Thursday
Aug202009
Singh a song of $10 million
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 11:17PM
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Vijay Singh flew under the radar this week.
The leader in the PGA Tour's playoff point standings finished tied for 44th at even-par 280. That was just good enough to virtually guarantee him the title, to say nothing of the $10 million check sitting in the bowl of the FedEx Cup, no matter how he plays three weeks from now at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Singh has a 10,601-point lead on Camilo Villegas, who jumped from 25th to second by winning the 105th Western Open. The Tour Championship at East Lake offers 12,500 points to the winner, but 30th place is worth 2,000 points. So Singh just has to play and not withdraw or get disqualified to earn the ransom, even if Villegas wins in Atlanta.
"I'm going to practice hard and get ready," Singh said, looking forward to two weeks off after six straight tournaments.
Bellerive turned out not to be to his liking, and it may have been his outlook that brought about that reality.
"The greens got really slow," Singh said. "They're not my favorite greens. Rees Jones' greens are not my favorite. I don't think they're too many players' favorites, either.
"I thought I hit the ball from tee to green pretty good, but you've got to make the putts on these huge greens, and I just didn't putt like I did the last two weeks. My attitude was really good, and they're just very slow."
Singh said winning the first two installments of the playoffs, in New Jersey and Boston, didn't have an effect on his game this week.
"I was pretty focused this week, tried pretty hard and never gave up," Singh said. "After you keep grinding for three days, sooner or later it's going to get to you, and I think at the end it was getting to everybody that wasn't in contention."
Dudley did right: Dudley Hart's second place finish not only netted him $756,000, but jumped him 53 places into 14th in the points. That got him a ticket to East Lake.
"I'm not a mathematician, so I didn't know exactly, but I was guessing I needed to finish solo fourth or better to make it to the Tour Championship," Hart said. "I didn't think about it every shot, but it was in the back of my mind all week."
Hart started the final round tied for sixth, so the final round of 5-under 65 came at the right time. As did the birdie putts at the last two holes, from distances of 13 and 31 feet.
The birdie on the 18th came with Hart knowing that he absolutely, positively needed it for a shot at the Tour Championship.
"I had an idea where I was, but on the green, I looked over (at the scoreboard) and saw me tied for third," Hart said. "I told my caddie, 'Birdie or bogey. Let's try to give this thing a run.' It was one of those things where I was going to give it a run and hit the best putt I could, and fortunately it went in."
The numbers game: The field beat Bellerive for the fourth straight round, averaging 69.529 strokes on a course that measured 7,231 yards in the final round, 155 less than the advertised distance of 7,386. For the week, the field averaged 69.370 strokes, the lowest average ever.
That the course is a par 70 had something to do with that, but not everything, for the 10th hole, 519 yards on Sunday, was a par 4 for the Western but is played as a par 5 by the members (and averaged 4.194 strokes). Credit the quality of the field, plus the weather which made the greens dartboards, for the red numbers.
The low round of the day was a 65, posted five times: Hart, Fredrik Jacobson, Ben Curtis, Bubba Watson and Brian Davis.
For the week, the par-4 18th hole played toughest, at 4.194 strokes, while the par-5 eighth was the easiest, at 4.667 strokes.
The last time the Western was played at Bellerive, at the old site in St. Louis in 1953, the field averaged 76.777 strokes, the second-highest average since 1940.
Around Bellerive: The week's Caddyshack moment came early on Sunday evening, over two hours after play had concluded. Bellerive members were gathered on the veranda, looking over the scene as some workers began to tear down the tournament trappings. A combo was playing bland dinner music. All that was missing was Rodney Dangerfield throwing the band a handful of C-notes to liven the place up. … Attendance for the three days of the tournament was around 100,000, if estimates of 25,000 on Friday, 35,000 on Saturday, and 40,000 on Sunday are correct. … Next year's Western, the 106th in a series dating to 1899, will be played at Cog Hill in Lemont, on the revitalized Dubsdread course. The precise weekend is still in flux, pending the PGA Tour's finalizing the schedule.
– Tim Cronin
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Vijay Singh flew under the radar this week.
The leader in the PGA Tour's playoff point standings finished tied for 44th at even-par 280. That was just good enough to virtually guarantee him the title, to say nothing of the $10 million check sitting in the bowl of the FedEx Cup, no matter how he plays three weeks from now at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Singh has a 10,601-point lead on Camilo Villegas, who jumped from 25th to second by winning the 105th Western Open. The Tour Championship at East Lake offers 12,500 points to the winner, but 30th place is worth 2,000 points. So Singh just has to play and not withdraw or get disqualified to earn the ransom, even if Villegas wins in Atlanta.
"I'm going to practice hard and get ready," Singh said, looking forward to two weeks off after six straight tournaments.
Bellerive turned out not to be to his liking, and it may have been his outlook that brought about that reality.
"The greens got really slow," Singh said. "They're not my favorite greens. Rees Jones' greens are not my favorite. I don't think they're too many players' favorites, either.
"I thought I hit the ball from tee to green pretty good, but you've got to make the putts on these huge greens, and I just didn't putt like I did the last two weeks. My attitude was really good, and they're just very slow."
Singh said winning the first two installments of the playoffs, in New Jersey and Boston, didn't have an effect on his game this week.
"I was pretty focused this week, tried pretty hard and never gave up," Singh said. "After you keep grinding for three days, sooner or later it's going to get to you, and I think at the end it was getting to everybody that wasn't in contention."
Dudley did right: Dudley Hart's second place finish not only netted him $756,000, but jumped him 53 places into 14th in the points. That got him a ticket to East Lake.
"I'm not a mathematician, so I didn't know exactly, but I was guessing I needed to finish solo fourth or better to make it to the Tour Championship," Hart said. "I didn't think about it every shot, but it was in the back of my mind all week."
Hart started the final round tied for sixth, so the final round of 5-under 65 came at the right time. As did the birdie putts at the last two holes, from distances of 13 and 31 feet.
The birdie on the 18th came with Hart knowing that he absolutely, positively needed it for a shot at the Tour Championship.
"I had an idea where I was, but on the green, I looked over (at the scoreboard) and saw me tied for third," Hart said. "I told my caddie, 'Birdie or bogey. Let's try to give this thing a run.' It was one of those things where I was going to give it a run and hit the best putt I could, and fortunately it went in."
The numbers game: The field beat Bellerive for the fourth straight round, averaging 69.529 strokes on a course that measured 7,231 yards in the final round, 155 less than the advertised distance of 7,386. For the week, the field averaged 69.370 strokes, the lowest average ever.
That the course is a par 70 had something to do with that, but not everything, for the 10th hole, 519 yards on Sunday, was a par 4 for the Western but is played as a par 5 by the members (and averaged 4.194 strokes). Credit the quality of the field, plus the weather which made the greens dartboards, for the red numbers.
The low round of the day was a 65, posted five times: Hart, Fredrik Jacobson, Ben Curtis, Bubba Watson and Brian Davis.
For the week, the par-4 18th hole played toughest, at 4.194 strokes, while the par-5 eighth was the easiest, at 4.667 strokes.
The last time the Western was played at Bellerive, at the old site in St. Louis in 1953, the field averaged 76.777 strokes, the second-highest average since 1940.
Around Bellerive: The week's Caddyshack moment came early on Sunday evening, over two hours after play had concluded. Bellerive members were gathered on the veranda, looking over the scene as some workers began to tear down the tournament trappings. A combo was playing bland dinner music. All that was missing was Rodney Dangerfield throwing the band a handful of C-notes to liven the place up. … Attendance for the three days of the tournament was around 100,000, if estimates of 25,000 on Friday, 35,000 on Saturday, and 40,000 on Sunday are correct. … Next year's Western, the 106th in a series dating to 1899, will be played at Cog Hill in Lemont, on the revitalized Dubsdread course. The precise weekend is still in flux, pending the PGA Tour's finalizing the schedule.
– Tim Cronin
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