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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17,2007
>> PGA
Rob Carr/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Padraig Harrington of Ireland follows his tee shot on the 18th hole during the PGA Grand Slam of Golf tournament, Tuesday in Tucker's Town, Bermuda.
Putts save Harrington in Bermuda
BY DOUG FERGUSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUCKER'S TOWN, Bermuda — Someone forgot to tell Padraig Harrington this is supposed to be a working vacation.
The PGA Grand Slam of Golf felt much more like work Tuesday, with the British Open champion grinding so hard to keep control of his game that he barely noticed the turquoise coastline below the Mid-Ocean Club on his way to a 3-under 67 and a one-shot lead.
"I was struggling with my game, so my head was very much down," Harrington said. "I saw a little bit of the nice coastline and scenery, but it was very much a workmanlike day. Every shot I was a bit worried. It was
a tough day out there for me, and luckily, the putts were dropping and it kept me right in there."
U. S. Open champion Angel Cabrera nearly caught him until his 15-foot eagle putt came up short on the 18th hole, giving him a 68.
Masters champion Zach Johnson and Jim Furky each had a 71 in rounds that looked nothing alike. Johnson had to play a shot out of someone's backyard on the second hole and was 4 over through five holes until playing bogey-free the rest of the way, Furky, the replacement for Tiger Woods, made 15 pars and very few putts and was only glad he wasn't farther behind.
Overall, it wasn't a bad start for an exhibition that changed islands and oceans for the first time in 13 years.
The Grand Slam of Golf, the most exclusive field in golf reserved only for the year's major champions, left Poipu Bay in Hawaii after 13 years for the Mid-Ocean Club in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a course that measures only 6.666 yards but still offered a stern test with swirling breezes, hidden pins and greens so pure the players at times got too aggressive.
"You feel like you can hole the putts," Harrington said. "I ran my putt by 6 feet on the 17th because I was thinking I could hole it from 20 feet. You get caught up by the facts that the greens are very good."
battled with his swing, hitting left into the water on par-3 third and scrambling for bogey, then nearly hitting his tee shot on the fifth hole into the water. He hit his approach into 18 feet for birdie and the recovery began.
Harrington has the most experience, having arrived early enough to play 15 holes on Sunday, followed by his pro-am round Monday. But he
The Irishman holed an 8-footer for birdie on the sixth, made a 20-foot putt on the eighth, and looked as though he might run away from the field with consecutive birdies early on the back nine, including his 5-iron to 18 feet on the 12th.
But the score was somewhat of a mirage.
Harrington started coming back to the field with a poor chip from just left of the 13th green that ran 15 feet by the cup, which he missed for bogey. And on the 504-yard 15th, which played as a par 4, he pulled his approach into the gallery, then couldn't make up his mind how to hit his pitch until his ball had left the club and was sailing over the green into a bunker. He did well to escape with bogey.
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Cabrera made short work of the par 5s, as expected, and had only one bogey on his card. That also came on the 13th, with his ball a few yards in front of Harrington, a chip that wasn't much better.
"I didn't play very well," Harrington said. "I just managed to hole the right putts and made the right decisions."
The destination was not to one of golf's famous datelines like Pebble Beach or Augusta, but remote places like Beatrice, Neb., and Salina, Kan. He toiled on the Teardrop Tour, the Dakotas Tour and even something called the Prairie Tour, which no longer exists. He eventually graduated to the Hooters Tour and the Nationwide Tour.
PGA
This was the car Zach Johnson drove across the heartland of America to find golf tournaments to play in a career that only looked promising to the guy behind the wheel.
Johnson remembers the road to the Masters
TUCKER'S TOWN, Bermuda (AP) — The journey toward a lifetime pass down Magnolia Lane began in a Dodge Intrepid.
Let that be a lesson to some unknown grinding away at state opens and mini-tours that look like a road to nowhere. Or to some kid who never got recruited to a major college, or who never had the means to train at a golf academy.
"They're both fantasies," he said. "One fantasy is looking back to those days on the mini-tours and thinking, 'No way it can happen.' The other fantasy is looking back now and saying, 'I can't believe it happened.' My wife and I still, to this day, are like, 'Wow, we won the Masters?' It's still mind-boggling. It's still unreal to us."
Johnson is not an imposing figure, and a green jacket doesn't change that. He is not the most physically gifted golfer, certainly not cut out of the same mold as Woods or Mickelson or Ernie Els, who were dripping with golf talent before they got out of high school.
"It was a boat," Johnson said. "But I loved it. Bought a CD player to put in it and I was all set."
Prosperity was found in faith, not in a bank account.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A good year meant he had enough money left over to pay back a group of investors from Iowa who financed his dream, and he managed to do that five out of six years in the minor leagues.
"I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa," Johnson said when he won the Masters. "That's about it. I'm a normal guy."
"That's what made me what
He modeled his game after Jim Furyk, a former U.S. Open champion in Bermuda as the first alternate. Furky doesn't overpower a golf course, but he gets by on determination and strategy, good puttin
I am today," Johnson said. "Playing on the Hooters Tour, the Nationwide Tour, the Prairie Tour. Long days in the car, long days on the range. Paying entry fees."
Johnson is simply a product of hard work and a lot of belief.
Masters champions on a Tuesday night at Augusta National.
His guest list for the Grand Slam includes a support team that has help keep him grounded, from mental coach Morris Pickens to swing coach Mike Bender to putting instructor Pat O'Brien to fitness guru Chris Noss.
Standing
Johnson stands out in this four-man field as a normal guy capable of extraordinary things, and someone who hasn't forgotten where he came from and who helped him get there.
It would have been unfathomable to think he could go from the Prairie Tour to organizing dinner for Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson and the rest of the
"It's weird," he said. "It seems like yesterday. But it also seems like 20 years ago."
ZACH JOHNSON
PGA golfer
"My wife and I still, to this day, are like,'Wow, we won the Masters?' It's still mind-boggling. It's still unreal to us."
inside the locker room at the Mid-Ocean Club, Johnson paused from reliving his early years as a professional and shook his head, still having a hard time believing that a tiny tournament in a tiny town in Nebraska eventually would make him a Masters champion and bring him to Bermuda with the other major champions of 2007 for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.
and great iron play.
They met last week to review the year and to map out plans for 2008.
"The positives outweighed the negatives," Johnson said, unable to contain a smile.
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