The Three-Putt
I am trying to imagine the pressure that the players feel the day before a key tournament such as The Players Championship. It is their last chance to qualify for the Masters, so besides all of the other factors in this game, everyone wants to do well. Then there is Greg Owens who basically had it in his pocket last week at Bay Hill and then threw it, or in his case, three-putted it all away. Now he is ranked No. 53 moving up from No. 95 which still gives him a chance at the Masters, but a very small one. For Owens to make the cut, not only does he have to do well, but a few other guys will need to drop a few spots in the rankings to get him in the top 50. That is a lot to ask when everyone wants to step up their game this week.
Despite his errors on 17 last week, I don’t see how you could not root for Owens. He showed a lot of class last week after his heart wrenching loss. Most guys would have put off the media to deal with what just happened. Owens on the other hand, shook Rod Pampling’s hand and faced the world one interview after another at his worst professional moment. Not many people could do that, so for that I hope he is able to “putt” it behind him and play this week like he did for the first 16 holes of last week’s tournament.
