Golf

Win at International caps a long journey

By BOB HARIG
Published August 15, 2006

Dean Wilson is used to deferring to women golfers. Before winning the International on Sunday, Wilson was best known for being one of Annika Sorenstam's playing partners during the first two rounds of the 2003 Colonial. And he is from Hawaii, where Michelle Wie reigns.

For a guy who had never won on the PGA Tour and toiled for years in golf's minor leagues, Wilson looked remarkably calm when he stroked in a 6-foot birdie putt on the second hole of sudden death to defeat Tom Lehman.

Perhaps it had something to do with having been there before, even if it was in a different venue.

"I had to draw from experiences," Wilson said. "There's nothing that replaces winning, whether it's a State Open or internationally for me in Japan or Asia. That feeling that I get, the nervousness, that anxiety and excitement, it's always the same at every level."

Wilson could have been speaking to Wie, who often has been criticized for making the jump to professional golf so soon despite a resume that lacks victories. It is too late for her to go back now, but Wie's next win will be her first in more than three years at any level. Until she wins, there will always be second-guessing.

It has been a far different road for Wilson, 36, who didn't make it to the PGA Tour until three years ago. An unheralded player coming out of Hawaii, he attended BYU. After college, he had to take his game on the road in order to get experience.

Wilson played in Australia then Canada. Then it was on to the Asian Tour "which is everywhere in Asia you can think of," he said. It took four years on the Asian Tour before Wilson was good enough to qualify for the Japan Tour.

"That was the first kind of major tour I was on, and I played there for four years and kind of learned how to win," said Wilson, who won six titles in Japan.

Perhaps it was ironic that Wilson went up against Lehman, 47, the winner of five PGA Tour titles who did not make it on tour until his early 30s.

Lehman went to similar parts of the globe to gain experience and once considered giving it up to become the University of Minnesota's coach. He stuck with golf, made it onto the Nationwide Tour and ended up winning a British Open at age 37.

"It was quite a battle," said Wilson, who is glad to be known now for something besides playing with Sorenstam.

"It's just really satisfying to be here holding the trophy."

What if? With a victory Sunday, Lehman would have moved into seventh place in the U.S. Ryder Cup team standings with just a week to go. And it would have made for an interesting decision.

Lehman said he doubts he would have played, even if he made the team, simply because he believes chipping and putting are such an integral part of the Ryder Cup - and that he had not been doing that well.

It is true Lehman has not won in six years and that while his ball-striking remains superb, it was the shots around the greens that hurt him. He has had eight runnerup finishes since his last victory.

If Lehman, now 19th, were to have a strong PGA Championship and earn enough points to make the team, it is certainly his prerogative to play.

But if he chooses not to, the hope is that it's because of the reasons stated above, not because some believe the job is too demanding to play. Please.

Two of his four teams for the first two days are all but set: Tiger Woods-Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson-Chris DiMarco. That leaves two more teams to figure out, and he could easily sit out the morning matches the first two days.

The hardest calls Lehman will make are away from the course. One will be Monday when he announces his two captain selections.

Bouncing back: It was a bit of a shock to see the final-round numbers from Sorenstam at the Women's British Open two weeks ago. She shot a back-nine 44, which led to 79 - her highest score since the 1999 Samsung World Championship.

"A lot of bad swings," said Sorenstam, who tied for 31st.

She didn't stay down for long. Sorenstam shot a final-round 65 on Sunday to win an event in her native Stockholm, Sweden, by one stroke over Lorena Ochoa.

Take that, Johnny: Wayne Grady, who won the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek a year after losing in a playoff to Mark Calcavecchia at the British Open, believes fellow Aussie Geoff Ogilvy is not getting a fair shake after winning the U.S. Open. Ogilvy is playing with Woods and Mickelson during the first two rounds of the PGA Championship this week.

Grady, who now does television commentary for the BBC in Britain and is chairman of the Australian PGA Tour board, believes too much focus has been placed on Mickelson's final-hole double bogey and not enough on the four pars Ogilvy made to end the tournament at Winged Foot. And he puts much of the blame on NBC's Johnny Miller, whose commentary that day centered mostly around Mickelson's collapse.

"I think Miller has something against Australians," Grady told the Sydney Morning Herald. "There was never one word of praise for Geoff in victory, just total lack of recognition that Geoff Ogilvy is a great talent.

"(Miller) proved that a couple of years ago when he said (Australian) Craig Parry (who won at Doral in 2004) had a swing which would make Ben Hogan puke."

[Last modified August 15, 2006, 01:42:50]