‘Jac’ It Up
In Hartford, at one of the PGA’s most respected tour stops, Swede and tour vet Freddie Jacobson held off a hard Sunday charge from Americans John Rollins and Ryan Moore who both fired impressive 63’s. The big talk early in the week was the lights out 60 shot by amateur Patrick Cantlay, who competed in the event after capturing the low-amateur designation a week prior at Congressional. But he faded a bit finishing T24 for a very respectable two weeks with the Tour. As for Freddie the very likable vet, who is known by the players in the locker room as the most dominating ping pong player on Tour, took his game off the table and dominated the TPC River Highlands with consistently low rounds of 66-65-63-66 and holding on to a one-shot victory. Welcome back to Augusta Freddie!
‘Wat’ A Patriotic Week
At Tiger’s Annual 4th of July Weekend tour stop, it was another strong but Tigerless field. The young guns and established vets fought it out for the title and in the end, American Nick Watney outlasted Korean KJ Choi by two shots to win his second event of the 2011 season. The difference in the week was his week low Saturday 62, which paved the way for the title to go with his 2011 Cadillac Championship. Watney has supplanted himself as one of the strongest Americans in the golf world and should be a fixture in the American golf landscape for some time to come. He was also four shots clear of the impressive group that finished T3 including Adam Scott, Jeff Overton and Charles Howell III. No need for Augusta directions...
Quad City Quagmire
By Sunday afternoon at the John Deere Classic it was evident that it was a two horse race and there was only one question left to ask…will Steve Stricker complete the ‘3-peat’ in the Quad Cities? Stricker, the Wisconsin native, University of Illinois alumni and a fan-favorite in the area brought the crowd into utter hysteria with one stroke of the flatstick. Trailing tour rookie Kyle Stanley by two shots with two holes to play, Stricker made a birdie on the par five 17th while Stanley bogeyed the 18th out of a green side bunker, evening the battle with one hole to play from Stricker. A slightly pulled drive gave Steve an awkward lie in a fairway bunker and after much deliberation he stuck a perfect shot right over the flagstick onto the back fringe and 30 feet from the cup (a great shot). But what ensued from there struck a small quake on the Richter scale as he stroked in the putt from the back edge to win in unbelievably dramatic fashion clinching his third straight John Deere Classic.
