Golf

'03 wonders Curtis, Lunke back in vogue

By BOB HARIG
Published June 27, 2006

A couple of one-hit wonders re-emerged over the weekend, trying to erase a label seemingly stamped in indelible ink.

When you win a major championship, coming out of nowhere to do so, then fail to do much of anything afterward, some unkind words will be used to describe the victory. Fluke comes to mind.

So there were Ben Curtis and Hilary Lunke making headlines, and that alone is ironic.

Within weeks of each other in 2003, Lunke won the U.S. Women's Open and Curtis the British Open.

Until this weekend, they had barely contended since.

But Lunke, 27, who had missed 10 of 11 cuts this year heading into the Wegmans LPGA event near Rochester, N.Y., shot 7-under 65 Saturday to vault into contention, only to fall back to a tie for 22nd on Sunday.

Still, it was her best finish of the past three years, when all she could manage was a tie for 27th at the SBS Open in February 2005.

"It's a funny game," Lunke said after making nine birdies and two bogeys on Saturday. "I should know as well as anybody that it can just come out of nowhere. There were a couple of times that I had to turn to my coach, and turn to my husband and say, 'Am I going nuts here? Am I not about to play really good?' And they would say, 'You are. Just keep fighting.' "

Lunke had missed seven cuts before the U.S. Open in 2003, and had to advance through both local and sectional qualifying to get to Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon. Although she was surprisingly tied for the lead through 72 holes with Kelly Robbins and Angela Stanford, she managed to beat both in a playoff.

That remains her only top-10 finish on tour.

"I'm not a long hitter. If I'm not doing everything right in my golf game, I'm going to miss the cut," said Lunke, who will play in this week's U.S. Women's Open at Newport (R.I.) Country Club. "I think I've missed all of them by just two shots, which is a shot a day, a three-putt here or a four-putt there. Really my putting is what has held me back this year."

Curtis, 29, did better than Lunke. He is on the verge of victory, with two holes remaining in the weather-delayed Booz Allen Classic. Coming into the tournament, Curtis was 142nd on the PGA Tour money list, and his best finish was a tie for 20th. He stands to make $900,000.

Today's expected victory should help quell doubts about him. He led the tournament from the beginning, shooting an opening-round 62.

That's far different from his victory at Royal St. George's, where nobody knew who he was when his name surfaced on the leaderboard through three rounds. Among those in contention were Tiger Woods, Davis Love, Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh.

Curtis parred the final hole that day with a 10-foot putt, several groups ahead of the leaders. And when Bjorn botched the 71st hole by leaving two balls in a greenside bunker, Curtis became the first player in 90 years to win a major in his first attempt.

He has been trying to live up to it ever since.

"Hopefully for me it's obviously a step in the right direction," Curtis said, "where I can dote on it and maybe get a few more wins."

WESTERN ON THE MOVE: As expected, the PGA Tour announced Monday that the Western Open, the second- oldest tournament on the schedule to only the U.S. Open, will change its name in 2007 and venue every other year. The tournament, which dates to 1899, will be known as the BMW Championship and be part of the FedEx Cup playoffs that will end the season.

The tournament, which has been anchored in Chicago since 1962 and at Cog Hill since 1991, will move to other Midwestern cities beginning in 2008, when it's held at Bellerive in St. Louis. It will then be back to Cog Hill in 2009, before a move to Crooked Stick in Indianapolis in 2012.

The tour's thinking is to move to some big markets that do not have PGA Tour golf.

But it seems odd it would leave Chicago, the third-biggest market in the country.

And if it's intent on events moving around, why not have the playoff tournaments scheduled for New York (Barclays Classic) and Boston (Deutsche Bank Championship) move to other cities missing golf such as Seattle, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia?

[Last modified June 27, 2006, 06:26:31]