"Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to
repeat it.", thus famously intoned Winston Churchill. He, of course, was referring
to Europe; but golf is no exception. One can look at a big lead; say seven strokes
with 9 holes to play, as an insurmountable barrier. But if one were so inclined
then he (or she) would be forgetting, among others, Billy Casper’s memorable
comeback at the Olympic Club in San Francisco in the 1966 US
Open, when he stormed back against Arnold Palmer and then won the tournament the
next day in a playoff.
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| Casper sinks a crucial putt on 17 at the Olympic Club in '66. |
Ron Braun needed
no such playoff at this year’s Arbuckle when he, indeed, made up seven strokes
in the last eight (!) holes to edge Rick
Last on the 18th green at Leslie Park in Ann Arbor.
Braun, the fabled Bad Man from Motown, overtook the Little
Cat with some sterling play down the stretch – especially with his putter.
Braun’s putting style, from the southpaw side, defies all description. Without
taking the analogy too far, it is reminiscent of Jim Furyk’s seemingly crazy
swing. No one can understand how Furyk does it; he just does and his swing has
led him to a future place in golf’s Hall of Fame. Braun’s stroke is smooth and
pure but to the outside observer he appears to be lining the putter face up
well left (or is it right??) of the hole. Yet time and time again on the back
nine he poured in clutch putts to amp up the pressure on the leader.
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| The Cat putting for the win |
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| The Cat for the tie. |
But it wasn’t all putting. On the par three seventeenth
hole, 135 yards all carry over a pond. Braun hit a beautiful little draw into
the wind (the right shot for the conditions) to within 10 feet of a tricky back
pin placement. Last’s tee shot found a watery grave. When all was said and done,
they were tied going into 18.
Last boomed a big drive down the left. His second came to
rest just to the right of the green but above the green side bunker. Braun
meanwhile was short of the green, but in three. Advantage Cat; but not for
long. Braun chipped up to within 11 feet, below the hole; Last meanwhile ran
his chip ten feet above the hole. Braun was next and he sank the putt. Now Last
was putting for the win. He left it three feet out – now he was putting for the
tie. It was, as Dustin Johnson found out at this year’s Open, not an easy putt
to sink. Some say putting to tie is the toughest shot in golf. Last found that
out the hard way.
Looking back, Braun was relentless on the back nine. After a
horrible triple bogey that put him seven down on the tenth hole he was nearly
perfect the rest of the way. Especially parring 16 and 17 and then sinking the
crucial bogey putt on 18. Did the Cat blow it? Did Braun win it? The answer is murky
at best – but again much like Jordan Spieth and the aforementioned Johnson at
this year’s Open; the best man won.
Defending champion, Peter
Straus, got off to a terrible start on day one; he was pretty good tee to
green, but nine (9!) three putts sealed his fate. There was too much ground to
make up, though on the last day, he did put on a bit of a charge to close within
five of the leaders, but it was not to be.
Stanley Pesick
was a WD on the last day’s back nine.
