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Highlands Today

Luck plays a big role in golf

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: April 16, 2009

I think I promised, or at least said a few months ago, that I would not write about golf in any future columns. Well, I have got to break that promise in light of the just recently played Masters Championship in Augusta, Ga. It was arguably the most hyped golfing event of the past year, even more so than when Tiger Woods came back after almost a full year of absence recuperating from his knee operation.

For days on end for the past two or three months the newscasters were anticipating Tiger's eventual capturing of another green jacket provided that his nemesis Phil Mickelson was not at the top of his game. Their two skill levels were so close that it was believed that Mickelson would take over the No. 1 spot from Tiger should he win.

As luck would have it when play ended on the first day these two top-notched golfers were far behind the leaders. Woods was five shots back of Chad Campbell while, Mickelson was far down the list at eight shots behind.

While not a newcomer to golf, Campbell was having likely the luckiest day of his career with nine birdies shooting a seven under par 72.

Still the newscasters kept repeating that Tiger could come from that far back to get the lead in the end.

Golf is a game of luck
I do not remember ever hearing anyone saying anything about luck in the game of golf. It's all about the practice and discipline the winning golfer has to adhere to. Tiger and Mickelson both put as much as 8-10 hours daily practicing and there's an old saying among all golfers, the more you practice the luckier you get. And it's true but they do not say anything about luck having anything to do in sinking a 45-foot putt or getting a hole in one. The golfer who can play good can get the ball close enough for it to go in the hole but when it does so it's "luck."

There needs to be a program developed in which all of the shots that could have gone bad actually came out good because of a water sprinkler or a good bounce off of a tree into the fairway, or sinking a 60-foot, 20-foot break, downhill putt. Somewhere luck plays a big thing in golf just as it did in this year's Masters.

The two top golfers scrambled to get within a few shots of catching the leaders but not so far up that they would be in the final pairings. Tiger and Phil wound up playing together on the final day but were some four holes ahead of the leaders not really knowing how good they had to shoot to catch them.

Good luck and bad luck
They played really great golf and had the leader, Kenny Perry, in sight when bad luck hit them and good luck bounced up to the final parings. Forty-eight-year-old Perry looked to be the winner but bad luck caught up with him after 22 consecutive pars and he made bogies on the final two holes.

Angel Cabrera was catching all the luck flying around and while missing fairways made terrific second shots on the final holes to catch the leaders Perry and Chad Campbell, causing a three-way playoff, which he won by only parring the second playoff hole when bad luck put a clump of mud on Perry's ball causing him to make a bogey.

Even Cabrera admitted that something magical happened that day.

It is called luck, both good and bad, that determined the winner.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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