Goosen is back after Transitions victory
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Transitions Championship | Round Four | 23 Mar 2009
An eagle at the par five 11th hole in today’s final round of the Transitions Championship at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Tampa Bay in Florida provided sufficient cushion for Retief Goosen to hold on and win his first PGA Tour event since 2005.
The 40-year-old South African, who has returned to form in recent months following eye surgery complications and fitness issues, last won on the PGA Tour at the 2005 International event in Colorado. He has won other events worldwide since that time including the Johor Open on the Asian Tour late last year and the African Open on the South African Tour earlier this year but the one time elite player in world golf had slipped to 39th in the world.
Clearly he is a much better player than that and this win will have Goosen heading back to where he belongs.
“Yeah, it’s great,” said Goosen after his win. “Eventually you wonder if you can still do it. I did win in Malaysia in November, and I won in South Africa in January. So at least I’ve won some events in the last few months. I have a bit of a feeling of winning again. Although they are not big events, I’ve beat some good players.”
“You know at the beginning of last year, I was looking at myself in the mirror thinking, I look a bit out of shape. I just thought, you know, might as well try and turn everything around.”
“I started working very hard in the gym. I was in the gym this morning for one hour working out. So I might as well, instead of getting totally out of shape and struggling, I might as well be fit and struggling.
“I worked hard this December. I pretty much hit balls almost every day this December. I didn’t have much of a holiday. I played a few events in South Africa, which I won the South African Open. My whole game started getting a little bit better. It’s just a matter of getting a bit more consistency going. This week, I played consistent.”
The tournament appeared to be developing into a battle between Steve Stricker, Charles Howell and Charlie Wi but an eagle at the 11th after a second from 212 yards and a 15 foot putt saw Goosen take the lead. Although he failed to get up and down from the greenside trap at the 16th and took bogey his nearest chasers were also struggling with the demands of the tough Innisbrook layout. He was able to hold on to win by one over Brett Quigley and Howell who cost himself any chance by dropping two shots late in his round after moving into a share of the lead.
Mathew Goggin put together the equal second best round of the final day, his 67, which also included an eagle at the 11th, moving him into a share of 4th with Wi who dropped three shots in his last six holes and Stricker who agonisingly bogeyed his final two holes. Goggin has finished inside the top six in five of his last ten starts worldwide.
The next best of the Australians was Stuart Appleby who slipped from 3rd to 8th with a final round of 72 which included two bogeys in his last three holes, Aron Price was 27th, Nick O’Hern 38th, Steve Elkington 59th and Nathan Green after a good start 70th.
The PGA Tour now moves east to Orlando for this week’s Arnold Palmer Championship at Bay Hill.
