In the last 25 years, I’ve traveled extensively, and I’ve had the good fortune to see lots of live sporting events, both professional and amateur. Some were good, some not so good and a few were really great, but nothing more so than the 36 hole club championship match that I had the pleasure of watching this past Labor Day. In the interest of full disclosure, I competed in this event and was eliminated in the second round. With that said, I don’t know if I or anyone else could have put on the kind of show that these two competitors gave those in attendance that afternoon.
I went to the club to meet a friend that afternoon and try to get 18 holes in myself, but because I was a little early, I decided to go out and watch a couple holes of the Championship match. I caught up with the guys as they were approaching the 12th green and was one of about a half dozen folks following the match at that time. When I asked how things stood, I was informed that Rob was up either two or three holes, so I decided to ride along and watch for a while. By this time, my friend showed up and agreed to watch for a while as well. As we followed the match, it seemed to get more and more interesting as Rob’s lead was never more than three holes, and never less than one through the first 18 holes. At the end of 18, Mark was still down 2 or 3 holes, and the tide had not yet started to turn, but he was hanging tough. As other golfers finished their matches in the other flights, others started to join us in following Rob and Mark, and although Mark was still down, it was starting to become clear that this match would go deep into the second 18.
After the first 18, the competitors agreed to take a 15 minute break to eat, use the facilities and so on. Although I really wanted to play golf, I and a number of others were really invested in this match, and thus decided to grab some beer, scrap our plans to play ourselves and watch what would ultimately become our version of Ali/Frazier. I know, Ali/Frazier is pretty strong, but if you had seen it, you would absolutely agree, it was that good.
As they started the final nine holes, Mark was still down either 1 or 2 holes, and it was obvious that both guys were starting to show some nerves. Mark wasn’t putting well, and Rob had made a couple of very uncharacteristic mistakes, but both were still playing spectacular golf. At some point, I heard someone say that if Mark could just get to even that he would win the match, and I remember thinking “that’s going to be a tall order”. In all honesty, I don’t remember which hole the match got back to even, but I know it was very late on the final nine (I think maybe hole 35). I do know that going to the 36th and final hole, the match was even and I said to my cart mate that we were probably looking at extra holes. By now, the nerves seemed to be gone from both guys, replaced by a resolve to win as both hit their drives and second shots into almost perfect positions. Mark was out, and hit his third shot to the right rear of the green, leaving what most of us considered the putt from hell. Rob hit his third just past the flag and it rolled back to within 4 or 5 feet, leaving one of the fastest downhill putts on the course. By this time, there had to be between 50 or 60 folks or more watching around the 18th green. When Mark lined up his putt, he turned to his caddy Mike and pointed to a line to which Mike said that looks right and walked away. The crowd went completely silent as Mark placed his putter behind the ball, and despite leaving a number of putts short all day, this one was hit hard enough, and seemed to be tracking from the moment it started rolling right up to the thud in the bottom of the cup for birdie. The crowd went wild! Now it was Rob’s turn, and although my vantage point wasn’t great, we could all tell that all he needed to do was touch it to get to the hole. As he stepped up to the ball, the crowd once again went silent and not a sound was heard until the ball burned the edge of the cup, and all anyone could hear was the sigh of the crowd as it rolled by.
Rob’s missed putt ended what for many of us was one of the best live sporting events professional or amateur we have seen. I know that there ultimately can only be one winner, but both of these men played their hearts out, and gave those of us watching a super show.
Mark and Rob, thank you for not only putting on a great show, but also for the sportsmanship that you showed, you both represented yourselves with honor and distinction and that is truly appreciated.
“I’m Just Sayin”
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