by Jeff Skinner
While the rest of the golf world moves on to the return of Tiger Woods at the Quicken Loans National I am still fighting off that U.S. Open hangover. Or should I say U.S Opens, hangover. Both were wonderfully entertaining. So while everyone else turns their Tiger Trackers on I’ll just keep busy nursing this Pinehurst buzz.
Watching Michelle Wie win the U.S. Women’s Open was a rare treat. Not because of the way she killed it off the tee, but she did. Not because of the table top putting stroke which couldn’t miss. And really not because of the fact that she just played great but she did.
For me there were two moments that demonstrated how far Michelle Wie has come and how much she has grown. The first occurred on the sixteenth hole when after making what could have been an critical mistake and taking double bogey she kept her composure, literally laughed it off and went on to sink a 25 foot, slippery downhill putt at seventeen to put the championship away. The “old” Michelle would have collapsed. The new Michelle didn’t.
The second instance was after Michelle won and displayed such grace and dignity as she faced the press. She easily could have made a reference to all of us that doubted and questioned her. But to her credit, she showed true class and maturity in all her responses and reveled in the moment that she had so deservedly earned. Plenty of others would have jumped at the chance to offer a little payback but Michelle was as classy as they come. Here was my take on Michelle after her win and it’s nice to see that Doug Ferguson had similar thoughts about the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open Champion.
The Pinehurst buzz continues with the U.S. Open Champion Martin Kaymer. While many thought Kaymer’s win was anti-climatic I did not. I appreciated that for four days he played significantly better than the rest of the field. Those 65’s were unreal. Like Kevin Na said, “I heard he played No.3.”
He continued to impress with the way he captivated me and the others seated before him in the media center afterward. Kaymer displayed a frankness and sincerity that we have not seen in many of our major champions. I thought I was the only one so impressed by Kaymer’s answers but I was wrong. A member of the press actually asked him “Why are you so honest?” So I guess he and the rest of his comrades were used to hearing the clichés and canned answers. Here was my piece on our open, Open Champion.
Then I come upon an article by one of the deans of golf writers, Jaime Diaz. Now Mr. Diaz has been around for awhile and as Editor in Chief of Golf World he has seen many champions come and go and hold their tongues afterwards. Diaz was recently awarded the Golf Journalism Award at The Memorial this year and he was taken with Kaymer at the Open also.
From Diaz’s Golf World Final Say column: “In four expansive post-round interviews, the 29-year-old transfixed the assembled golf writers with a soft-spoken delivery that provided candid, thoughtful, insightful answers about the greatest game of all. ‘I always think I have to say something special and something that might be interesting,’ he said. ‘Because you know, that is what the PGA Tour, what golf, needs. Nice characters, good personalities. That is what people look up to.’
Diaz goes on to reference Jack Nicklaus who never short changed a reporter trying to do his job and enlightened many a golf fan with his thoughtful and insightful answers. “This tough and tender package makes Kaymer a potential change agent, a player whose willingness to share the real stuff of what it takes to produce championship golf will help carry the game to the people. Maybe his mentor and fellow German Bernhard Langer wasn’t built that way (although he’s become more accessible on the Champions Tour), but Jack Nicklaus with Teutonic persistence became an oracle for golfers through his thoughtful interviews and books.”
Wie and Kaymer were indeed thoughtful and shockingly open during their time with the press after their victories. I was fascinated by them both. From the looks of things, I wasn’t the only one.
No wonder I can’t shake this Pinehurst hangover. 
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