A mistake not easily forgotten
Wie's faux pas mirrors lost 1989 NCAA title
Two weeks later, the careless mistake involving Michelle Wie and the infamous signature still resonates. That doesn't surprise Kevin Johnson, because 19 years later so does the one he was involved with.
While the Pembroke native understands that some of the particulars surrounding their respective incidents were different, he hopes the LPGA Tour learns from the embarrassing situation and makes changes, much like NCAA golf officials did after that ruling in 1989 at Oak Tree CC in Edmond, Okla., cost Johnson the coveted collegiate championship.
History refreshers are in order, of course, so first the Johnson saga.
He was one of the nation's top amateurs, the Mass. Open champ in 1986, the 1987-88 Mass. Amateur winner, so to see the Clemson senior shoot a second-round 69 and vault into the lead at the NCAA Championships was hardly a surprise. No, the surprise came when he was told to get in a cart at the ninth green for the long drive to the scoring area at the 18th green. "It was so unorganized," said Johnson. "I mean, to me, there was no official spot [to sign], just a picnic table."
Johnson said he was ushered in ahead of his playing competitors so that he could talk to reporters, and he did as he was told - but first he put his scorecard down on the picnic table. "It's not like I could hand it in. I was waiting for the other players," he said.
What transpired next is not one of the proudest moments in NCAA golf history and certain individuals know that they robbed a young man of his rightful title. It was deemed that Johnson, by putting his card on the table, had turned in his scorecard and that he had left the scoring area.
Oklahoma coach Greg Grost led the charge to have Johnson disqualified; after all, with Johnson's round wiped from the books, it would crush Clemson's chances and improve Oklahoma's hopes.
Having long ago reconciled what happened as unfortunate, Johnson holds no grudges. He was more frustrated and confused than angry, except when an official scorer announced he was going to confer with the US Golf Association "because Kevin Johnson didn't sign his scorecard."
"I got upset with that, because I never had a chance to sign it. It was taken away while I waited for the two guys to come in. I can't sign without them," said Johnson.
The situation was a mess, so much so that it still wasn't clarified the next morning.
"They told me to go play, that they were still deliberating," said Johnson. "I had to play 36 holes without knowing how I stood for the national championship."
Initially, the ruling was going to favor Johnson, but then pettiness bowled over reason and a compromise was reached: Johnson was DQ'd from the individual race, but his final 36 holes could count toward the team title. Big deal. With Johnson's second-round 69 tossed out and a teammate's 81 inserted, Clemson was pretty much relegated to also-ran as host Oklahoma won the team title.
"It was a bad deal," said Johnson, "but at least some good came out of it. The NCAA got more organized with their scoring areas and I don't think something like that could happen today."
Unless we're talking about the LPGA Tour, however, because apparently what happened to Wie two weeks ago at the State Farm Classic isn't that unusual, hard as that is to believe.
Enter the history refresher regarding Wie. The 18-year-old had just shot 65 to tie Yani Tseng for the 36-hole lead when she left the scoring area without signing her card.
How she could be so careless is beyond comprehension, but Brad Faxon says, "It couldn't happen" on the PGA Tour. What's more, Mike Higgins is sure that it couldn't happen even at the level of the New England PGA.
"When I work the scoring area, I ask players for three things," said Higgins, the NEPGA's director of tournament operations. "A score in every box, their signature, and their marker's signature. They don't leave until I have all three."
Faxon echoed a similar picture on the PGA Tour. Then again, the PGA Tour (and its Nationwide and Champions circuits), treat the scoring area as a serious place of business and put only their officials in there to conduct matters. Ditto the NEPGA. But not so the LPGA Tour, which relies upon volunteers to handle scorecards. Connie Wilson, vice president of communications, confirmed LPGA Tour officials "pick up" the scorecards, but don't sit there when players go over them.
Maybe it's me, but with millions of dollars at stake, it seems that full-time tour officials should be overseeing the scorer's area, not volunteers who only one day earlier had received their marching orders.
Don't get me wrong, volunteers are the heartblood of any tournament, but they don't belong in charge of scorecards. Yet that was a piece of the puzzle that stood out when the Wie incident was explained. After Wie left the scoring area, "a volunteer" chased her down to say that she had forgotten to sign the card.
Feeling she had been saved, Wie returned and signed the card, but when an LPGA Tour official overheard volunteers recounting the story the next day, an alarm went off. If Wie had left the scorer's area without signing, the official knew that she would be disqualified - but since the third round was underway, Wie wasn't approached until after shooting 67 to keep her within one of the lead.
When Wie confirmed the account, she was disqualified. Rightfully so, too, because she deserves the greatest share of the blame for such a careless oversight.
But so, too, should the LPGA Tour be held accountable. The incident prompted a two-page explanation from commissioner Carolyn Bivens, who called it a "clear-cut" rules violation.
The bottom line is: The volunteer had no right to chase down Wie to sign the card, but by doing so, she was representing the LPGA Tour and sending a message that everything was fine, when it clearly wasn't.
Much like that fiasco 19 years ago, the one at the State Farm Classic could have been avoided. Too late for Johnson, of course, but the NCAA made sure it made corrections. Hopefully, the LPGA will do likewise.
Vaughan turns back the clock
If you're saying, "Isn't that guy who just won the Senior British Open the same guy who beat Ron Philo Jr. by one at the Pensacola Classic on the Nationwide Tour in 1994?" then give yourself a birdie.Indeed, it's the same Bruce Vaughan, the onetime fireman from Hutchinson, Kan., who didn't take up golf until the age of 20 and learned most of his skills under the tutelage of former major league pitcher Ralph Terry.
Talk about your long shot winners, Vaughan not only beat veteran star John Cook in a playoff, he outplayed proven world-class commodities such as Eduardo Romero, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, and Bernhard Langer. This from a guy who played just one year on the PGA Tour (1994) and who had just two top-10 finishes in 32 Champions events since 2007.
"You've got to believe you can. You never give up," said Vaughan, when asked if he had maintained faith in himself, despite a fairly indifferent season leading up to last week at Royal Troon.
He had entered the week No. 42 on the money list, but when Cook bogeyed the 18th in regulation to squander a one-stroke lead, Vaughan found himself in a playoff.
Once there, the man from Kansas handled things himself, his 20-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole providing him the victory and $315,600 check.
Oh, and it also provided a bit of comfort in planning his schedule, which is why Vaughan is in Colorado this week - to fish, not play in the US Senior Open. "I'm exempt now, so I don't have to play [every week], where before I wanted to play every week I could get in," said Vaughan.
He explained that he hadn't qualified for the US Senior Open, so instead he had planned a vacation with his wife and son, and he'd follow through with that. With a history of knee surgeries, the walking doesn't thrill Vaughan. Instead, he'll go fishing, rest next week when the tour is idle, and come back Aug. 14-17 for the Jeld-Wen Tradition.
"I think I'll enjoy this and sit up there in the mountains and have fun," said Vaughan, whose previous best career season came in 1994 when he won not only that Pensacola tournament, but also the Permian Basin Open on the Nationwide Tour, and something called the Autopage Mount Edgecombe Trophy in South Africa.
No, it doesn't stack up against Cook's 11 PGA Tour wins, Norman's two British Open titles and 78 world-wide wins, or Watson's five claret Jugs and eight major championships - but then again, the British Senior Open was a golf competition, not a match of résumés.
Little state, huge impact
It's where he made his final start of the 2007 PGA Tour Season, so Brad Faxon figures the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C. (Aug. 14-17) is a fitting spot for his 2008 debut."I haven't been out there in so long," he said Tuesday. "But the knee's feeling fine. We'll see."
Faxon, who will celebrate his 47th birthday tomorrow, has been sidelined since having reconstructive surgery to his right ACL in late December. That came on top of the foot surgery he had in the days following last year's Wyndham Championship, so it's been quite a layoff, his only competitive golf being the Shark Shootout last winter and a failed bid at US Open qualifying in June. Other than that, it's been casual rounds with friends and low-stress corporate outings.
Which isn't to say Faxon hasn't had an impact on the game. To the contrary, he was one of the people to whom Matt Broome directed credit after winning the 79th New England Amateur last week at Charles River CC.
"Brad's been a great friend and a huge influence," said Broome, whose father, Peter, is a Titleist executive and longtime friend of Faxon's. "In fact, I received a text from him right after I won and that means a lot to me."
If there is a sense of great pride within the confines of Rhode Island CC these days, it is for good reason.
Not only does Broome play his golf out of that Barrington golf course, so, too, does David McAndrew and the two young men have scripted a memorable summer. McAndrew defeated Broome en route to the Rhode Island State Amateur title; Broome edged McAndrew by a stroke to win the New England Amateur.
"To have the Rhode Island State Amateur and New England Amateur from the same club is a big deal," said Broome, who has followed Faxon's footsteps and attended Furman.
Broome red-shirted as a freshman, but figures to be a prominent part of the team as a sophomore.
Given his upbringing in a golf family, it's no surprise that Broome has a keen sense of what honor fell his way last week.
The list of New England Amateur champions is a proud and distinguished one, as it includes Fred Wright, Ted Bishop, Leo Martin, Dick Siderowf, Eddie Barry, Bill Mallon, Kirk Hanefeld, Jim Hallet, Bruce Chalas, Mark Plummer, Jim Ruschioni, and fellow Rhode Islanders Billy Andrade and, yes, Faxon, who won in 1980 and 1981.
"It's nice to share names on the trophy, because he's been such a great friend," said Broome.
Etc.
Major misgivingsThere's another unfortunate side to the Michelle Wie saga, but unlike the missing signature, her camp deserves full blame for this one. Taking a spot in this week's PGA Tour tournament in Reno is sad on two fronts. One, she was starting to show great progress against the women, so why jump back in well over your head? Two, the publicity will deflect some of the spotlight away from the LPGA Tour's final major of the season, the Women's British Open. That figures to provide even more fuel to the fires of women who hold grudges against Wie; even heralded players such as Annika Sorenstam and Helen Alfredsson spoke out against Wie's move. It's doubtful, however, that they're as upset as Scott Sterling and Jimmy Walker. Struggling mightily this year, Sterling and Walker have combined for zero top 10s and sit 177th and 182d on the money list, respectively, so being paired with Wie today and tomorrow isn't likely to help their desires to simply go about their business.
Awash with memories
His first go-round with links golf turned out OK, because Anthony Kim secured a top-10 finish and came away convinced that one of his strengths, ball-striking, will serve him well in future British Opens. But that's not to say his first trip to the UK didn't present some obstacles. "It was a great experience, but it was different," said Kim, 23. Different in what way? "I didn't even know that I barely fit in the shower."
Open opportunities
For three days, Kirk Hanefeld was firmly situated near the top of the leaderboard at the Senior British Open, but a disappointing final-round 77 dropped him into a share of 27th. Hanefeld didn't earn a spot into this week's US Senior Open in Colorado Springs, but there will be a New England PGA flavor thanks to Rick Karbowski and Paul Parajeckas.
Man of the world
Say this about John Daly: Nothing is lost in translation when he brings his game around the world this year. When he bogeyed the par-4 16th hole in his second round of last week's European PGA Tour stop in Moscow, it meant that he had missed cuts in five countries - the United States, Russia, Spain, Germany, and England.
Glimpse into the future
With her 96-year-old grandfather in attendance, Mo Martin of Altadena, Calif., breezed to a four-stroke victory in the USI Championship at Beaver Meadow GC in Concord, N.H., her second Futures Tour triumph. After an opening 71 left her four behind Briana Vega of Andover, Martin came in with rounds of 66 and 67 to finish at 12 under, four clear of Gerina Mendoza of Roswell, N.M. Vega fell back with trips of 76 and 71 to finish at 2-under 214, sharing 17th with Libby Smith of Essex Junction, Vt., four-time Futures winner Vicky Hurst, and four others. Lynn Valentine of East Lyme, Conn. (218), was tied for 40th, Kim Augusta of Rumford, R.I. (222), was T-67, and amateur Jaclyn Sweeney of Andover (223) was joint 71st.
Co-mingled funds
It was his first trip to the winner's circle, but considering the refreshing breeze of Chez Reavie, hopefully it's not his last. After winning the Canadian Open the 26-year-old confessed he didn't even know what his prize was. Told that it was $900,000, he gasped. "That's unbelievable, really. Wow. That's all I can say, wow to that. That's unbelievable." When asked how he was going to spend it, Reavie laughed. "I have no idea. I'm sure I'll find something nice back home - if my fiancée doesn't spend it before I get home."
Added to the Fenway lineup
With the signing of PGA Tour veteran Brett Quigley, the Fenway Sports Group has furthered its commitment into the world of golf. Quigley has been added to a roster of clients that include Brad Faxon, Karrie Webb, and Candy Hannemann. The FSG golf division, headed by senior vice president Alex Baldwin, is the sponsorship sales and marketing arm for the PGA Tour's
Charity takes flight
It was a rousing success in 2007, so this year the national fund-raising campaign known as Patriot Golf Day will stretch four days, Aug. 29-Sept. 1. The brainchild of Captain Dan Rooney, a PGA of America teaching professional and F-16 fighter pilot, the campaign asks participating golf courses to donate $1 of every golfer's green fees to a fund that benefits families of wounded or fallen soldiers. In addition, TaylorMade is donating to various golf courses some limited-edition drivers to be auctioned off to help the fund. To find out which Massachusetts courses will be taking part, refer to www.patriotgolfday.com.
Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.
