Wow, David Frost and Freddie Couples were iron down the stretch. Those birdies on 16, first Frost from 15 feet, then Fred answering from 8 feet to stay just one back and in striking distance; that was spectacular. Then their shots on 18. Fred, who’s a clutch player, crushed it down the middle and Frost answered hitting one down the pipe. Then Frost hit an eight iron from over 160 yards to about eight feet, and Freddie answered that hitting it 15 feet. It was awesome. I don’t care about these guys’ ages (they’re young in my opinion), they can play. Freddie barely missed his putt to the left of the cup and Frost two-putted to finish at -16 (Freddie was at -15) for the $330,00o victory in an epic Regions Tradition tournament at Shoal Creek. I bet Freddie wishes he had that second shot back on 17. He had a chance to catch up when Frost hit his drive in the trap and could only punch it out leaving himself with a 190 yard shot on his third to the par five. Fred was only 212 from the green on his second shot and looked like if he put it on, he had a shot to tie Frost or take the lead as Frost would probably not be going at the stick on his third shot. But the nerves came into play. I don’t care how experienced a golfer you are, or how prolific a player you are, nerves always come into play in clutch moments. That’s true for any sport. Tiger Woods gets nervous. Everybody does. Fred may have gotten a little tight in his forearms and his swing was a little tight, and he couldn’t pull off the shot, hitting it right of the green near the stands. That’s no easy shot. Fred didn’t capitalize on his opportunity there ending up parring the hole as did Frosty, but he and Frosty put on a tremendous show for what looked to be an outstanding crowd yesterday. There were good crowds all weekend, despite some rainy weather at times. Frost took the lead in the Schwab Cup standings with his victory in the one of the major championships on the tour He leads the race for the $1 million dollar prize at the end of the seasson.
The course looked fantastic and the tournament has been exciting all three years. How about Bernhard Langer shooting a 63 yesterday. Bernhard was my pick to win it, but struggled some the first three days, but finally got it going yesterday. John Cook played well and made a charge. He tied for third with Esteban Toledo. Cookie shot a 66 yesterday. Frosty and Freddie shot 68’s. It was tremendous golf and the course looked terrific. It’s a super event for the city. Proud we have it. Great stuff from the Champions guys and the pros out at Shoal Creek, head pro ERic Williamson and assistants Curtis Ohrn and Blanton Tessin, always do an outstanding job. They’re great guys and work very hard. Another stellar job by Eric, Curtis and Blanton.
Now it’s onto this week and the Open at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philly. Should be another epic test of golf for the superstars of the tour. Like Tiger at this point. Phil in the hunt (loved how he played at Memphis almost canning his second shot on the par-4 18th to really put the heat on eventual winner Harris English, who was iron himself sinking a clutch 20-foot birdie putt on 17 to clinch it) as is Matt Kuchar. There are some other guys like Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler who will be factors. Should be phenomenal. Will research and develop and have a preview on Wednesday.