6.27.2011
tim rosaforte
low americans or lowly americans?
the british open is less
than three weeks away and
with tiger woods doubtful after pulling out of the
at&t national. it’s time
to start thinking about the
“low american” pool for
royal st. george’s.
at the u.s. open it was
kevin chappell and robert
garrigus who shared that
“honor” at t- 3. chappell
was no. 220 in the world
going in, garrigus no. 104.
for the second time in the
last four majors going back
to last year’s british open
at st. andrews—only two
americans finished in the
top 10.
golf was in trouble, that it
was now five majors since
a golfer with u.s. citizen-
ship had won a grand-slam
event, that phil mickelson
and steve stricker (the
only yanks in the top 10 in
the world ranking) were
non-factors at congres-
sional, that amateur patrick
cantlay was generating
more buzz than any of his
countrymen, i turned his
answer to my question back
into a question again:
fading with a 76 on sunday.
at congressional his three
closing rounds of 67-69-66
were the lowest final 54
holes in open history, one
less than mcilroy’s 203. in
his post-round news con-
ference, chappell admitted
the state of american golf
is not where everybody ex-
pects it to be, but predicted
that was going to change.
garrigus (like chappell)
is not exempt for the british open, even though he
joined mcilroy becoming
the fifth and sixth players in
u.s. open history to break
par all four rounds.
“i think it shows you how
close this game is,” chappell said.
“no, what do you think it
means? you’re out here
day-to-day, week-to-week.”
i tried to ask chappell a
diplomatic question about
his placement in the cham-
pionship in relation to his
world ranking, but it didn’t
come out right. “what do
you think that means?” was
his response.
chappell won the ncaas
for ucla in 2008, then
played the nationwide tour
before graduating to the
pga tour. since working
with sport psychologist
neale smith in february, he
lost to brendan steele on
the 72nd hole at the valero
texas open, qualified for
the u.s. open and played
three good opening rounds
at the memorial before
garrigus echoed those
thoughts after playing with
lee westwood and sergio
garcia at congressional.
“it’s fun to play against the
top golfers in the world
and feel like your game is
right next to theirs,” gar-
rigus said. “the difference
in american golf and golf
in general is just decimal
points. i feel like i can hit it
better and compete with
them.”
“finishing low american
was pretty neat,” garrigus
said. “there haven’t been a
lot of big-name americans
finishing high in majors
of late. it’s nice to get my
name out there. i’m getting
more notoriety for that than
my win at disney and my
two second-place finishes.”
what do you think that
means?
instead of telling chappell
that it meant american
it may say something that
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