The Bell Canadian Open has sold out for the first time in its 96-year history, and not because Franklin Langham
is in the field.
Only one player on the PGA Tour has this kind of drawing power.
Only one player has won three straight majors, has won eight
tournaments in consecutive years, has earned more money in two
seasons than most everyone else has in a career.
Only one player has been on the cover of Time magazine.
Tiger Woods, however, is not the only player who can call this year a success.
Langham, who has spent half his professional career on the
Buy.com Tour, has never won a major championship, or any PGA Tour
event for that matter. He has yet to qualify for a Tour
Championship or a World Golf Championship.
He is not Tiger Woods.
Franklin Langham - pictured here at the Doral Open. Allsport.
Still, Langham arrived at Glen Abbey Golf Club today no
less motivated by his own success, which has made him feel a little
like Woods.
"He doesn't think about what second or third is going to get
him,'' Langham said. "He comes out here to win. For the first time
in my career, I know how he feels. When you're on top of your game,
you can let it fly.''
Only two years ago, Langham was still learning to walk.
A former Walker Cup teammate of David Duval and Phil Mickelson,
he spent three years on the Nike Tour before finally getting to the
big leagues, where he failed to keep his card and then had to work
just to get back to the Nike Tour.
The only connection between Woods and Nike is the swoosh he
wears on his hat and the massive contract extension he is on the
verge of signing.
Langham is not Tiger Woods.
"There have been times where ... I didn't play scared, but I
played cautious,'' said Langham, a 32-year-old from Georgia with
impeccable manners. "I got to the end of the year, and I felt like
if I could make three cuts in the last six tournaments I could keep
my card. I made five out of six cuts, but that's all I did.
"You want to prove to your peers you belong out here. You want
to prove it to yourself.''
Going into the final leg of the season, Langham has done just
that.
He is 17th on the PGA Tour money list with over $1.3 million, about $500,000 more than he earned in his three previous years on tour
combined. Most players say they would trade all their money for one
victory. Langham sees the bigger picture.
"Sometimes, winning just happens to you,'' he likes to say. It
starts with getting in contention, and the money is a reflection of
that. He was second at Doral, at Kemper, and at Milwaukee, and was
in the hunt on three other Sunday afternoons.
"I want to win out here,'' he said. "But my goal is not to be
a one-week wonder. I want to know I played good the whole year, in
every climate, in every condition. This gives me confidence that I
can play out here. All the wondering ... I've put a lot of that
behind me.''
Woods never wondered whether he would succeed. As Langham was
mopping up a difficult rookie year in 1996, Woods joined the PGA
Tour at the end of the summer, won twice, and made enough money to
get into the Tour Championship.
But then, Langham is not Tiger Woods.
Langham is virtually a lock to make it to his first Masters
because the top 40 on the money list get invited. He was born in
Augusta, but only because the hospital in his tiny hometown of
Thomson, Ga., didn't deliver babies.
Langham got to know enough members to play a few rounds at
Augusta National, but the closest he ever got to the Masters
Tournament was when, as a high school student, he posted the scores
on the leaderboard behind the 16th green.
"Boy, what a tournament to play for the first time at home,''
he said.
Langham had a chance to clinch a spot at Augusta when he stood
on the 18th tee in the final round of the PGA Championship. He had been one stroke out of the lead earlier that day until Woods and
Bob May tore up the back nine, each with a 5-under 31.
Still, a par would have given Langham a tie for fourth and an
automatic invitation to The Masters. There was a time he would have
hit 3-wood and aimed left, away from the trouble. Langham pulled
out a driver with the intention of making an eagle, hopeful the
leaders might back up to him. He didn't, and they didn't.
Langham caught the edge of the water and took a bogey, dropping
him into a tie for seventh.
"I got asked afterward, 'Do you think it cost you Augusta?' "
Langham said. "My response was, 'This week might have gotten me
into Augusta.' "
That's because he no longer plays for his card, plays to make
the cut or plays to get into a tournament. Langham now plays only
to win.
