What a Super Bowl it turned out to be…
And a 13th Tour Victory for Kenny Perry!!!
Ok… So I will let you off if you missed the 3 hole playoff Sunday night, to determine the winner of the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.
As the clock struck 11pm GMT here in the UK, and 6pm on the East Coast; most of the sporting world that were still awake had their eyes set on Tampa, FL.
And Super Bowl XLIII…
Over the next 3 hours, the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, produced one of the most compelling sporting contests I have ever seen and definitely made the late night of television well worthwhile.
Congratulations to all the Steelers fans over the US, on a great season and the first franchise to win 6 Titles….
But you have to feel bad for Warner and the Cardinals, who produced one of the greatest 4th quarter comebacks in recent years and very nearly won the Super Bowl for an underdog, given no chance at the start of the Playoff’s with a 9&7 record, never mind against the power house Steelers in Tampa…
Back to the Golf…
However, across the country in another different time zone, at 11pm UK time, I did have the channel tuned to the FBR Open and the 1st Playoff of the 2009 season between Kenny Perry and Charlie Hoffman.
Now if you didn’t see any of the action this week from the desert. Perry started Thursday’s round +4 after 13 or 14 holes and eventually signed for an opening round 72 +1 for the round.
Now, at the start of the week I had chosen Perry to be the catalyst of my Fantasy Team for the week.
After his first round turnaround, I stuck with my instincts and didn’t bench Perry for the remainder of the tournament, and the result paid off as a 2nd round 63 took Perry right up the leaderboard after 2 rounds.
It wasn’t such a good week for ‘Lefty’, Phil Mickelson. Phil signed for 10 bogeys over 2 rounds compared to 5 birdies and easily missed the cut.
See you this week at Torrey Phil… Bring your Driver this time!!!!
He wasn’t the only big name to miss the weekend at the FBR.
Anthony Kim missed the halfway cut, still struggling with his shoulder. Camillo Villegas missed the cut by 1 and JB Holmes, the defending champion, also missed the cut after a promising start on Thursday when he was -5 under par for his front 9.
So as Super Bowl Sunday rolled around, and the Arizona crowd were lubricating up for a wild evening; the play started to heat up on the back 9 of the golf tournament.
The infamous par 3, 16th was as rowdy as ever, and the welcome return of the on course commentary from David Feherty and the ever enjoyable Gary McCord made it an interesting last few hours of golf.
If only Perry had made a Par 4 on the 18th hole, we may have been able to stay on one channel for the rest of the night… But as his drive found the fairway bunker, par was always going to be a tough play.
And as his par putt slipped by, minutes before Kevin Na failed to convert his birdie putt, after 72 holes, the tournament lead was shared by Perry and the California dude himself, Charlie Hoffman.
The fans that had been tremendous all week, were now made to wait another hour and a 3 hole playoff later, to cheer their eventual winner at the 17th green.
This time it was Hoffman’s turn to drive into a virtually unplayable lie in the bunker, and allowed Perry the chance to get up and down from the side of the green for a 30ft birdie putt win and his 13th tour victory of his career.
At the age of 48, Perry has set himself a target of winning 20 PGA Tour victories, before he retires from the main tour. With this win against a top class field, who would bet against him???
RORY SHINES IN THE DESERT!!!
From one desert to another now, and to the remarkable win at the Dubai Desert Classic for Rory McIlroy.
The 19year old Northern Ireland star, who came to prominence at the 2007 Open at Carnoustie, outlasted a stellar field; including Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Justin Rose, to claim his first professional victory.
This 19 year old will NO DOUBT be a star for many years to come and will be gracing the Masters in April for his first visit to Augusta.
Shame the organizers at the Northern Trust Open in LA, couldn’t be bothered to accept his request for a place in the tournament in 2 weeks.
Their loss I guess, but McIlroy will play the Florida Swing in March leading up to his Masters debut starting April 6th!!!
THIS WEEK
So we head to Torrey this week… No Tiger, No Rocco…What drama I hear you say????
Well I have Phil starring in my fantasy team this week… The hometown boy surely has to play better than last week and contend for the title…
I just hope he has put his Driver in the bag this time………………………..
DJ – 02/03/09
