Pat Perez won his first PGA Tournament title conquering gusty winds and his own temper with remarkably steady play. After leading for three of the first four rounds Mr. Perez started Sunday three shots behind Steve Stricker. His steady three under par 69 resulted in a three shot victory over third year pro John Merrick.
“I just tried to stay pretty even-keeled,” he said. “I figured if I could just play solid and hit some good shots and kind of stay calm and think about what I’m doing out there, I was going to be fine.” Even-keeled is not a term much ascribed to Mr. Perez, whose past meltdowns under windy conditions are well documented. When asked what motivated his attitudinal change he said, “I just got tired of getting upset all the time. It’s a lot of energy. I learned how the best guys do it.” Results confirm he learned a valuable lesson.
Not that he didn’t have some help, most notably from Mr. Stricker. Having played the first 78 holes in 34 under par with only a single bogey, Mr. Stricker played the 79th thru 82nd holes of the tournament in 7 over par. Oops. A tee shot into the water on the 7th hole resulting in a triple bogey. Then on the 10th tee he played army golf…Right Left Right with a tee shot out of bounds right, a hook into the water after that, and finally a tee shot to the right into a fairway bunker which led to a smooth quadruple bogey 8. All I could think of was " Ouch" that’s gotta hurt. As any player knows, golf is a cruel mistress, and we’ve all been beaten senseless at times. “We would feel it in our face on one hole, and the same hole it would feel downwind. So it was all over the place and difficult to pick a correct club,” Stricker said. “It was hard for me to feel comfortable with anything, and it showed for me a couple of times today.” Not surprising that lack of comfort displayed itself most with the driver in his hands. Driver has always been his nemesis.
Mr. Merrick played his way into contention on the back 9 but finished three shots behind after a bogey on the par 3 17th hole and a par on the par 5 18th hole. It all could have been over at the 16th hole had he not gotten “…. probably one of the luckiest breaks I’ve ever seen,”, His tee shot on the short par 4 was headed right, as in right into the canal down the right side of the fairway. It was so far right that it hit the concrete embankment over the water on the right and bounced left back over the water and through the rough into the fairway. From there a pitch and a two putt kept him tied for the lead. On the 17th his tee shot went just long and his chip came out hot leaving him a tough par putt, which he missed.
Mr. Perez eagled the 18th hole, stuffing a 6 iron from about 200 yards to kick in distance for an eagle three and his final three shot margin. A nice ending to a very nicely played tournament.
It was nice to see Arnold Palmer as the host of this 50th annual Hope Classic. However the treatment the tournament organizers meted out to previous host George Lopez was shameful. I wondered when I learned that Mr. Lopez was not hosted this years event what had happened. He had been an enthusiastic host the previous two years, attending events, making phone calls and generating a lot of support for this event. He was let go over the phone, which lacks a certain class. Why a man who loves golf as much as Mr. Lopez and worked so hard to promote this event was cashiered over the phone makes no sense to me. But then, these days not much does.
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