Buick Invitational Belongs to Watney Options

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Nick Watney started the day 5 shots behind leader John Rollins, he ended the day with a three foot birdie putt and the trophy.  Mr. Rollins began the day with a 3 shot lead over Camilo Villegas.  He proceeded to bogey the first two holes and saw his lead reduced to a single shot by the 6th hole.  Mr. Villegas had a 10 foot birdie putt to tie for the lead which he just missed.  While he lined up the short par putt the television cameras showed viewers a ground level picture and commentator David Faherty remarked about his improved putting promptly drawing the attention of the golf gremlins who leapt onto the toe of his putter causing it to lag behind and push the putt right of the hole.  Mr. Rollin’s lead was back to two shots.  A hole later it was four shots.  Five more holes and the lead was a single shot again.

Between Mr. Feherty, Gary McCord, and Peter Oosterhaus they also tried to jinx Mr. Watney by drawing attention to his not three putting all week as he stood over a 10 footer for a par.  I was thinking, these guys should know better than to do that the superstitious dolts. 

Then came the 13th and Mr. Rollins calmly rolled in a 20 foot eagle putt to restore his three shot lead.  By the 16th hole the lead was gone.  Holy Roller Coaster Batman.  What a ride. 

 

 

At the 17th hole Mr. Villegas missed the fairway left, not recommended when trailing by one with two holes to play.  His 8 iron shot flew the green and led to a bogey leaving him 2 shots behind heading into the par 5 18th.  His second into 18 cleared the water in front of the green by the smallest of margins and came to rest short and right of the pin.  With the putt for eagle he still had a chance to tie for the lead.  As happened a surprising number of times all day, his putt looked into the hole and stayed out, leaving a tap in for birdie and a round of 72 tied for third with Lucas Glover. 

I can’t remember a round where a player missed so many putts by such small margins. The remarkable thing to me was Mr. Villegas’s attitude stayed upbeat and assured.  It reminded me of what happens when you realize how good you are and accept that golf is not a fair game.  As long as you keep hitting quality putts you’ ll end up making your share.  I see many high finishes in the future for this talented young man.

Mr. Glover started the day seven shots back of the lead and was one behind after the 16th hole.  A bogey on the 17th finished him off. 

In the 18th fairway Mr Watney and Mr. Rollins were only several yards apart.  Mr. Watney’s hybrid from 235 yards found the back of the green 60 some feet from the hole.  Mr. Rollins also hit a hybrid, but pulled it left and into the sand from which his could only get to 12 feet for his birdie try. 

“It’s unfortunate that I came in with a three-shot lead and couldn’t get the victory,” Rollins said. “But as I said yesterday, if somebody came out and played a great round of golf and came out on top, then my hat’s off to him. And that’s exactly what Nick did.”  Classy stuff on a tough tough day. 

Entertaining golf.  I found one of the commercials run by Buick featuring one of their VP’s to be interesting.  She stated that Buick was one of GM’s core products and that they intended to be around for another 100 years.  Brave talk on that front from a company which has been hemorrhaging cash for a while now.  She stated they were committed to sponsoring tour events which, given the political climate may be hard to justify.  After all,  when every big public expenditure is scrutinized by the media this may be an advertising platform that the automobile industry will find hard to stand up and defend with any gusto.   Which leaves some tough questions for the Tour itself in terms of possible sponsor replacement.  Time will tell. 

A note on the broadcast, I loved the exchange between Mr. McCord and Mr. Feherty about the latter’s bicycle riding.  Mr. McCord asked if Mr. Feherty had gotten up and gone riding at 4:30am in the rain.  Mr. Feherty pled guilty and offered he rode 30 miles.  When asked which direction his answer was "forward". 

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