tim rosaforte
mcdowell was hardly a fluke
“flukes don’t win the open
at pebble beach,” a wise
man kept reminding me via
e-mails and text messages
last sunday. by “fluke” he
meant graeme mcdowell,
at least compared to previ-
ous pebble champions Jack
nicklaus, tom watson,
tom kite and tiger woods.
after mcdowell hung on
to win the open—follow-
ing dustin Johnson’ melt-
down and after woods, phil
mickelson and ernie els all
self-destructed—the writer
corrected himself: “there’s
always,” he noted, “a first
time for everything.”
ship, he had beaten tiger
woods before in the hsbc
champions, so his triumph
at hazeltine shouldn’t have
been that surprising.
a fluke is a one-and-done,
an out-of-nowhere, never-
to-be-heard-from-again
anomaly, like shaun michell
at the 2003 pga or todd
hamilton at the 2004 british
open. ben curtis was a fluke,
when, as the 396th-ranked
player in the world, he won
2003 british open at royal
st. george’s. like mcdow-
ell at pebble, curtis played
the steeliest golf down the
stretch while the world’s
best players stumbled on a
tricked-up golf course. now
that he has won two more
times, made a ryder cup
team and become a frequent
contender, curtis can no
longer be considered a fluke
major champion. neither
can angel cabrera, not after
backing up his 2007 u.s.
open victory at oakmont
with the 2009 masters title.
the way major champi-
onship venues are set up
nowadays, with qualifying
criteria that doesn’t always
exempt the best players—
see memorial winner Justin
rose—the odds are increas-
ingly in favor of a player
such as mcdowell break-
ing through. the northern
irishman may have snuck
into the u.s. open field
by moving into the world
ranking top 50 just before
the deadline, but he was
coming off a victory in the
celtic manor wales open
the same day rose won at
muirfield Village. “he had
won his previous tourna-
ment. he’s played very solid
on a large stage a number
of times,” mickelson said
after mcdowell won. “this
wasn’t a surprise, no.”
wouldn’t, since havret beat
mickelson in a playoff at
the 2007 barclays scottish
open. still, i can’t imagine
the usga hiding behind
the “openness of the open”
and the “most democratic
of all the majors” happy talk
had havret birdied the 72nd
hole at pebble beach and
perhaps forced a playoff
with mcdowell.
now we’re onto the british
open, where we don’t need
to be reminded: flukes don’t
win at st. andrews, either.
this was hardly the first
time a graeme mcdowell-type won a major and considering his record on the
european tour and in college
golf, this was no more of a
fluke than recent major wins
by zach Johnson, trevor
immelman, lucas glover,
stewart cink, and y.e. yang.
while yang was 110th in the
world ranking when he won
the 2009 pga champion-
the real fluke would have
been gregory havret, the
frenchman who made a
50-footer on the final hole
of sectional qualifying to
get into a playoff, and then
a 20-footer to advance.
or then again, maybe it
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