Flesch finally gets across the line at HP Classic
IN: News | US PGA | HP Classic of New Orleans (2003) | Wrap | by Bruce Young | 05 May 2003
Perhaps we should have seen this one coming. After a very slow start to the year 2003, Steve Flesh was getting it all together with two very good finishes in recent weeks with a 9th in Houston and 7th at the Heritage and when you throw in his good form on this course (he was 2nd in 1998 and 99) then his chances this week were looking good prior to the event.
Of course the one thing working against Flesch was that in 170 events on the USPGA Tour, he had yet to win. He had been three times second including the two at English Turn and at the National Car Rental event in 2000, a year where he had thirteen top tens. He has been one of the more consistent players on tour in recent years although this year started with him missing five of his first eight cuts. Something changed all that a month or so ago with the good finishes in Houston and Hilton Head and now this win on a course that must really fit his eye. A left hander, Flesch joins Weir and Mickelson as left handed stars of the tour.
A playoff was needed to separate Flesch from Bob Estes, who had slowly but surely worked his way into the event over the final nine holes, after Scott Verplank and Flesch appeared to have the event to themselves with a few holes to play. Verplank had led for much of the event but a very ordinary pitch on the par five sixteenth led to a bogey, followed by a miraculous par at the par three 17th and then a double bogey at the last when he needed a par to make the playoff.
Flesch, who had closed with consecutive rounds of 65, had to wait for around forty five minutes to see how his 21 under total would stack up. The closing holes at English Turn are no snack however and as Verplank started to struggle Flesch's chances were looking brighter and brighter by the minute. Estes forced his way into the playoff with a delightful sand save at the seventy second hole and so it was back to the demanding 18th to decide the winner.
Flesch and Estes both drove it in the fairway and Estes was first to find the green twenty five feet from the hole. Flesch followed with a five iron to thirty feet and when he holed that, with a putt that poured into the middle of the hole, then the task was obvious for Estes to see. Hole it or take second place. He was unable to do it and one very happy Steve Flesch and family celebrated.
Verplank held third with rookie Mark Wilson in fourth place. In ten events this year, Wilson has made just four cuts his best being 12th at the Ford Championship. He gained his card at the Q-school last year and the $US240,000 he picks up here will go a long way to ensuring he is back next year.
Stuart Appleby was the leading Australasian sharing 16th, Geoff Ogilvy and Greg Chalmers were 25th, Mathew Goggin 50th, John Senden 56th and Craig Perks 65th.
