Around the wider world of golf: Europe won the Eurasia Cup 18.5-5.5 on the Asian Tour; Hadyn Porteous won the Joberg Open on the ET; former tennis player Mardy Fish won the Diamond Resorts Invitational; and Paul Chaplet won the Latin American Amateur Championship.
There were a lot of potential storylines going into the final round of the Sony Open, the first full field event of 2016. There was Brandt Snedeker and Luke Donald getting their games back in shape, Adam Scott and Tim Clark (among others) making the non-anchored putter switch, several young players like Si Woo Kim and Zac Blair trying to grab their first PGA Tour wins, and the continuing charge of Kevin Kisner.
A lesser-known storyline concerned Fabian Gomez, an young Argentinian on tour who won the FedEx St. Jude event last year, who was trying to lock up an Olympic invite this year. Emiliano Grillo, who is a lock for the event, is a close friend of Fabian's... and Fabian is currently the second member of the team.
Several of the players in the storylines I mentioned were jostling for position all day. But in the end it came down to Snedeker, Blair and Gomez. Sneds and Gomez went to a two-hole playoff which Sneds was favored to win, primarily because of his experience. He had seven wins versus one for Gomez, plus Sneds had won twice in playoffs. Gomez, on the other hand, had been streaking up the leaderboard all day, posting an 8-under 62 against Sneds's 4-under 66.
In the end, experience seemed to matter less than simple common sense. In the three times the two men played the 18th hole -- once in regulation, twice in the playoff -- Sneds continued to make the same mistake over and over, taking driver off the tee and missing the fairway every time. Gomez, after missing the first two times, took a hybrid off the tee on the second playoff hole, put his drive in the middle of the fairway, and made birdie to win.
Every player has dreams; it's why they play the Tour in the first place. They may be dreams of being #1, making lots of money, getting lots of wins, or just traveling the world while playing a game. For Fabian Gomez, several dreams have come together at once. Perhaps one of them was getting a second Limerick Summary.
If so, I congratulate you, Fabian. Your dream has come true:
Dreams have come true for Gomez before,The photo came from the tournament wrap-up page at PGATOUR.com.
Like at Memphis last year. Now once more
He’s a winner on Tour
And we’re all pretty sure
Dreams of Rio are also in store.
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