Spy on Golf: Tales of Redemption
Written by With the FedEx Cup playoffs on hiatus this week, we considered taking a breather, too. Hey, if there’s one thing more taxing than playing golf for a living, it’s writing about it.
David Law
Yeah, not really. Besides, there’s still plenty of golf goings-on to discuss, such as:
Scottish amateur lays down the Law
How’s this for an in-your-face response: Snubbed for a spot on the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team, David Law went out and won last week’s Northern Open. A professional tournament.
Law, who must watch GB&I take on the United States from the sidelines of the very links where he won the 2009 Scottish boys championship, posted a four-round total of -14 to become the first amateur to win the event in 40 years.
For good measure, he took the high road afterward. “The timing of this is more important to other people,” he said, “than it is to me.”
Law is actually the first alternate for GB&I should one of its 10 players become incapacitated. Could make for a real Hollywood ending.
New Bjorn identity
From 1996-2006, Thomas Bjorn was a mainstay on the European golf scene. The burly Dane earned a pair of Ryder Cup berths, regularly contended in major championships, and never finished worse than 21st on the European Tour money list.
Over the next three years, Bjorn’s scores soared and his world ranking plummeted – all the way to 250th by the end of 2009. His swing and passion seemed to vanish overnight.
Bjorn began showing signs of renewal in 2010, when he won the Portuguese Open, then returned to genuine prominence by claiming the Qatar Masters in June of this year. His back-to-back victories at the Johnnie Walker Championship and Omega European Masters completed Bjorn’s rousing comeback story at age 40.
Yet more proof that golf is, despite appearances to the contrary, a forgiving game.
A couple more takes on golf’s hot topics:
- Mickelson adds sports psychologist to team: Julie Elion joins Phil’s phalanx of on-call gurus, featuring Dave Pelz (short game), Dave Stockton (putting), Butch Harmon (full swing) and Sean Cochran (fitness). Next thing you know, Mickelson’s hair stylist will be joining him at Tour stops.
- Faldo says Tiger won’t catch Nicklaus: Sir Nick claims Tiger is too distracted to win four more majors. And we thought his shredded knee, shattered ego, dozens of young challengers and re-re-reconstructed swing were the big obstacles.
