Not In’Tim’idated

It is the ultimate risk reward golf course. It has fairways lined with man-made ponds, lob lolly pines, rough filled mounds, and 50+ yard sand traps. It poses some of the most nerve-racking and manhood swallowing shots in all of golf including an island green. It is the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedre Beach, FL and is the annual home of the PGA’s often called 5th major The Players Championship. And with all that laid out in front, along with one of the season’s deepest fields, South African Tim Clark manned up and did not bat an eye.

Thursday and Friday posed an eerily calm Sawgrass environment for the players. The wind was down and the course was susceptible, as approach shots were not rolling off the greens resulting in exceptional scoring. It was a sleeping giant that help rise a different sleeping giant to the top of the leaderboard. Lee Westwood has been one of the most successful players in the world in global golf events. He finished 2nd at the 2010 Masters, 3rd at both the 2009 Open Championship and PGA Championship, and also was one shot out of the Tiger and Rocco playoff at the 2008 US Open. Despite all of these high finishes, he has yet to cash one in at a major and even more surprising, only one of his 31 professional wins came on US soil (1998 Zurich Classic). This is a feeling Tim Clark is also all too familiar with.

Nowhere near the ammeter status of Westwood Clark took a more conventional way to the PGA Tour ala South African Tour, Canadian Tour, and Nationwide Tour; but now has been a fixture on tour for over 5 years. He has been notorious for close calls, but had yet to win a PGA event. He even has exceptionally high finishes in majors with a solo 2nd at the 2006 Masters and 3rd place finishes at the 2005 US Open and the 2003 PGA Championship; among a bevy of 2nds and playoff losses in Tour stops. Tour vet Robert Allenby can be tossed into that very same boat.

Allenby boasts four career wins on the PGA Tour, but has fallen into consistent mediocrity, as he has not been in the winner circle since 2001. But his consistency and golf ranking has kept him afloat all these years. In fact he has not missed a start in a major championship since the 2001 US Open, which is extremely impressive for any player. But in all those years he has never finished better than T2 (twice) and only has five-career top 10 finishes. But Allenby’s solid play left him one stroke back of leader Westwood going into the final round, and Clark was three shots back after a blistering 66 on a windy Saturday.

As Sunday began the big headline came early as the controversy swirled world number one Tiger Woods withdrew from the tournament on the 7th hole with a bothersome neck injury. And then world number two Phil Mickelson has a flurry of bogies ruining any shot at a Sunday charge, so it was up to the leaders to make things happen. And the direction of the tournament changed in the late stages of the opening nine as Tim Clark birdied #7 and then #9. He followed those up with hot putting which led to birdies on #10, #11, and #12. Before you know it he opened up a two-stroke lead over Westwood and Allenby. After a disappointing par on #16 Clark steadied it coming in with a solid par on the famed par 3 #17 and clutched up with a lengthy par putt on the difficult #18 to post a 67 and tournament total of –16.

With the beast (Sawgrass) angered and conditions and pin positions much tougher, Clark exceeded his goal of posting a solid number and threw up the best round of the day and said ‘come and get me boys!’ Westwood was not able to get anything going, and in fact threw away some strokes coming in, including being waterlogged at the island 17th resulting in a double and another uncomfortable top 5. Allenby on the other hand made a birdie on #16 and struck a perfect wedge on #17 to about 15 feet and a legitimate chance to tie Clark. But it wasn’t to be. That coupled with a vanilla par 4 on the 18th gave Tim Clark his first win on US soil, and his biggest championship of his career.

This win will officially put Clark into the 2011 Masters among many other things. Although once again there was no real doubt on his chances without this, but its good to lock it up. As for Westwood and Allenby, I feel at least one of them will have their day in the sun sometime in the near future. My bet’s on Westwood winning a major within the next two years! But for now, it’s the diminutive Tim Clark, who outshined all.