There was drama to spare in this year's majors, and those who fell short may be remembered as much as the winners.
By BOB HARIG
Published August 19, 2004
The golf season still has plenty of punch, with two World Golf Championship events, the Ryder Cup and the Tour Championship. Locally, the Chrysler Championship ends the regular full-field season in late October at the Westin Innisbrook Resort, where a slew of big names are expected to compete.
But the major championships, where careers are defined, are complete. And it was some year in the majors.
Two of them went to playoffs, one ended with a final-hole, final-putt birdie, another went to the 72nd hole after a tense back nine. It would be difficult to find more drama.
As usual, the 2004 major championships will be remembered for the winners - and maybe just as much for those who were unable to get it done.
Phil Mickelson: It is easy to forget that a year ago at this time, some wondered if Mickelson would ever win again. His attitude and style of play didn't seem conducive to winning majors, and he wasn't winning tournaments, period.
But Mickelson, now ranked fourth in the world, underwent a major offseason overhaul in both mind and manner. He approached the majors differently and played them differently. The result was a stirring victory at the Masters, where he birdied five of the last seven holes to edge Ernie Els by a stroke.
And he was a contender in the other three majors, missing playoffs by a total of five strokes. No doubt, had that putt at Augusta National not dropped and a loss to Els ensued, his close calls at the other majors would have been viewed as a negative. But winning the Masters changed his career, and the way he is viewed.
"It's been a great year for me, especially in the majors, and I feel like I'm really on to something in the way I've practiced and prepared for these championships," Mickelson said. "I'm looking forward to next year's majors."
Ernie Els: Is it better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all? Els might be wondering about that. To come so close in the majors and not win any might not feel any better than had he finished back in the pack.
After losing to Mickelson, Els, now third in the world, was just two out of the lead at the U.S. Open entering the final round, then blew up and shot 80 on a brutal Shinnecock Hills course while playing alongside countryman Retief Goosen, who won his second U.S. Open.
Then, playing the last two rounds of the British Open with first-year PGA Tour player Todd Hamilton, Els could not shake the former Japan Tour regular. They were tied after regulation, and Hamilton said the pressure was squarely on Els, that a second-place finish for Hamilton would have been fine. Els lost by a shot in a four-hole playoff.
Still not beaten down, Els came back for more punishment at the PGA Championship. But you wonder how he was dealing with the pressure. On Saturday night, when he had fallen four strokes behind Vijay Singh with a lackluster third round, Els chastised a reporter on the putting green for several minutes. Not exactly the way to head into the last day.
Sure enough, Els was inconsistent and another opportunity slipped away. When leaders Singh and Justin Leonard opened the door, Els could not step in. He three-putted the final green for a bogey that cost him a spot in the playoff.
Els, who had two seconds and a tie for fourth (all by a stroke) along with a tie for ninth, was too distraught to talk afterward. Is he becoming this generation's Greg Norman?
Vijay Singh: The hottest player over the past two years, Singh needed a major championship for validation. He had not won one since the 2000 Masters, and much of his success was viewed as coming against watered-down fields. The PGA title will change much of that. His third major put him in elite company and his 20th PGA Tour title gives him lifetime Tour membership. Sure, he caught a break when Leonard fell apart down the stretch, but nobody knocks Nick Faldo for taking advantage of such charity in several of his major championship wins.
If Singh, now ranked second, finishes ahead of Tiger Woods at this week's NEC Invitational, he is likely to become, at age 41, the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world.
"I don't have that many years to contend," Singh said. "I'd like to win a few more before I finish. This is a great start and I think there's many more out there, I hope."
Tiger Woods: He is a different player from the one who captured seven of 11 major championships from 1999 through 2002. Woods, who keeps saying the swing changes he has been working on are close to completion, was not a back-nine contender at any of the majors this year, three times finishing out of the top 10. His only victory this year on the PGA Tour came in February at the Match Play Championship and his majors drought has reached 10, matching the longest stretch of his career.
During the previous majorless streak, Woods pointed to swing changes that saw him win just once in 1998. Once he figured them out, he went on a tear golf had never seen. He said the situation now is similar.
Winning a few events in the coming months would help turn the doubters back into believers.
But to really know, we'll have to wait until April and the Masters, when another major season begins.
