Scotty Cameron’s
Revamped Series ( 9)
Mike Purkey Column ( 16)
Grace Under Pressure
In Africa ( 20)
Check
Mark
Thanks For
The Memories
Ernest Hemingway defined guts as “grace
under pressure.” Sunday, in South Africa,
the eponymous Branden Grace lived up to
his surname and the aformentioned author’s
definition to win in his homeland for the
second straight week.
This time, Grace stared down a pair
of highly decorated countrymen – Retief
Goosen and Ernie Els – in a one-hole playoff
at Fancourt in the Volvo Golf Champions.
Guts, indeed.
“Awesome,” said the 23-year-old Grace,
who in eight days has rocketed from the
outer reaches of obscurity to inside the top
90 in the world rankings.
Meanwhile, in California, an ill wind
blew nobody any good on a gusty, weather-abbreviated Saturday that turned finishing
the Humana Challenge into a race against
darkness late Sunday afternoon.
Daylight prevailed. Barely. So did
American Mark Wilson, who very quietly
has won five times now on the big Tour in
the States. Wilson held off a pack of late
challengers thanks, in large part, to a holed
bunker shot for a two on the par- 3 12th.
Somewhere, the late Bob Hope, the
former face of this tournament, is smiling
and probably cracking wise.
Finally, last week, Tiger Woods allowed
that he was “very disappointed” his erstwhile
swing coach Hank Haney has written a yet-unpublished book about their time together.
More than a few of Woods’ disenchanted
former fans were quick to seize on the irony
of the words “very disappointed” coming
from the mouth of their fallen idol.
The takeaway? Deep wounds heal slowly.
