What a great win by David Toms this week. His week was a very roller-coaster week. It was so nice to see Toms win because Toms is probably my favourite golfer on the PGA Tour. He is the reason why I've became such a huge golf fan in the first place. This win was a very special win for him, having not won since way back in 2006.
This has been a wild week in the world of golf. So here is a countdown of the Top 10 most surprising / interesting / significant golfer performances of this week, including the Crowne Plaza Invitational, Volvo Match Play, and Nationwide Tour event.
10. Crowne Plaza Invitational: Charlie Wi. Expectedly, Wi didn't play as well in the final round as he did the first three days. But what I found significant about Wi was the way he played so solidly in the third round. He holed lots of long birdie putts, such as on hole 8 and 16, and he made lots of rock-solid, clutch par saves, such as on 14. I didn't expect him to play so solidly that round because the conditions were tough and his partner Toms was struggling in that third round. That was a very impressive third round.
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9. Volvo Match Play: Luke Donald. So, Donald played very well all week until he got to the finals. If he were to win the finals then he would have overtaken Westwood at the #1 spot in the rankings. After playing so solidly for three days, his final round against Ian Poulter was not-so-solid. Donald missed a lot of opportunities to deny Poulter the win, but he repeatedly missed makeable putts and hit errant drives which resulted in leaving the door right open for Poulter. And Poulter took advantage to win. That was uncharacteristic of Donald. Perhaps he felt the pressure because on the #1 ranking on the line?
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8: Volvo Match Play: Nicolas Colsaerts. Nicolas Colsaerts was a great dark horse story of the week. He played really well against a lot of the top players in the world. He beat Retief Goosen and Rory McIlroy in the round robin format the first 2 days. Then he beat Jhonattan Vegas, and then the tough-as-nails Graeme McDowell. His win over Graeme McDowell was probably the highlight of his week. He actually almost beat Ian Poulter and advanced to the finals, but Poulter made a late charge to comeback and beat Colsaerts.
7. Nationwide Tour: Travis Hampshire. On Thursday of the Nationwide Tour BMW Pro-Am event, Travis Hampshire shot a 60 in his first round. It's quite significane news whenever someone shoots scores this low like that, and Hampshire's 60 was no different. He sure came really close to shooting that 59. He had a 3-shot lead after the third-round, but lost the tournament with a 1-over-par final round. Decent week for him though.
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6: Crowne Plaza Invitational: Rickie Fowler. This guy's got enormous talent, but the reason he's been unable to win is his inconsistencies. In the first round, he was actually 8 under par on the first 8 holes of the front nine (he started on the back nine). Then he double bogeyed the 9th hole (his last hole of the day), resulting in him unable to take the first round lead. He shot 63 on that round. His next three rounds however, were very up-and-down roller coaster-like. He made a total of 3 double bogeys and 11 bogeys for the week. He hit a lot of very wild shots to offset his many good shots. His erraticness and inconsistency is the main reason why he has yet to win on the PGA Tour up to May 2011.
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5: Volvo Match Play: Lee Westwood. Despite Westwood being the #1 player in the world coming into this golf tournament, Westwood didn't even make it to the quarter-finals. He got eliminated in the first round by Ian Poulter. Lee Westwood hit the ball really superbly that round, but he still lost to Poulter because he gave away a lot of strokes on the greens. He missed lots of opportunities because of that, playing not like the #1 player at all. Westwood was leading most of he match, but Poulter rallied at the end to win. What was equally as surprising as Westwood's loss was his post-round comments about Ian Poulter's game. He repeatedly commented about Poulter getting many good breaks despite not striking the ball well, resulting in lots of writers thinking that Westwood's comments are "sour grapes".
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4: Crowne Plaza Invitational: Chez Reavie. Ever since Chez Reavie's win at the 2008 RBC Canadian Open, he has disappeared from the golf map. People have heard little news, if any, since 2008. But then, this week, straight out of the blue, he re-appeared in the golfing world with that brilliant first-round 62. That surprised a lot of people because that round just appeared out of nowhere. A lot of people probably forgot that he won the Canadian Open back in '08. He went on to have a very good week, finishing in a tie for fifth. Good week for him.
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3: Crowne Plaza Invitational: Stuart Appleby. He sure had a very interesting, to say the least, final round. On the front nine, he made every putt. He made every long birdie putt and made every clutch par-saving attempt. After the 10th hole, he was only 1 back of the leaders. With Charlie Wi unable to find any momentum, it looked like David Toms's biggest threat was going to be Stuart Appleby. However, that was not-to-be. After an indifferent 3rd shot on the par 5 11th, Appleby missed the birdie putt. Then he bogeyed the 12th and 13th holes. Then the round really began crashing down on him on the 14th hole. That was the hole where he hit his drive into the trees, his second shot caught a branch and ricocheted back to him. His third shot finally pitched out of the fairway. He finally hit his 4th shot on the green, and then he 3-putted an made triple bogey. He lost total concentration at that point, finishing his round with 3 bogeys in a row. He shot a 4-over-par 74. Despite shooting 31 on the front nine for that round, he shot a 43 (8 over par) on the back nine.
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2: Volvo Match Play: Ian Poulter. For this week, Ian Poulter had a very, very lopsided win. The win was so lopsided because Poulter had some very erratic tee shots, but somehow still managed to win all his matches thanks to good scrambling and putting skills. For example, on the 11th hole of the Poulter vs. Westwood match, with Westwood 1UP at that time, Westwood was on the green with a very makeable eagle putt while Poulter was off the green with a very difficult pitch shot upcoming. Poulter hit a beautiful pitch shot and made the birdie putt. Westwood missed the eagle putt. All of the sudden, the momentum shifted to Poulter and Poulter ended up winning that match. Then at his semifinals match against Nicolas Colsaerts, Colsaerts looked to be in control the whole match. Poulter was 2 down with 4 to play, but he took advantage of Colsaerts' miscues on 15 and 16 resulting in bogeys, so Poulter was able to square the match and beat Colsaerts in the sudden death. Then in his finals match against Luke Donald, Poulter again took advantage of Luke Donald's missed opportunities. Donald was 1UP after 10 holes with a birdie putt to go 2UP, but he missed that putt and the momentum suddently shifted to Poulter, who made a huge birdie putt on the 12th hole to square the match and make 2 more birdies coming in to win the match 2 & 1.
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1: Crowne Plaza Invitational: David Toms.
It's very, VERY rare to see a more roller-coaster week than Toms did at Colonial. Fresh off the heartbreaking loss at the Players Championship, Toms shot an opening round 62 to tie the lead. Then he shot another 62 for a commanding 7-stroke lead. Toms actually missed his birdie putt on the 18th hole by 2 inches, which would have given him a 61 and a new PGA Tour record for biggest 36-hole lead and lowest aggregate 36-hole score! So anyway, Toms didn't do too well with that big lead.
In the third round, his misfortunes began at the 2nd hole when his 3rd shot, a bunker shot, hit the flagstick and ricocheted 18 feet away, resulting in his first of many bogeys that round. His many bogeys included his one at the 6th hole where he hit a great wedge shot that landed near the hole but spun all the way off the green. Then a lapse in concentration resulted in a three putt double bogey from 8 feet on the 14th hole. He ended up with the disasterous 74 which dropped him from a 7-shot lead to a 1-shot deficit to Charlie Wi going into the final round.
Then, in the final round, things began changing in his favour again. After 6 steady pars, Toms birdied the 7th hole after rolling in a 10 foot putt, which was what got his round going. He made 2 very solid two-putt pars on 8 and 9 from long range. Then things really began going well for Toms at the 11th hole. Toms holed his wedge shot for an amazing eagle, which was the pivotal hole of the tournament, giving Toms lots of momentum. Toms made clutch par saves on 12 and 13, and rolled in another 15-foot birdie putt on 14. Then he almost holed his second shot on 15, which landed right next to the hole and rolled 12 feet past. He 2-putted for par.
The 16th hole was where things really got interesting. Toms had a 3-stroke lead, but Charlie Wi put the pressure on him bigtime when he hit his shot close and made the birdie putt. Toms lagged hit birdie putt 5 feet short of the hole, and sunk that clutch par putt, to only lose 1 stroke of the lead. Then on the 17th hole, Toms plugged his second shot in a bunker. He blasted it to 12 feet, and ran his par putt 3 feet by. He sunk another clutch bogey putt to only drop one shot. On the last hole, Toms had to cling on his slim 1-stroke lead, which he did nicely. Charlie Wi's long birdie putt ended up less than 1 foot short of going in the hole, resulting in Toms winning after an easy two-putt par. What a great win, David Toms. Congrats on the well-deserved win.
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