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President's Cup Preview
Check Back Daily -- Scratch-Golfer.com Senior Editor Rick Adams will provide on site reports each day from the President's Cup in Virginia , focusing on Dallas' Justin Leonard. Defining MomentsBy Rick Adams
Gene Sarazen – double eagle in the 1935 Masters. Ben Hogan – the one-iron to the 18th at Merion. Payne Stewart at Pinehurst. Arnold Palmer driving the 1st green and “The Charge” to win the 1960 US Open at Cherry Hills. Tom Watson – the chip-in on 17 at Pebble Beach . For a select few, the defining memory is a series of triumphs. Bobby Jones' Grand Slam. Byron Nelson's 11-in-a-row streak. The 18 major championships of Jack Nicklaus. Ten and counting for Tiger Woods. Ignominious collapses and lapses stalk the legacy of some souls: Jean Van de Velde's brain burn at Carnoustie, Greg Norman's meltdown in the '96 Masters, and Robert DeVicenzo's scorecard snafu in 1968 at Augusta . Memorable episodes from team play in this largely individual sport are relatively rare. Two that endure are gestures rather than spectacular shots – Gentleman Jack's concession of Tony Jacklin's final 2-footer to halve the 1969 Ryder Cup and, in a similar tone, captains Nicklaus and Gary Player agreeing to joint ownership of the 2003 President's Cup at Fancourt in South Africa. Justin = '99 Ryder Cup
Most people tend to forget that Justin staged a huge comeback against Ollie, rising from near-dead to set up the victory-clinching putt on 17. With seven possible holes remaining, Leonard was four holes down (almost five except the Spaniard missed an 8-foot par putt on 11) and close to emotional collapse. “The bottom of my mental ladder” was how the normally stoic JL described it. Davis Love III, after wrapping up his match over Van de Velde, came out to encourage Leonard. On the 12th tee he told Justin, “He's going to give you two holes. So you have to go win two more.” Also joining to buoy their boy were Hal Sutton, Tiger Woods, David Duval, and Phil Mickelson, as well as former Ryder Cup captains Lanny Wadkins and Ray Floyd. Love's prediction was prophetic. Olazabel snap-hooked his next two tee shots, then Leonard birdied 14 and 16 to square the match, setting the stage for the 17th hole heroics and histrionics. Also overlooked is that Justin's miraculous putt did not win his singles match. It only secured a halve, the gritty Olazabel grabbing back half a point with an 18-foot birdie on the final green. Unfinished Personal Business
In his three previous President's Cup appearances, Leonard has lost to KJ Choi of Korea , 4 and 2 (2003, Fancourt), and to Australians Craig Parry (5 and 3, Royal Melbourne, 1998) and Steve Elkington (1 up, Robert Trent Jones course, 1996). Only the Choi defeat factored in the team decision. A halve or win by Justin in 2003 would have given the Americans an outright victory. Of course, this assumes all the other matches behind him fell the same way as they did. (And that would have denied us the classic Woods-Els playoff duel in the dark.) In 1998 in Australia , the Internationals routed nearly the entire US team, 20 ½ - 11 ½, and in 1996 the Yanks eked out a 16 ½ - 15 ½ margin in Virginia . Leonard's overall Ryder/President's Cup win/loss/halve record is 3-12-6 : zero wins, 3 losses, and 5 halves in two Ryder Cup outings and 3-9-1 in three President's Cup appearances. Two of Justin's three victories came at the expense of Vijah Singh in 2003. In the Friday four-ball matches, JL and Chris Dimarco bested Singh and South Africa 's Nick Price, 1 up. The next morning, Leonard and Jim Furyk bounced VJ and Canadian national hero Mike Weir, 5 and 4, in foursomes (alternate shot). In ‘96, Justin and Kenny Perry defeated Australian mates Greg Norman and Robert Allenby, 2 and 1 in foursomes. There's no particular magic for captain Nicklaus to discover in any of those point-earning pairings. Justin also lost with each of his winning partners: with Furyk to Ernie Els and Adam Scott in 2003 foursomes; to Weir/Allenby the same year with Dimarco in four-ball; and with Perry to Price and Mark McNulty in 1996 alternate shot. Justin has also lost with Tiger Woods in tow (to Stuart Appleby/Singh in 1998 four-ball) and with Love (in ‘98 foursomes to Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner). Leonard and Love halved with Appleby/Price in foursomes at Royal Melbourne. A Deja Vu Year? Is a re-run of 1999 in the numbers? Several of Leonard's key statistics this year are remarkably similar to those of his memorable Ryder Cup year:
As with most PGA Tour players, Justin is longer off the tee than he was six years ago. His driving distance average is a middle-of-the-Tour 285.7, more than 14 yards beyond 1999. But his accuracy has slipped – only 65.1% fairways in regulation now compared to a robust 71.4% then. This has led to a slight drop in greens in regulation – 65.3% this year versus 67.4% in 1999. From the fairway, JL's approach shots finish an average of 27-feet, 2-inches from the cup; out of the rough he's nearly twice as far away (44-feet, 1-inch). Ironically, Leonard did not win a tournament in 1999 (just missing a 2nd British Open in the Carnoustie playoff with Van de Velde and Paul Lawrie), one of only two years JL has failed to post a victory. (The other was 2004, the year he came up just short in the PGA at Whistling Straits.) This year Justin notched his 9th Tour title, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in his 5th come-from-behind triumph, and his 10th title, the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis where he nigh squandered an 8-shot final round advantage. In those two wins, though, JL made every putt he faced from 5 feet or less. Leonard's 10 wins with one major in 11 full professional seasons matches is comparable to Toms (11 and 1 in 14 years), Furyk (10 and 1 in 12 years), and Perry (9 and none in 19 years). Of this year's President's Cup players, only certain Hall of Famers Woods, Singh, Mickelson, Love, Couples, and the injured Els own more PGA Tour titles. Stress Levels The pressures of team competition are quite different from the one-against-the-field weekly PGA tournaments. In a regular event, even a major, your performance affects only your ego, your paycheck, and your family. Paired with another player in four-ball or foursomes, a golfer might play brilliantly yet be frustrated and pointless if his partner is struggling. Or if you're the one hacking it up, you feel you've let down your playing partner and by extension the entire team. Add the element of playing for your country, and the potential scenario sets up for becoming a national hero or goat. Tiger said he's never felt more pressure over a single shot than he did for the playoff par putt in the South Africa gloaming. “You don't want to know all of your teammates are over there looking at you, hoping you make the putt. You don't want to let them all down.” After Woods made his, Els had a 6-footer to retain the tie. Mike Weir recalled being more nervous watching the Big Easy than he was putting to win the Masters! “I was chewing on my shirt. I was eating grass,” exclaimed Nick Price. “The intensity of it was almost too much to bear.” “I feel more pressure at an event like [the President's Cup] than I did last week at 84 Lumber,” Leonard explained. “You've got 11 guys pulling for you, and a captain, assistant captain, and their wives, and we've got a lot of fan support. I think we all learn to enjoy that pressure, and if we didn't enjoy it and thrive under it we probably wouldn't be on this team.” In 1999, Leonard limped through the two-man matches, as did several of the US players, digging a four-point team deficit. Justin's record leading into Sunday's singles was two halves and a loss. Outspoken NBC announcer Johnny Miller, second-guessing captain Ben Crenshaw's “hunch” to pair Leonard with Hal Sutton, rather than Jeff Maggert (who had one of the hotter American hands at that stage), blurted, “My hunch is that Justin needs to go home and watch it on television.” Miller's caustic comment stung, and Justin's shoulders were clearly sagging on the practice range preparing for his match with Olazabel. At that point, despite Crenshaw's optimistic hope in “fate,” the Americans appeared destined for a thorough thrashing, JL's match probably wouldn't matter, and Miller's remark would be a prophetic footnote. Leonard's caddie at the time, Bob Riefke, tried to buck up his employer. “Let's go prove them wrong.” You know the rest. Take Your Pick If I were captain Jack Nicklaus, I'd match Justin against Mike Weir in the singles this Sunday. Leonard and Weir's temperaments are similar, their tee shot distance is about equal, and they are both major champions – JL in the 1997 British Open, Weir in the 2003 Masters. Weir has been off form this year, but he's a grinder with a great deal of pride, and Gary Player reports the little lefty's made some swing changes since the Canadian Open two weeks ago. A victory over someone of Weir's stature would carry more cachet perhaps than beating a President's Cup rookie like Nick O'Hern or Trevor Immelman, who have almost no recognition for US fans. Everyone – NBC-TV and Johnny Miller especially -- wants to see Tiger and VJ duke it out in the final and hopefully decisive match. Tiger won, 2 and 1, in 2000 at Virginia before VJ started his run to the top of the world rankings. In the last President's Cup, Els and Woods squared off in the premier pairing. Recuperating from surgery in London, Ernie won't be able to seek revenge for that loss this time around. Other interesting pairings, keeping with the theme that this year's President Cup represents “unfinished business,” would be rematches of 2003: Furyk over Weir, Goosen over Mickelson, Peter Lonard over Fred Funk, and Dimarco over Appelby. And the Hero is … “The tie” in 2003 at Fancourt, oddly enough, served to elevate the stature of the President's Cup and spark debate about its merits versus the venerable and recently raucous Ryder Cup competition. The first four President's Cup events were yawners with virtually no memorable drama, notwithstanding Fred Couples' decisive final-match close out of Singh in 1996. Some view the President's Cup as a PGA Tour marketing ploy since the separate PGA of America organization owns the windfall revenues of the Ryder Cup. A few American players displayed scant interest in adding an “off year” team competition, particularly in 1998 when playing for national pride required flying halfway around the world to Australia during the December holidays. Players and fans don't yet rate the two international matches on par with one another. The Ryder wins out on history alone. But the President's Cup is gaining, in part because it has not gotten trash-talk ugly in the style of a few Ryder captains, players, and fans. The International team -- with major winners Singh, Goosen, Weir, Campbell (and Els) -- is clearly stronger than the Ryder's Euros, who had none on their 2004 team. International captain Player noted, “It doesn't matter whether you're Masters champion teeing off this week or you haven't played well recently; it's what you do this week. It doesn't matter what your record is or how you're playing or what you've done, it's a new week and that's what makes golf so exciting.” Regardless of which team wins, all golf fans enjoy the theater of a close match and 12 final-round opportunities for the world's best to excel with crisply struck shots or collapse in the crucible … to face what may be a defining moment of their careers.
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Most golfers' careers are defined by a single memorable event. Mention their name, and the first thing that comes to mind is a shot or tournament they are remembered for above any other. 
Justin Leonard's career-defining moment to date is “The Putt.” Forty-five feet from the lower tier to the top on the storied 17th green at The Country Club in Brookline where Francis Ouimet surprised British legends Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in 1913. “The shot heard ‘round the world.” Arms and putter to the sky Sports Illustrated cover photo. The clinching blow – once the explosive and controversial team and fan celebration was idled long enough for Jose Maria Olazabel to miss his 25-footer which could have tied the hole and prolonged the outcome to an even more frenzied 18th. 
Leonard has at least one thing he'd like to prove this week – that he can win a singles match in international professional team competition. The best he's managed is a couple of sister-kissing halves in the Ryder Cup: against Olazabel in ‘99 and with Denmark 's Thomas Bjorn at the ‘97 event at Valderamma in Spain .