77 in Round 2 to miss the cut. The son of last year's Champions Tour Player of the Year has now missed four of his last five cuts and five of his last seven.
FedExCup rank: 92 (85 last week) |
Alex Cejka: His first TOUR win will have to wait. After opening with a 64 on Thursday, the journeyman German disappeared with three consecutive rounds in the 70s to tie for 13th. That's startling considering he was tied for eighth in birdies last week.
FedExCup rank: 106 (133 last week) |
Davis Love III: The five-time winner of the Verizon Heritage began the final round tied for fifth but never got it going Sunday, shooting a 3-over 74 that included five bogeys from the ninth hole on. He just had trouble finding the greens in regulation and paid for it.
FedExCup rank: 24 (25 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| How impressive was Brian Gay's 10-stroke victory Sunday at Harbour Town? In addition to setting tournament records for lowest 72-hole score and the largest margin of victory, he became the first player since Phil Mickelson in 2006 to win a PGA TOUR event by double digits. | Amazing scorecard of the week: Normally, three double bogeys and a bogey don't get the job done on Sunday. Unless you're Nick Price, apparently, who also had seven birdies -- including three in a row on the back nine -- to get his maiden victory on the Champions Tour in Tampa. |
| Gay had just two bogeys all week at Harbour Town, but that's not even close to a PGA TOUR record, and we're also amazingly 35 years removed from the last time someone won a TOUR event without a bogey -- Lee Trevino at the 1974 Greater New Orleans Open. | It was also amazing to see actor Michael J. Fox playing in the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am over the weekend. He's been all over the place lately -- Rescue Me, Law & Order, Jon Stewart -- to promote a book and shed light on his battle with Parkinson's disease. |
| It may have come a couple of weeks later than he would have liked, but Gay's victory on Sunday earned him his first career invitation to the Masters. The win also did a pretty good job of validating what a lot of other players already knew: That Gay is a tremendous player. | Officials in hard hats issued a special advisory for fans in attendance of the Champions Tour's Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on Saturday: "Duck." Comedian Bill Murray took it in stride a day after his tee shot on the ninth hole struck a woman who was watching from her yard. |
| The third-round leader/co-leader has now won 13 of 16 events this season thanks to Gay's victory. Having a three-shot lead helps, but by comparison, just 22 of 46 third-round leaders/co-leaders went on to victory in 2008, including Boo Weekley at the Verizon Heritage. | How do you celebrate your first Masters victory and second career major championship? If you're Angel Cabrera, you eat nine cheeseburgers and wash it down with a few glasses of red wine. Then you play in your home country's tournament and finish third. So much for the fitness craze. |
| Briny Baird didn't win this week, but he may have moved a step closer. The veteran put a belly putter into his bag for the first time last week, and at one point it seemed to really be working; he needed just 23 putts in the third round. For the week, Baird averaged 27.3 putts. | A few days after missing the cut at the Masters, 18-year-old amateur Danny Lee turned pro, signing with IMG in a deal worth a reported $10 million over three years. He also inked a deal with Callaway, whose clubs the hard-swinging teen used in his win at the Johnnie Walker Classic. |
| You don't necessarily root for players when you're covering golf, but you do root for stories, and everyone should be rooting for Jose Maria Olazabal, who is showing some pretty remarkable stuff in his comeback from rheumatism. Ollie tied for sixth Sunday thanks to a final-round 67. | Speaking of IMG, they had to do some quick damage control when Sergio Garcia criticized Augusta National, saying the course isn't fair and too much of a guessing game. Garcia, who was 5 over on the weekend at the Masters, apologized two days later and said he was frustrated with himself and not the iconic course. |
| The Rory McIlroy train finally came unhitched. The 19-year-old failed to record a top-20 finish for the first time this season after tying for fifth at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, 13th at The Honda Classic, 20th at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, 19th in Houston and 20th at the Masters. | Colin Montgomerie set off a firestorm of controversy in China when he shouted at a photographer and yelled at a cameraman during the Volvo China Open. He then set off another when he questioned the nation's lack of understanding of golf etiquette. Monty has never been one to hide his feelings, that's for sure. |
| It was almost another amazing week for Argentina with Jose Coceres sitting in a tie for 10th entering the final round of the Verizon Heritage. Coceres struggled on Sunday, however, shooting a back-nine 41 on his way to a 76 and a tie for 48th. Cry for me Argentina. | Last week, legendary football announcer John Madden announced his retirement from the booth. Guys like Jim Nantz, Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo are all synonymous with golf, but no one was a cottage industry more than Madden -- coach, broadcaster, pitchman, video game icon. |
| Has there been a week on the PGA TOUR this season when the wind hasn't blown? It wasn?t exactly hurricane strength this week at Harbour Town, but it was blowing pretty good early in the week, just like it has at almost every stop on TOUR this season. | You know the Twitter craze is sweeping the nation when Boo Weekley and 48-year-old J.L. Lewis join the social-networking site. They're the latest to jump on board, joining Stewart Cink, the PGA TOUR, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel and others.
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| The Forward Spin |
The countdown to THE PLAYERS Championship is on -- the strongest field on TOUR is three weeks away -- but this week, the TOUR heads to Louisiana for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and one of the best fishing trips on the planet.
This tournament rivals Harbour Town in terms of some equally amazing off-course activities, but the golf is pretty good, too. TPC Louisiana is where defending champion Andres Romero and 2007 winner Nick Watney got their first TOUR wins and it's also a course that native Louisianan David Toms loves, though he actually won this tournament over at English Turn G&CC in 2001. Either way, expect to hear lots of LSU chants all week.
This week is also an opportunity for the TOUR and its players to once again give back to the residents of an area that is still somewhat in ruin from Hurricane Katrina. The charity message often gets overlooked, but it shouldn't be and won't be this week. |
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PGATOUR.COM'S Brian Wacker wrote the Quick 18, Stock up/Stock Down and Forward Spin.
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