by G. Rennie
World Golf Championships are a boon to professional golfers, especially those who find themselves outside the top 125 on the Fed Ex Cup points list. This is so as the PGA Tour schedules an alternate full field event to run concurrently with the WGC.
As the top 76 ranked players in the world teed it up at venerable Firestone CC for the WGC Bridgestone Championship this week another field of hungry pros competed at the Barracuda Championship. Held in the scenic mountain setting of Reno, Nevada. Aggressive play was the order of the day, every day, for every player as each player tired to amass the highest point total.
That’s right, the players wanted to go high not low. The Modified Stableford System used at this tourney awards points for birdies, eagles and that rare bird, the albatross, while subtracting points for bogeys or worse. Par gets you nothing, so nobody plays it safe and it’s a kick to watch while being a sort of anti- US Open venue.
Geoff Ogilvy racked up a +49 for the win, his first on the Tour since the 2010 SBS Championship. It’s great to see the lanky Aussie back in the winner’s circle. A former major champion and owner of three WGC titles this might just be win that propels him back to the top tier of the pro game.
Kenny Perry shot a 7 under 65 on Sunday to take the 3M Championship by one stroke over the irrepressible German money machine that is Bernhard Langer.
A birdie on 18 secured the second victory of the season for the likable Kentucky native with that sweet, slow high draw swing. Langer’s 9 under 63 was a couple of strokes short of gaining his fifth victory of year.
With two majors this season and 14 top tens from 15 starts, including the Senior Open Championship last week at Royal Porthcawl, Langer seems committed to winning his second Schwab Cup. If not for the impressive rookie showing this season of that Scottish cousin of Mrs. Doubtfire, Colin Montgomerie, Langer would be a shoe-in for player of the year and the Schwab Cup. Kenny Perry is the man of the week on the Champions Tour but Langer is the Man of the Year.
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