by Jeff Skinner
It was another exciting weekend in golf and if you’re a real golf fan you are not missing the injured Tiger Woods or the resting Phil Mickelson. There was enough good golf and interesting storylines around the world to satisfy any golf junkie.
All week the talk coming from Wentworth was that the European Tour’s BMW Championship was better than the PGA Tour’s Players Championship. Who is number one and 
which tour is stronger were the questions everyone had an opinion on. Well at least one question was answered this weekend. Luke Donald is the number one player in the world. Donald and Westwood’s battle for the top spot was great theater. Donald, having attained first place in the Official World Golf Rankings has an unusual explanation. He says becoming a father was the catalyst for his recent success. “Looking back to the birth of my first child my golf has only gone from strength to strength,” Donald told reporters after his dramatic triumph. “It has been a real blessing to become a father. It has given me a responsibility as a person – I’ve grown up and become a better person. It is nice to come home to even when you finish second or you don’t quite close out a tournament – when I have got her little face smiling back at me, you are able to forget things pretty quickly. And being able to do that I have been able to put some of the disappointments behind me pretty quickly. She is an inspiration to me. Watching her grow, and every day, learning new skills, adapting and becoming better and better at what she is – that is what I am trying to do at golf too. Every day I try and figure a way to improve and she does that every day.” Some guys credit their swing coach. For Donald it is being a parent, nice.
Rookie PGA Tour Player Keegan Bradley has spent all of his initial season on The PGA Tour being referred to as “Pat Bradley’s nephew.” Now you can call him PGA Tour winner, Keegan Bradley. He continued a crazy season on tour as he became the fourth rookie to win in 2011. The 24 year old who had won twice on the Hooters Tour beat Ryan Palmer on the first playoff hole of the HP Byron Nelson Championship to set the youngster up for the next two tears. A two year exemption to the tour is a bonus that can make the career of a rookie. Bradley made it interesting in the playoff by spraying his drive but after they moved a concession cart that was in his way he crafted a shot that got him to the green. He two putted for his first win and hasn’t stopped smiling since. Maybe from now on Pat Bradley will be introduced as “Keegan Bradley’s aunt.”
If you have a problem with a man crush stop here and head over to ESPN and listen to the nonstop NBA analysis. I could watch Tom Watson play golf forever. And it looks like Tom will
compete forever. He wins the Senior PGA Championship for the second time and looks like the Watson of old doing it. One of Watson’s first books was entitled “Getting Up and Down with Tom Watson.” He was a master at getting the ball in the hole from around the green. That’s just how he did it in the playoff. He got up and down from a greenside bunker for birdie to beat David Eger. Eger was well known to the senior players long before he joined the tour. He was a rules official on the PGA Tour while Watson and his contemporaries were cashing checks on tour.
OK, so it wasn’t the Open Championship where Watson threatened to become the oldest major winner at Turnberry two years ago but it’s a great win for Watson. He still has it and can still get the ball in the hole on any course. “If this is the last tournament I ever win, it’s not a bad one,” Watson said. “I’m kind of on borrowed time out here at 61.”
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