NICE I think if we talk about the 65th Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub Golf blasting off on Thursday in Davao, and two famous golfers tumbling out of tournaments where victory was merely a whisker short.
Weekend last, Tiger Woods and Miguel Tabuena played their third rounds in separate tournaments oceans apart.
Woods did his at the AT&T National Pro-Am in Pebble Beach, California, Tabuena at the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Philippine Open at Wack Wack East in Mandaluyong City.
At the end of the day, Woods and Tabuena flashed identical five-under-par 67s.
Their commonality ended there.
With 18 holes left to play, Woods, 36, was four shots behind the leader lying third; Tabuena, 17, alone in second just one stroke behind Mardan Mamat, the 44-year-old Singaporean two-time winner in the Asian Tour (2004 Indian Open and 2006 Singapore Masters).
One stroke is one stroke. In golf, that means nothing, even if there’s only one hole left to play.
Never a safe lead.
Can’t trust that one.
Erasable anytime.
Likewise, a four-stroke deficit with one round remaining can be easily razed, especially by the likes of a Tiger Woods.
However, that was before 2009, when Woods was clean as a whistle, scandal-free.
After falling from grace following his admission of serial infidelities that led to divorce last year, Woods took a nauseating nosedive lasting two years.
From his November 2009 victory in Australia, Woods could only win again in December 2011 at the Chevron World Challenge to end one of the longest slumps hitting a superstar in modern times.
And on Sunday (Monday in Manila), the world positioned itself yet again expecting the return anew of Woods’s electric play on the final day of a tournament he was so used to snatching from the jaws of defeat.
Alas, there was none of that stuff this time, not even the fireworks he had become so famous for in winning many of his 72 tournaments on the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour, including assembling a second all-time best of 14 majors (Jack Nicklaus has a record 18 majors).
After scoring just one birdie in his first six holes in the last round, Woods buried himself in the quicksand of three straight bogeys from the seventh—never to re-emerge and contend again.
Woods wound up with 75 and finished nine shots behind winner Phil Mickelson.
That 75 was a far cry from Woods’s first three rounds—68-68-67—even as he took the ignominy of getting routed by Mickelson, who blazed home to a 64 to defeat Charlie Wi by two shots. He was six shots behind Wi when the last round began.
And look at this.
Woods was routed by 11 strokes in the final day of play by Mickelson, who blazed with six birdies and one eagle in a bogey-free round to repeat his AT&T victories in 1998, 2005 and 2007.
It was such a humungous humbling of his nemesis that Mickelson had unabashedly relished, finally defeating Woods in the sixth time that they had been paired together in a tournament’s last round of play.
“It feels just amazing,” said Mickelson, who won his 40th to break loose from a tie with Tom Watson and Cary Middlecoff, who each won 39 times. “I’ve been a little bit lazy mentally, so today, it was a real effort for me to stay focused on every single shot and not let my mind slip or wander.”
What he said was essentially what golf is all about. It is concentration shot per shot, from hole No. 1 to hole No. 18.
“Phil played really good today,” said Woods of Mickelson. “His wedge game was right on the money. Every shot that he had a wedge in there, he hit it inside 10 feet.”
How true. Every golfer knows that wedge shots are golf’s scoring shots.
You miss it, it’s virtually goodbye.
As for Tabuena on Sunday in his last round at Wack Wack East , well, he didn’t have wedge shots but weak shots to limp home to an 81.
That was 10 shots over Mamat’s two-birdie 71 as Tabuena ended up 11 strokes off the Singaporean to share 11th spot.
Overall, though, Tabuena had nothing to be ashamed of if we go by his previous rounds—71-72-67.
You are 17 and you shoot those scores in our national championship, you are, definitely, the Mr. Future of Philippine golf.
Meanwhile, let’s go watch the 65th PAL Interclub teeing off on Thursday in Davao.
Captained by Joey Romasanta, Luisita has Iggy Clavecilla, Francis Gaston, Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Ritchie Garcia, Pepot Inigo, Bong Sison, Mining Maravilla, Lino Magpantay and Seve Roxas Chua, who replaced Carlo Gamban, all set to challenge 2011 tormentor Canlubang, which is composed of Canlubang’s crew that includes Tommy Manotoc, Tony Olives, Dave Hernandez, Mari Hechanova, Bing Bunye, Rolly Viray, Luigi Yulo and Rene Unson.
Tee it up, fellas!
