Up & Down: Fall Series event tees up major excitement
Even though the professional game has long-since begun its slow segue into the offseason, it's hard to recall a tournament that produced more of a slam-bang Sunday than the relocated Fry.s Com Open outside San Jose, which produced an ending that gave California plate tectonics a run for its money as far as impact and moving earth. CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling consults his golf Richter scale and sorts through which rock held fast and where the buildings topped.
Up
Wire to wired
Rocco Mediate falls out of bed talking. The inestimably popular guy blows through so much oxygen in a day while chattering up a storm, he leaves a carbon footprint while standing still. So it was hardly a surprise for Golf Channel viewers that the first thing Mediate did after making the most memorable shot of his 27-year career was turn to the gallery and yell with a shrug, "What the hell is going on?" Good question, because this was a deal-with-the-devil ending. Mediate won in wire-to-wire fashion, but was blowing up in a big way before he made his first birdie of the day on the 16th Sunday at the Frys.com Open. Tied for the lead but unable to reach the drivable, par-4 17th, Mediate laid back with an iron off the tee, then holed a wedge shot from 116 yards -- his fourth hole-out for an eagle of the week. Rickie Fowler was the last PGA Tour player to have an eagle in every round, and was one of the players Mediate was battling down the stretch. "I told him on the range this morning that last year at Frys I made an eagle each day," Fowler said after the final round. "I guess when you hole-out four times in a week, I think that helps." Mediate made a teeth-chattering five-footer on the 18th to seal the victory, but the most memorable shot came at the 71st, which conjured up memories of Asao Aoki's fairway hole-out on the 72nd hole to win in Hawaii in 1983. It was Mediate's first win since 2002 and carried a two-year exemption, which means that after entering the week at No. 182 in earnings, he can now skip Q-school this fall, which he had entered. Mediate, who won a career-best $900,000 and improved 110 spots on the money list, became the 12th player since 1983 to record eagles on par-3, par-4 and par-5 holes in the same week in a PGA Tour stroke-play event.
Short in stature, tall in impact
Without question, they have become the gotta-have item in course design. Even a short par-5 can't measure up to a well-placed, well-drawn and drivable par-4 hole down the stretch, like the 300-yard 17th last week at the Frys.com Open. Alex Prugh nearly aced the hole with a driver Sunday, moments after broadcasters had noted it was a possibility based on the pin placement. Then Mediate delivered the biggest match-play-style switch of momentum in months. Mediate laid back and then watched Bo Van Pelt, tied with Mediate for the lead, drive the green. Van Pelt had 30 feet for an eagle and Mediate had a wedge shot from 116 yards -- advantage Van Pelt, right? Well, Mediate made his eagle, Van Pelt three-jacked the green for par and Mediate won for the first time in eight years. Similarly interesting par-4 shorties are included at host courses such as Los Angeles and Boston, but extra points go to layouts in Phoenix, San Jose and Hartford for having such impactful holes deep in the back-nine design. Even the Ryder Cup had one at the 15th at Celtic Manor. If not for an inch or two, people would be gushing about Prugh's double-eagle ace while playing alongside Van Pelt and Mediate, not a holed wedge shot -- Prugh finished second by a shot. As it was, Mediate's unforgettable shot ranks with Phil Mickelson's behind-the-tree approach in the final round at the Masters for clutch shot of the year.
Psssst. Remember me?
Based on his beefier appearance, you might not recall the name or the game, but David Duval was the last guy not named Woods or Singh to top the world ranking. Then his game disappeared, followed by his name from the leaderboard. But the star-crossed Duval finished T6 in San Jose and moved up 10 crucial slots on the money list to No. 99. That's a far cry from topping the world -- sort of like his listed weight on the tour website at 180 pounds is a distant memory -- but this is a breakthrough season nonetheless. The last time Duval finished in the top 125 in earnings was in 2002. He has been playing on a wild variety of complicated exemptions, including one the tour created in his stead because of family medical issues Duval experienced, ever since. Assured of his card in 2011, Duval won't have to write any more letters to tournament directors. Interesting side note -- his lengthy endorsement deal to use Nike equipment ended a few weeks ago. Now that he is assured of reclaiming his card, looks like the Swoosh missed the boat on this one.
If looking for success -- go east, young man
For the second time this month, a former PGA Championship winner went to the Asian Tour and successfully rehabbed his image. A week after Y.E. Yang erased a 10-shot deficit in the final round to win for the first time in 13 months, Padraig Harrington won by three strokes in Malaysia and claimed his first win in 26 months, dating to the 2008 PGA title, his third major championship. Harrington could tell the fans were starting to wonder about his form. "Two years is a long time, especially when you're reminded most weeks you play," he said. While the field was notably thin -- Retief Goosen and Colin Montgomerie were the only names most casual fans would recognize -- it was a welcome tonic for the Irishman, who felt his game was solid all week, the level of the competition notwithstanding. "I got the breaks all the way through," he said. "I hit some good shots and had a few breaks. Luck of the Irish? I'll accept that." Another interesting side note -- Seung-yul Noh, a 19-year-old rising star who blew up last week in losing to Yang, shot 65 in the final round to finish second and tightened his grip atop the Asian Tour money list.
Gore breaks minors record, heads back into majors?
He has officially become the Crash Davis of golf's minor leagues. Longtime fan favorite Jason Gore, who has posted a 59 in tournament play, Sunday won his seventh career title on the Second Circuit, better known as the Nationwide Tour. Heaven knows he waited long enough to mount a rally and is still facing another trip to Q-school, unless the four-shot win is the beginning of a trademark torrid stretch. Gore once won a record three Nationwide starts in succession, then was promoted to the big leagues and won on the PGA Tour. His win outside Miami over the weekend was his second top 35 finish all year, but it jumped him from No. 124 to 39th in earnings, a crucial leap. There is one full-field event left before the season-ending Tour Championship, which is limited to 60 players. If he cracks the top 25 in earnings, he can reclaim his PGA Tour card. "It's been a rough year," he said. "That was really the goal this week, to just make enough to keep playing." About the lone pity was that Gore cruised Sunday, depriving us of a playoff with another power-ball masher, runner-up Scott Gutschewski. Between them, neither stands taller than 6-1 and they weigh a combined 500 pounds. It would have been like watching those guys in sumo suits wrestling at, you got it, a minor-league baseball game. Gore headed off to South Beach to celebrate and, unlike some sunbathers there, hopefully kept his clothes on. Otherwise, it would represent a full moon over Miami, indeed.
Rewinding to "the middle of the now"
Yeah, true, so I already wrote about this hilarious development late last week, but it's still generating feedback and there are plenty of folks who haven't yet eyeballed it. Making the Cigar Guy from the Ryder Cup fast irrelevant, tour veteran Ben Crane unveiled a self-deprecating fake workout video that is easily the funniest thing seen on tour since Ian Poulter shaved himself, claimed he was second only to Tiger Woods and posed naked for a magazine cover two years ago. Poulter was serious, though. Crane begins the video spot talking and stumbling over his words when discussing how he keeps his body so preened and primed. The guy is no icky-bod Crane, but he's no Camilo Villegas, either. Bubba Watson has posted a few funny videos on Twitter -- including his accidental fall into a swimming pool while trying to impress Rickie Fowler with a diving-board stunt -- but the Crane recording was professionally produced and trumps all. Crane has more video fare in the pipeline but wouldn't disclose the subject matter. "We're still working on that," he said. In movie-review parlance, I give his screen debut two thumbs up.
The people have spoken (some of them, anyway)
Raise your hand if you agree: A poll of 750 fans has determined that with Nick Faldo (40 percent of vote) is the most popular golf broadcaster in the business, trumping Johnny Miller (32 percent) in a survey commissioned by Golf Magazine. Surprised? Well, it might say CBS on my paycheck, but I have to admit, I thought Miller would have won the race running away, mostly because his mouth runs without a governor. In this day, even in a staid sport like golf, it seems as though unbridled honesty and a few whistling one-liners are what fans enjoy hearing. Then again, Miller sometimes reaches too far for his material, like when Hunter Mahan flubbed a chip on the fateful hole that decided the Ryder, and Miller said, "You can't hide behind those [sun]glasses now." It made some cringe, no question. Said Miller about Phil Mickelson that same week: "If he couldn't chip, he'd be a car salesman in San Diego." When Mickelson won his singles match a day later and completed a post-round interview, Miller cracked off the air on the NBC feed heard in the Ryder media center, "I expected him to say, 'Not bad for a car salesman.'" Personally, both of the Mickelson lines made me laugh, because no other broadcaster would have the temerity to try them and Phil has heard it all at this point, but most fans apparently don't feel similarly. Then again, the numbers could be wrong., The poll was conducted by the National Golf Foundation, which once so boldly overestimated the number of new courses needed to keep up with future demand in the States, it helped touch off the most massive period of greed-based expansion in the game's history. Rounds played in the States have remained at the same levels for, oh, about the past two decades.
Francesco Grandissimo
This had to be a huge relief. After getting all but run over at the Ryder Cup after entering the week as one of the huge storylines as a pairings partner with his brother, Edoardo, Francesco Molinari shot a pair of incredible 62s last week in Portugal and finished in a tie for second behind Aussie lefty Richard Green. Francesco Molinari was drilled in singles by Tiger Woods, losing 4 and 3 in a match that wasn't really that close, and claimed the lowest output on the winning Euro team with a measly half-point in his three matches. While he was all over the map in Portugal, mixing in two 74s to accompany the 62s, his rally Sunday helped him claim his 10th top 10 finish of the season and moved him to 30th in the world, 15 slots behind his big brother. Molto, molto buono.
Down
Differences between X and Why
Even for the highbrow, armed with advanced degrees and a sense of moral certainty, it's a topic that makes decorum disintegrate like sugar crystals in a morning cappuccino. Last week, a former male who had undergone sex-reassignment procedure sued the long drivers organization and the LPGA for discrimination. The 57-year-old ex-cop, also a former long-drive champion, claims she is being unfairly singled out while rules at other golf organizations allow transgender players to tee it up. It's true. The group that runs the Women's British Open, the Ladies Golf Union, in codified language you will not see anywhere else, actually has the term "gonadectomy" included in its bylaws. Yeah, it makes a guy wince. The Ladies European Tour has had at least one transgender player over the years. Various levels of testing are required in order to assure that hormone levels are in line with at-birth female players, but bone structure and musculature in a male are clearly different. As one CBSSports.com reader put it, in perhaps the most succinctly perfect bit of analysis and double-entendre ever offered on such an uncomfortably complex issue, "changing the package does not change the contents."
Missives from Canaduh
According to the federal indictment handed down last week in Buffalo, the doctor associated with Tiger Woods and several other prominent athletes in the U.S. stands accused of smuggling not only illegal drugs into America, but a few of those little pills you see advertised to the point of numbness during golf broadcasts. You know, Cialis and Viagra and the like. Anthony Galea, who treated Woods in Orlando even though he is not medically licensed in Florida, is accused of smuggling misbranded and unapproved drugs for the purpose of treating more than 20 professional athletes, the U.S. Attorney's office said. None of the athletes have been charged with criminal activity, though the joke writers could have a field day with this one. After all, if Galea got confused and injected male-potency drugs into Woods' knee, that would explain plenty about his behavior, no? Woods seems to prefer Canucks these days. Galea is from Toronto, which, incidentally and apropos of nothing, is the hometown of Woods' new swing coach, Sean Foley.
Keeping their guard up
Colin Montgomerie has every reason to beam, but last week he might have crawled out a bit too far on the limb in crowing about European gains on the global golf scene. Monty, who led the European team to the Ryder Cup two weeks ago, lauded the "changing of the guard over to Europe" as the balance of power tilts to the other side of the Atlantic. Well, let's give it a while and see what happens. After all, while European Tour members won three of four majors this year -- a first -- it came during a weird period in which Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the winningest active players on the PGA Tour, combined to win one tournament. Woods had won four or more tournaments in 10 of his 11 previous seasons entering 2010 and Mickelson had a number of personal and medical issues on his plate, so the prevailing tidal ebb could reverse soon enough. It might not be a changing of the guard, per se. The sentries might just be on a short bathroom break.
