by Jeff Skinner
Stacy Lewis’ win at the North Texas LPGA Shootout continues a great season for the American ladies. With names like Lewis, Wie, Thompson, Korda and Creamer taking home trophies the LPGA has been given a real shot in the arm.
J.B. Holmes gets his third and most important PGA Tour win at the Wells Fargo Championship. His first win at the 2006 Waste Management Phoenix Open had to be sweet but this one coming after his brain surgeries is a bit more significant. It proves that he can still win out there and until that happened he had a heavy load to carry.
Phil Mickelson is the biggest tease in golf. He shoots a sizzling 63 on Saturday to climb into third place and get all of us thinking he is breaking out of his 2014 funk. But the air left his balloon quickly on Sunday as that flatstick that was working miracles in the third round had lost its magic. He struggled to a 76 and fell into a tie for eleventh.
Rory McIlroy showed flashes of his A game on Saturday with a 65 but that was as good as it got for the Northern Irishman. Still, it is another top ten for Rory, his seventh of the season and ’14 looks so much better than last year.
Props to Brendon de Jonge. He opened with an 80 and was close to heading home early until he scorched Quail Hollow with a 62 on Friday. He made the weekend, shot 68-69, tied for sixth and took home close to $240,000. Not bad at all.
Jim Furyk came out of nowhere on Sunday with a 65 which included a 65 foot hole out for eagle on fifteen. Furyk put a little bit of pressure on Holmes as he came down the stretch. Jimmy settled for second instead of eleventh place. The difference in cash for his hard work on Sunday: he earned $586,500 more for his second place finish.
Donald Trump was just where he likes to be this week: in the press again. The Donald closed the deal on buying the Turnberry Resort and was awarded the 2022 PGA Championship at his New Jersey course. So in a few years he’ll have hosted the PGA, The Open Championship, The U.S. Women’s Open, The Senior PGA and oh yea…he hosts the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral each year. Is there a bigger player in golf right now? Sorry Brother, Trump isn’t going away any time soon.
Each week we watch these professionals both men and women, play world class golf on wonderful courses. It’s a show that doesn’t get old but it is more than just their skills with clubs and balls that draws me to them. It’s stories like J.B Holmes and his comeback and Stacy Lewis who plays golf with a steel rod in her back. It’s the people that make this game and that keeps me coming back.
Sundays during the golf season present me with a dilemma: to play or watch. Yesterday I solved the problem by playing nine holes and getting back in time for the finish on both the PGA and LPGA Tours. Nine is fine some days and this may just be the formula I use the rest of the season.
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