Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.
Adam Candee covers golf for the Sun. Reach him at (702) 259-4085 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Notes from the golf world far and wide, starting in South Africa and slowly making our way back into and around the United States ...
First of all, I think we know each other well enough now to speak like this: Neither of us is going to be a professional golfer. Sorry.
But if we were somehow lucky and/or talented enough to be that good, we'd certainly try to avoid the 2005 fate of Ernie Els. The Big Easy is done for the year following surgery to repair an undisclosed knee injury, the result of a "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" sailing accident. According to reports, Els twisted his knee while playing with his children during a Mediterranean sailing holiday.
Even before the injury, it wasn't all champagne wishes and caviar dreams for Els either. Picked by such luminary publications as GolfWorld magazine and (ahem) the Las Vegas Sun as the player to beat this season, Els only briefly found the game that brought him within a couple of tough holes of winning two majors in 2004.
He opened the year going T3, 2 and T6 in his first three events, amassing more than $1 million before the frosty dew could leave his clubs in January. He would record just two more top-10 finishes the rest of the season, playing relatively well but certainly not well enough to warrant status in the mythical "Big Four" with top three money leaders Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson.
A truly telling fact is this: In 12 rounds at the majors, only Els' second-round 67 at St. Andrews broke 70. Boy, were those folks at GolfWorld ever wrong. Wait ... why are you looking at me like that?
The answer: None other than Jim Furyk, a name we love seeing back among the best in the game. After missing the better part of 2004 following wrist surgery, Furyk returned late last year and began working toward the form that won him the 2003 U.S. Open and appeared to cement his place among the game's elite.
Then the injury hit and Furyk fell out of sight and out of mind for five months. He made just seven of 12 cuts after returning from the injury to defend his U.S. Open crown, showing flashes of the old Furyk but without consistency.
The results from this season are undeniable: nine top-10 showings and a win at the Western Open. After the victory in Chicago, Furyk, ever the gentleman champion, had to hold back his emotions as he greeted his family.
The formula is typical Furyk and it's why he's easy to get behind. He ranks 162nd in driving distance at 278.9 yards, but Furyk is seventh in greens in regulation (71 percent) and 10th in putting average (1.735). Always clutch, he also holds the best back-nine scoring average on tour this season at 34.63.
Proof positive for all of us who don't mash the ball off the tee that there is more than one way to skin a golf course.
Exactly how good is 18-year-old Paula Creamer? Good enough to be second on the money list behind Sorenstam. That is not a typo; Creamer is the second-best female golfer in the world this season.
She has won twice and carded seven top-10 finishes in 17 starts, raking in more than $1.14 million. She is well on her way to her stated goal of making the Solheim Cup team (the women's equivalent of the Ryder Cup) for the United States.
And she is a bona fide rock star by LPGA standards, already one of the most popular players on tour. She is the tour's marketing dream, a supremely talented player who is a pleasant, well-spoken girl and knockout gorgeous.
Oh, and she graduated from high school this year, too. Heady stuff.
For all the fanfare that surrounds Michelle Wie -- it is huge and mostly deserved -- Creamer is easily the story of the year in women's golf and one of the top three stories of the season in the sport.
Maria Sharapova is more like it, a player with both the on-court and off-court success that Gulbis strives to attain. All that's left to cement her credentials is a victory, and it might not be far off given the way she is playing these days.
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