Sharpshooting
In Shanghai
Bravissimo!
Callaway’s Driver Breakthrough ( 7)
The princely sum of $1.2 million U.S.
might not have erased the sting of
suffering a beatdown at the hands of Tiger
Woods in Ryder Cup singles last month.
But for Italy's Francesco Molinari, going
wire-to-wire to best a loaded field, Woods
included, at the WGC-HSBC Champions
in China last week surely went a long way
toward easing the pain.
England's Lee Westwood, meanwhile,
was a wire-to-wire runner-up to Molinari,
an accomplishment that meant he held
serve in the rankings as world No. 1, a position he officially attained just one week ago.
As for Woods, he showed continued
flashes of brilliance, including five birdies
on the inward half of his final round. But
he was mostly an also-ran in Shanghai.
Which serves to remind us, among other
things, that the golf gods are implacable.
They mete out their favors on their terms
when they're ready.
Almost embarrassingly, Woods is now
perfectly positioned to be the 2011 Comeback Player of the Year.
Finally, the line of the week (and perhaps
the year) in golf, as reported by Global Golf
Post Senior Correspondent Lewine Mair,
came from Colin Montgomerie. When told
by a proud local coach, while giving a junior
clinic in China, that none of the students
in front of him “allows anything to distract
them,” Monty replied with this rare and
winning bit of self-deprecation:
“If that's the case, they should be
teaching me rather than vice versa.”
