Steve Flesch's Colonial win not unexpected
IN: News | US PGA | Bank of America Colonial (2004) | Wrap | by Bruce Young | 24 May 2004
For those of us who fancy ourselves in assessing potential winners of a golf tournament event we should have seen this coming. Unfortunately for my wallet I didn't.
With the 20/20 vision that hindsight affords, Steve Flesch's credentials for a win here at the Bank of America Colonial Country Club were a lot more established than an initial glance would have suggested. Clearly he loves this golf course. He has stated as much previously and again reiterated such after the win. Listening to someone sing the praises of a course after the win can be taken with a grain of salt to some extent, given the euphoria of the moment and the warm fuzzy feelings that dominate at that time, but there is genuine evidence to back up his claim.
Even in his very first start in this event way back in 1998 Flesch finished tenth, starting a run of seven consecutive years where he would make the cut. In the twenty four rounds here between 1998 and last year, fifteen were in the 60's. He has now added another four to that total making an amazing 68% of rounds under par on a demanding golf course but one that clearly suits his style of play. That style is built around ball striking rather than the power game and the Colonial Country Club layout welcomes that type of player with open arms and rewards him accordingly.
Flesch also threw out another signal two weeks ago at his last PGA Tour event when he finished fifth at the Wachovia after a couple of months of ordinary form. He had started 2004 well but when he finished fifth at Quail Hollow, then he appeared back in the game.
Today he held off one of the game's brightest stars, Chad Campbell, with a solid start that had him three under for the day through eleven holes and in the lead by one over Campbell, who was playing in the group behind him.
Campbell would also reach eleven under when he also birdied the 11th to join Flesch in the lead, but he would immediately drop a shot at the 12th and when he again bogeyed the 17th, the margin of two shots playing the final hole would be too great. Campbell did well to birdie the last to break out of a share of second and it is clear that the player who now has two of the Tour's most prestigious events to his name in recent months (The Tour Championship and the Bay Hill Championship) is back, if indeed he had been anywhere.
Flesch was the winner by one, with Campbell second and the games' most consistent player in recent months, Stephen Ames third, following his last round of 64. Once again Ames showed himself to be a fine wind player with many of his best finishes being in events where wind has been a factor. This was Ames fifth top ten in his last six starts.
New Zealander Craig Perks showed the benefits of a visit to coach Butch Harmon in recent weeks with a performance from left field, perhaps even the car park. Perks had made just three cuts in thirteen starts in 2004. In fact the cut he made last week at the Byron Nelson was the first in his previous seven events. A visit with Harmon earlier in May had highlighted the need for him to focus on working on only the areas of his game that needed the most work. Judging by his stats every area needed work but Harmon said he was trying to do too much and make too many changes. After his shock win at the Players Championship two years ago, Perks decided the take advantage of the five year exemption to make swing changes that would stand the test of time. It appeared the only thing those changes were testing of late was Perk's patience as he battled to find any resemblance of the game that had reached such an amazing peak at Sawgrass in 2002. It is hoped that this performance will not be the one off that the win at the Players proved for so long to be. He is a fine swinger of the club and is a better player than his performances have suggested.
Of the Australians, John Senden continued his consistency in 2004, this being the eleventh cut he has made in thirteen starts. Until this week he had not gone on to finish off the weekend opportunities, but his 9th place today has earned him around $US135,000 and progress towards security for 2005. Putting himself in the picture each week, as he has been doing, will see him with greater rewards as the year goes on.
Peter Lonard and Stephen Leaney were 29th, Rod Pampling 44th, Aaron Baddeley 50th, Robert Allenby and Steve Elkington 54th, Scott Hend 61st and Geoff Ogily 63rd, Lonard leaves to play the Volvo PGA at Wentworth this coming week.
