Any player who wins three
events on the Buy.com Tour gets what the PGA Tour calls a "battlefield promotion,"
a phrase that applies perfectly to Heath Slocum.
Not many others have faced
such a fight to get to the big leagues.
Slocum's victory in the
Omaha Classic on Sunday was his third in seven weeks, giving him his PGA Tour
card through the 2002 season.
"It's been my dream, where
I've been trying to go for a long time," Slocum said Tuesday while playing a practice
round with Steve Pate and Joe Ogilvie at the Buick Open. "I appreciate this so
much more."
For good reason.
After wrapping up a great
college career at South Alabama by winning the Sun Belt Conference title, Slocum
played one year on the Buy.com Tour before coming down with ulcerative colitis,
a disease of the lower colon, in late 1997.
His weight dropped from
150 to 122 pounds in a few months. Some days it was a struggle simply to get out
of bed. He went nearly two years without being able to play competitively and
began to wonder whether he had a future in golf.
"It always was in the back
of my mind. Did I miss my window?" he said. "I really believed that with some
hard work, I could get my game back to where it was."
He needed to get his health
back, first. While playing a mini-tour in Atlanta two years ago, his stepmother
mentioned his condition to her gynecologist, who referred Slocum to a doctor who
specialized in colitis. The medication was changed, and Slocum started on a slow
road back.
Slocum came within three
strokes of getting his card at Q-school last year, but made the most of his year
in the minor leagues. He went 106 holes without a bogey during one stretch this
summer, and won in Cleveland, Knoxville and Omaha to get his card.
The Buick Open is his first
PGA Tour event, with many more to come.
"I've been looking forward
to this week," he said. "I'm very happy that it happened this way, because you
feel like you really earned it."
TIGER SLUMP
Tiger Woods has finished
out of the top 10 in four straight tournaments, but he hasn't lost his sense of
humor.
During the Battle at Bighorn,
he and David Duval hit their drives far left of the fairway. Duval's ball kicked
back into the fairway.
"Do you believe that?" Woods
said.
"Win a major and you start
getting breaks like that," a reporter told him.
"Yeah, you're right," Woods
replied. "How long has it been since I won one of those, anyway?"
Uh, about four months ago.
The Masters.
"That was back when I was
in my prime," Woods said.
RYDER CHANGES
Ryder Cup captains Curtis
Strange and Sam Torrance are doing their part to make these matches a little more
civil.
"It's 12 guys against 12
guys, and it's a patriotic event that both sides want to win," Strange said. "But
let's stop there. There should be no animosity."
For starters, they decided
to reinstate the Sunday night dinner after the matches.
It won't be a formal dinner,
since 12 players won't be in a festive mood. This will be more like a cocktail
party, an occasion for both teams to share a few drinks and a few laughs, but
probably no more than a few of either.
"It's an occasion when the
players can face each other and say their goodbyes," Torrance told the Evening
Telegraph of London. "If they can't face each other, the match isn't working."
Also, the captains agreed
to do away with practice putting during a match.
That incited some bad blood
between Phil Mickelson and Tom Lehman against Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.
The Americans thought their opponents were trying to take them out of rhythm by
lingering on the green. Mickelson finally had enough, and teed off on the 11th
hole while Westwood and Clarke were still hitting practice putts.
Practice putting is allowed
for match play, as long as it does not unduly delay play. It will not be allowed
under the Captain's Agreement for the Ryder Cup.
"I brought it up originally
for the pure reason of speeding up play," Strange said. "That has been a bone
of contention in the last couple of Ryder Cups. It's not so much the gamesmanship
... how do I phrase this properly? It keeps things more levelheaded."
PGA PUSH
Brett Quigley finished
with two birdies and an eagle on his last three holes at the International, vaulting
into a tie for sixth worth $139,000.
It also got him into the
PGA Championship.
One of the criteria for
making the PGA is a money list from the 2000 Buick Open through last week's International.
Quigley got the last spot by $2,595 over Glen Day.
Day is probably in, too.
The 150th spot is reserved in case the winner of this week's Buick Open has not
already qualified.
SEARCHING
There are those who play
by feel. And then there is Bob Estes.
The 35-year-old Texan has
been searching for the right swing to go with the right equipment ever since he
joined the PGA Tour in 1989. Despite two victories, he rarely lets a week go by
without changing something.
"I don't think I've played
two tournaments back-to-back in 11 years with the same 14 clubs, or 14 clubs that
had the same specs," he said. "I've spent the last 11 years in R&D."
DIVOTS
The Salesmanship Club of
Dallas raised more than $6 million for charity through the Byron Nelson Classic,
the second straight year it has gone over the $6 million mark. ... Se Ri Pak was
wearing a ring on the third finger of her left hand, prompting one reporter to
ask if she was engaged. "I always wear on right side," she said. "So I have to
shake on the hand. So kind of the pain. So I just switched it. Not yet. I still
young." ... For the first time in LPGA history, Americans failed to win a major
championship this year.
STAT OF
THE WEEK
Mark O'Meara tied for ninth
at the International, his first top-10 finish on the PGA Tour in 25 tournaments
dating to 2000 Players Championship.
FINAL WORD
"The last time I was at
plus-20 was in Carnoustie after two rounds." -- Stewart Cink, on the modified
Stableford scoring system used at the International.
