Around the wider world of golf: Willie Wood got his first Champions Tour win at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open; Mika Miyazato got her first LPGA win at the Safeway Classic; Lydia Hall got her first LET win at the ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters; Shawn Stefani got his first Web.com Tour win at the Midwest Classic; and Augusta National got their first two female members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore. (I'll have to do a post about that last one!) In addition, Paola Moreno got her 2nd Symetra Tour win at the Eagle Classic and Mi-Jeong Jeon got her 20th JLPGA win at the CAT Ladies, but those seem a bit anticlimactic after all those firsts, don't you think? You can get the details on the CAT Ladies from the Constructivist.
It just seems appropriate, doesn't it? El Niño returns to the PGA Tour winner's circle during a rain-delayed tournament!
The storm of emotion that often derails Sergio seemed to subside as the water table rose at the Wyndham Championship. He looked calm and even showed moments of positive emotion as he sunk putt after putt last week. Those 4 birdies in the last 6 holes Monday morning really made a statement... but perhaps not as strong a statement as the calm bogey he made on the 18th after one of the rare bad shots he hit all week. He casually walked over after his poor drive, put it back in play, and left himself a tap-in for bogey.
Why not? He had 3 shots to play with!
I suspect the win wasn't as satisfying as the knowledge that he had just locked up a place on the European Ryder Cup team without needing a Captain's Pick. Poulter knocked him out of last place when Sergio missed the cut at the PGA. Monday, Sergio leapfrogged both Poulter AND Peter Hanson to end all doubt.
Sergio now enters rarified air, as far as I'm concerned. It's rare for any player to win on both sides of the Atlantic during a given 12-month period. It's not that American golf is better than European golf, or vice versa -- the two are just different, requiring slightly different skill sets, and few golfers seem to have both of them. Luke Donald may be the only golfer who can currently say that he wins on both sides with any regularity. At least Sergio is back in the conversation.
And Sergio now has 3 victories in the last 12 months -- again, rarified air.
So today's Limerick Summary salutes the warm wind of familiarity that's blown back into the PGA Tour... and into Medinah a few weeks' hence:
El Niño blew into the Wyndham;The photo comes from the Wyndham main page at PGATOUR.com.
No rain – or emotions – could send him
Careening off-course.
He'll now be a force
At Medinah, not just an addendum.
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