There was some impressive golf played this past weekend. With the top male golfers in the world teeing it up at the iconic Firestone Country Club and a star studded leaderboard Sunday had the makings of a nail biting finish.
But then things don’t always play out as planned. Just ask Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Jason Day.
Justin Thomas had a three shot lead to open the final round of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational but with Dustin Johnson going out in a record 6 under 29 on the front it looked like Firestone was there for the taking in its last hurrah as a PGA Tour site. But Rory, Jason and Ian were more Firestone Flops than fiends and JT cruised to a four shot win and his third win this PGA Tour season.
How this 150 pound kid drives it as long as he does is incredible. On 18 he piped it 394 yards. Really? That’s 2.63 yards per pound. Tiger Woods would have to hit it 486 yards to equal JT’s pound for pound long ball. Unbelievable.
While the men were flopping at the WGC the ladies put on a memorable show, one that will be remembered for a long time in Great Britain.
At the Ricoh Women’s British Open Pornanong Phatlum from Thailand started the day with a one shot lead but Englishwoman Georgia Hall was poised to make a run to win her national open and she had the crowd support to do it.
Hall, who was named for Nick Faldo’s 1996 Masters win at Augusta, Georgia played the round of her young life on the biggest stage she could ever imagine. As a young golfer Hall and her father turned caddie would imagine that each practice putt was for the Open Championship. Dreams became reality as Hall battled a game Phatlum down to the last few holes.
Phatlum opened with four birds in her first four holes and while Hall’s three birdies over the same stretch was impressive she actually fell behind by a shot.
But Hall played a scrappy round getting up and down and sinking clutch putt after putt. And when she carded three birdies in a four hole stretch on the back nine she was streaking. A double bogey by 
Phatlum on seventeen gave Hall a three shot lead into the last and the emotional, walk down the eighteenth that every golfer hopes for. It didn’t matter that she cautiously three putted on eighteen. What did matter that this young twenty two year old from a working class family that struggled to support her golf had reached the pinnacle of her career.
A Women’s British Open Champion from England is about as much as a British kid could ever hope for. And here she was…with her dad on the bag and mom nearby as she hoisted the championship trophy.
It will never get better than that.
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