crio’s Q?…Like jagging a five-under on a big pontoon pool….wins that just land in your lap.

Aussie golf fans can easily fall for the “we woz robbed” syndrome, especially the many of us wounded by The Shark….all of those ones that got away.

But watching Marc Leishman’s extraordinary debut PGA win the other week reminded me of swings and roundabouts.

For those who missed it, one commentator referred to “Ambulances lined up off the 18th” as contenders faltered, some dramatically, leaving the Warrnambool boy, who’d signed for a fantastic 62, to wait for over two hours for someone else to post better than his 14 under.

“I was getting ready to have a beer,” he joked

Charley Hoffman was 16-under heading into the 17th hole but the American blew a two-stroke lead with a double bogey, bogey finish. He plunked his tee shot in the water on 17. He then bogeyed the 18th hole after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker. Others failed to grasp their chances. Lowest score wins…but no one saw this coming!

Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, it should be remembered, also got the “rub of the green”, as Wikipedia attests…

“Ogilvy won his first major championship at the 2006 U.S. Open, becoming the first Australian to win a men’s golf major since Steve Elkington at the 1995 PGA Championship. Ogilvy finished his round with a champion’s flourish, making improbable pars on each of the last two holes. He holed a 30-foot chip shot at the 17th, and then got up-and-down for par at the 18th, dropping a downhill six-footer for his final stroke as all his competitors collapsed around him. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie needed pars on the final hole to win, or bogeys to tie with Ogilvy, but they ruined their chances by producing double-bogey sixes to give Ogilvy a dramatic win. Jim Furyk needed par to force a playoff but bogeyed the final hole.”

Sometimes victory comes at the most unexpected time and in the most extraordinary way. Golf is especially brutal, but there are other examples too.

Bradbury anyone?

Comments

  1. Peter Flynn says

    Bradbury skated at the back of the field in the semi.

    From memory, three fell in his semi and he finished second. Hence qualifying for the final.

    Bradbury’s tactics were genius. These are my cards and this is how I’m going to play them.

  2. Andrew Starkie says

    Bradbury a legend.

    Leishman, a good Wbool boy.

  3. Mick Jeffrey says

    1989 Australian F1GP in Adelaide……Ultra wet day, Ayrton Senna is that far in front of everyone else it isn’t funny (Nigel Mansell crashed, Alain Prost refused to start, everyone else in inferior equipment), then crashes into the back of Martin Brundle’s car (Brundle best known as a commentator since 1997), handing the win to Thierry Boutsen. Don’t think we’ve heard of him since or before for that matter.

  4. Dave Nadel says

    Most of the World’s top male tennis players decided that the 1976 the Australian Open was too close to Christmas and stayed home. Mark Edmondson won the Open although ranked outside the top 200. When quizmasters ask who was the last Australian Male to win the Australian Open you immediately think of Pat Cash, Pat Rafter or Lleyton Hewitt all of whom were far better tennis players. However it is a case of the old hippy slogan prevailing – Do not adjust your mind, There is a fault in reality.

  5. Peter Flynn says

    E. S. B. ridden by Dave Dick ’56 (Aintree Grand National). The famous Devon Loch fart.

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