Around the wider world of golf: Carlota Ciganda won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational on the LPGA; Paul Goydos won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship but Bernhard Langer won the Cup itself (his 4th time, but his first in the new format) on the Champions Tour; Samuel Del Val won the Argentina Classic on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica; Taewoo Kim won the Putian Open on the PGA Tour China; Hideki Matsuyama won the Mitsui Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters on the Japan Golf Tour (that's his 4th worldwide win this season); S.S.P. Chawrasia won the Resorts World Manila Masters on the Asian Tour; Aditi Ashok (remember her from the Olympics?) became the first Indian winner of the Hero Women’s Indian Open on the LET; and Alex Noren won the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the ET (that's his 4th win in less than 5 months!).
The Associated Press report (which I found at the Charlotte Observer site) had this cool quote from Pat Perez about how he played his final round at Mayakoba:
"I had an attitude that I can't really repeat, but I had a lot of thoughts going on."I think that pretty well sums up the Pat Perez we all know and love. He continued:
"The main one was I wanted to stay aggressive. I knew if I just stayed aggressive I was seeing the line great on the putting green. ... This type of grass and these greens, if you can get it on line you can make them.
"I just saw the line, I thought I could make them all and I just had a confidence. I had an entirely different attitude than I would have had a few years ago. It was definitely a different win than last time. Last time, I was a little more scared coming down the stretch. I didn't really believe and this and that. This time, I really had like this calmness, kind of like a madness to get it done."A kind of madness to get it done. Man, I wish I could say I felt that way about more things in life! And that madness manifested itself as he went -5 in his first 8 holes. At 40 years old and after several months of rehab from shoulder surgery, what else would we expect from him?
Pat Perez has stated that he feels like an underachiever, that he should have won more than he has. A lot of pros feel that way, even the ones who have had more success than Pat has. Perhaps that's a characteristic that successful athletes share. But it seems that Pat has decided to do something about it, now that he's been away from the game for a while.
In fact, he said that he probably needed the break. That after wondering if he would ever be able to come back from surgery, something inside him began to burn, to want to play the game again... and with it came a belief that he not only would play again, but that he would be better.
He said he didn't expect to win so soon, but he knew it would come eventually. Now that it has, he expects it to happen again. And perhaps it will. After all, he's proven to himself that he's back.
And not only is Pat back in the winner's circle, but he's made his first foray into the ranks of Limerick Summary winners. (His only other win came a few months before I started this blog.) So welcome to the Big Time, Pat. Here's your Limerick Summary!
Pat Perez played with passion and fireThe photo came from this page at golflink.com.au.
Borne of months spent in thwarted desire
While his surgery healed…
And that fire was revealed
As he took it deep, down to the wire.
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