Articles

The 4 Majors of 2009

The U S Masters

April 9–12  2009

The surprise winner of the US Masters this year was the amiable Argentinian Angel Cabrera, beating Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a sudden death play-off.

No stranger to Majors – this is Angel’s second, having won the 2007 US Open at Oakmont.

This was the Master’s that 48 year old Kenny Perry lost, as he led by two with two to play but a bogey on each of the last 2 holes meant that Cabrera, who looked like being the runner up, landed himself a ply-off place with Perry and Campbell who had finished earlier with a great 69.

With 71’s from both Cabrera and Perry – the highest scores amongst the top ten finishers – their 276 total was 2 clear of Katayama and 3 clear of Mickelson.

The first hole of the sudden death (the 18^th), eliminated Campbell and on the second hole (the 10^th), Cabrera got his par to Campbell’s bogey.

And South America had a Major Champion once more.  Roberto De Vicenzo had won The Open in 1967, but it was his error in signing a card with a 4 at the 17^th (the 71^st) in the 1968 Master’s when he had taken 3, that he is most remembered for.  The 65 shots he had actually taken became a 66 and he missed out on a ply-off.

The U S Open Championsip

June 18-22  2009

Played at Bethpage State Park, Farmingdale, New York, Lucas Glover, 29, became the 109^th US Open Champion.

 After 2 rounds of 69 and 64, Lucas was second behind fellow American Ricky Barnes and it remained that way after the 3^rd round, at 8 under and 7 under respectively.  4 shots further away came David Duvall and the Englishman Ross Fisher.

Plagued by continuous rain throughout, the final Sunday was started in the evening and Barnes and Glover had only played 2 holes before the tournament was yet again halted and scheduled to resume on Monday.

Nobody in the top 5 broke 70 on the final day, Barnes fell away with a horrendous 76 leaving Glover the winner with a 72.

Duval and Mickelson with 71 and 70 tied with Barnes, 2 behind Glover and Fisher’s 72 was good enough for 5^th place.

The steady birdie, par, par finish from Lucas Glover was enough to see off the challenge and he became the 2009 US Open Golf Champion.

The Open

July 16-19  2009

Turnberry

The fairytale that nearly happened!

The 59 year old golfing legend that is Tom Watson, the winner of five Opens, was sunk by Cink, aged 36, on a very desparate anti-climax of a 4 hole play-off for The Open Championship of 2009.

For Stewart Cink, a very good and accomplished American golfer and a very decent man by all accounts, became the biggest villain in Open history!  No stranger to The Open, this was Cink’s 12^th appearance though having never really challenged before and missing the cut 3 times over his last 4 visits, Carnoustie in 2007 was his best previous finish at sixth.

But on the 72^nd hole he stroked in a birdie putt not thinking it could be for victory.  For behind him, it looked like an unbelievable victory was about to take place for Tom Watson.

Two great shots by Watson up the 72^nd hole looked like an easy 2 putts for victory but a hard bounce took the ball just through the green and three more shots were needed.

There were others with a chance, none more so than Lee Westwood who appeared to be in the frame for his first Major longer than anyone else on the final day.  But it was not to be and three putts on the last hole finally ended his chance of a play-off.

 Poor Tom, having played such beautiful golf all week, seemed to fall apart on the 4 hole play-off and it was Stewart Cink who held it together and became the 2009 Open Champion.

The U S PGA Championship

August 13-16  2009

This was the 91^st PGA Championship, played at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.  At 7674 yards, this was the longest course ever, to host a Major.

After round 1, clear at the top of the leaderboard, was a certain Tiger Woods at 5 under on 67.  Padraig Harrington was on 68 with Hunter Mahon (USA) and the Australians Robert Allenby and Mathew Goggin.

The following day Tiger had extended his lead to 4 from Harrington, Ross Fisher (England), Lucas Glover the US Open Champion, Brendon Jones (Australia) and Vijay Singh (Fiji).

At the end of round 3, Tiger’s lead at 8 under had been cut to 2 after a great 69 by Harrington and a 67 by a new name at the top of the leaderboard, Yang Yong-eun from South Korea.

This, surely, was going to be a formality for Tiger Woods who had never lost a Major Championship when leading after 54 holes.

As the final day progressed, Harrington, the defending champion, took 8 on the par 3 8^th and was gone.  Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood played well and finished tied third but were never going to catch up.  So that left Yang Yong-eun – known as Y E Yang – to put up the challenge and he certainly did.

When Yang chipped in for eagle against Tiger’s birdie at the short par 4 14^th, he finally took the lead and was not going to give it back.  A birdie on the last completed his well earned victory by 3 shots – 70 against Woods’ 75.

Yang became the first Asian born player to win a men’s Major, though the 3^rd of Asian descent following Woods and Singh.

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