Monday, August 06, 2012

When bad things happen to good players


    Adam Scott.
    Jim Furyk.
    Who’s next?
    Tournament golf is littered with torturous tales of leads lost at the last moment, would-be champions done in by nerves and not trusting themselves when it matters the most.
   Scott’s slow-bleed loss at the British Open was a classic example and the Aussie got company Sunday when Jim Furyk, once rock-solid, kicked away the WGC Bridgestone Invitational with a 72nd hole double bogey that looked downright ugly. Furyk, in case you’ve forgotten, also drop-kicked the U.S. Open trophy in Webb Simpson’s direction in June when he snap-hooked a tee shot coming home and couldn’t buy a par with a platinum card.
   Furyk and Scott are just the latest to lose tournaments they seemingly owned. It happens all the time, whether it’s a $5 nassau with your buddies, a club tournament, a mini-tour or when David Feherty is walking the golf course watching you.
   Like car wrecks, it happens.
   “It is a cruel game,” Furyk told reporters Sunday night.  “I’ve lost some tournaments in pretty poor fashions, but I don’t think I’ve ever let one slip nearly as bad as this one.”
   Ernie Els won the Claret Jug. Keegan Bradley won a WGC event before he defends the PGA Championship he won last August when Jason Dufner couldn’t hold the lead coming home.
   At Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, bad things are going to happen to good players.
   The question – particularly Sunday afternoon -- is when and to whom.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as Furyk is wearing 500 logos that change every year, I find it hard to root for him.

Not sure whether that energy drink should drop him or vice versa. Once the 5 hours are up, he drops.