The Player's Championship

Flawless

Date Written: May 12, 2009

I had this week's column all but written in my mind by the end of the third round on Saturday night. It was going to be about Alex Cejka's unbelievable 10-shot victory at The Player's. Normally, I start thinking about what I'm going to write before the weekend and jot down a few notes so I won't forget where I'm going. This week I didn't think I would have to change much because "Cejka-Slovakia" had a five stroke lead going into the last round. The theme for this week was going to be how someone ranked 267th in the world, playing one of the fastest, most difficult courses ever devised, against the best field assembled all year, could win so easily. Chejka had started Tour events 195 times without a victory. The way he was hitting fairways and knocking down putts, I'm thinking beta-blockers. On a more sober note, I'm also thinking to include some dialogue about how his victory might reinforce the theory that there are about a thousands players with a decent-enough game, who can win on the tour on any given week. Well, like all best-laid-plans, I had to trash my notes. It didn't take long into the last round for Cejka to unravel. He played back to his also-ran form and ranking with a last round 79...13 shots worse than the ultimate winner, Henrik Stenson. Imagine the peloton in cycling roaring by him like he was standing still or Wily Coyote getting flattened by a falling boulder.

Ian (The Fashion Plate) Poulter was prescient on Saturday when he suggested in a post game interview:

"It's going to be a difficult day for Alex on Sunday. He's playing with Tiger. He's got a five-shot lead. He's going to be having dinner tonight thinking 11 under par should be good enough."

Stenson lapped the field with a bogey-free, diamond-like, flawless performance that will surely rank as one of the best rounds on tour this year. When asked at the end of the round if he felt as if he had played a different golf course than the rest of the field, Stenson replied: "No, it was still Sawgrass, I promise you." If the golf course wasn't different, his game was certainly different...different substantially than all his peers.

In our funky pool, Pat Moloney and Doug B. won a pile of dough in the huge $9.5 mil purse for their astute pick of Stenson. Pat jumps all the way from tenth to second and Doug B. into sixth. Nice go'n guys. Vijay's final round 67 (T-9), allows Tobacco Road to keep his lead as we pass the halfway point in the season.