What If Dustin Johnson Had to Play a Final Round?
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 18, 2009 11:47 AM EST
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PrintDustin Johnson picked up his second PGA Tour win - 2nd in six months actually - by winning the weather-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He didn't have to complete the tournament, stare down Mike Weir who says that he loves playing in poor weather, or handle the pressure of winning at Pebble Beach.
Still, he won, and he's going to the Masters. But Kevin Merfeld in the Monterey County Herald wonders what could have happened on Sunday.
[I]t would have been even better to actually see it, instead of just reacting to it on the leaderboard. Sure, if you are at 15 under after three rounds of a PGA tournament, you are going to win a lot of tournaments. Same goes for when you have a four-shot lead going into the final round, and an eight-shot lead over 10th place. There aren't a lot of players within striking distance unless you tumble back to them. But we had ourselves an intriguing leaderboard if the final round was ever played, especially if the weather was poor but still playable. Who knows how sharp Johnson would have been during a Monday finish considering he didn't swing a club on Sunday. And who knows how playing with Goosen and Mike Weir in the final group would have affected the second-year pro, whose only other win came at a Fall Finish event last year. Johnson played in the final group of this tournament as a rookie last year, but finished in a tie for seventh. We didn't wind up seeing much of Johnson's win because he was over at Spyglass and Poppy with no cameras to follow him. From a marketing standpoint, that kind of stinks for the PGA Tour. For the fan, though, would we have gotten to know him much more with a comfortable four shot lead entering the final round?
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The PGA Tour set this up as a four-day event, three of which are played on three different courses. Two of those courses don’t have television coverage. Each Tour player is assigned an amateur. If this “stinks for the PGA Tour” from any standpoint, they should changing the format. Or better yet, they should play the event in October which historically is the best weather month in Northern California. Writers, especially those who live there, are silly to complain about not having a final round, even if they do so whimsically.
Truth has a well-known liberal bias.
In past years
They’ve had cameras at Poppy and Spyglass, but I guess budget cuts caused CBS/GC not to cover all three courses much. That’s what bummed me.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 18, 2009 12:55 PM EST up reply actions
and the winner of the "Johnny Miller State the Obvious" prize for 2009 is...
Kevin Merfield. Give me a break. Gee – do you THINK it would have been a better tournament finish if all four rounds could have been played ? Does this guy know anything about golf ?
All of a sudden, I’m feeling sorry for the people who have to read crap like this in the Monterey County Herald.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
This piece was a total throw away, but I like riling you all up every now and then :)
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 18, 2009 12:56 PM EST reply actions
there's a reason they call them..
…“throw aways”. If the writer doesn’t toss it in File 13, then you hope the editor has enough common sense to do it for him. Oops.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
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