MEN’S PRO WOMEN’S PRO
AMATEUR JUNIOR GATEWAY
Paula Creamer
Paul Goydos
Adams Irons Are
A Step Above ( 5)
Mike Purkey: Handicapping
The British Open Field ( 8)
The Amateur Game:
Harry Rudolph III Is Back ( 21)
Despite the pain in her newly healing
wrist, Paula Creamer was soaring over
Oakmont Country Club without her feet
touching the ground after her four-shot
victory in the U.S. Women’s Open for the
23-year-old’s first major championship.
It wasn’t quite Tiger Woods winning a
major on one good leg but it was as
courageous a performance as women’s
golf has seen in years.
In Scotland, the Flying Molinari Brothers
– Edoardo and Francesco – were bobbing
and weaving all over Loch Lomond Golf
Club at The Barclays Scottish Open. Playing
in the final threesome together with Darren
Clarke, it was the older Edoardo – a former
U.S. Amateur champion – who gave the
Molinari family bookend victories on the
European Tour, with one each.
In Silvis, Illinois – next door to the
Quad Cities (who can name the Quad
Cities?) – Steve Stricker and Paul Goydos
were high above the clouds, with the help
of two jets chartered by the John Deere
Classic people to ferry players, caddies,
wives and such to Scotland for this week’s
Open Championship at St. Andrews.
They were floating quite nicely when
they boarded, Stricker still giddy from his
victory and Goydos buffeted along by his
first-round 59 – and by taking the final
spot in The Open Championship thanks to
his second-place finish at the John Deere.
It no doubt will take a while for each
of the players to come to earth this week.
Let’s hope there’s no jet lag to go along
with the descent.
Mike Purkey
