WHAT A FINISH TO US PGA TOUR'S TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP
- STREELMAN MAKES 7 STRAIGHT
- BIRDIES TO SNATCH VICTORY
- FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
CROMWELL, Connecticutt -- It was the day after Christmas last year and Kevin
Streelman was just hoping to hear a scream from his newborn baby
daughter after his wife underwent an emergency C-section a month early.
His wife Courtney suffered from cholestasis, a liver disease in which pregnancy hormones affect the normal flow of bile in the gallbladder. It afflicts about 1 in 1,000 women, typically in the late stages of pregnancy, and usually subsides shortly after delivery.
“They pulled her out and she was quiet for a few seconds and then she let out this belt, this loudest scream,” Streelman remembers. “We just looked at each other and started bawling our eyes out.”
The experience helped put life in perspective for the 35-year-old journeyman who had missed his last four cuts. Little did he know how it would translate to the golf course and help him to his second career victory.
Streelman made seven straight birdies to cap a final-round 64 and a one-stroke victory Sunday at the Travelers Championship. It was his second straight 64 and he earned 500 FedexCup points for the win to move to 27th in the standings.
Sergio Garcia and K.J. Choi tied for second. They each shot 67.
Streelman’s birdie streak to finish a round is a PGA TOUR record, surpassing Mike Souchak’s previous mark of six straight from the 1956 St. Paul Open. His back-nine 28 also matched a record at TPC River Highlands.
“When you're in the zone like that, when athletes talk about being in the zone, everything is really slow, and it's really clear and concise, and it's very vivid,” said Streelman, who began the day four strokes back and was 2 over through his first seven holes Sunday.
“The lines are easy to see. The hole seems to appear bigger. It's almost to a point it doesn't matter how you read the putts because you just know they're going in before you hit them.”
At one point, Streelman had to back off his putt on the 12th hole because he started thinking about the fishing vacation he is taking next week in Flagstaff, Arizona
He made the putt and followed with six more birdies, then had to wait 45 minutes to see if it would be enough.
Garcia and Choi each had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie on the 18th but each could only manage par.
When Aaron Baddeley also failed to birdie the last, an emotional Streelman had his second win in just over a year.
“Sometimes in this sport, especially when you miss some cuts or you just make it so important, like you just lock yourself up; you don't have freedom,” Streelman said. “I wasn't really expecting too much this week, but I just had really good perspective, and it just kind of came to fruition today.”
LEADING FINAL TOTALSHis wife Courtney suffered from cholestasis, a liver disease in which pregnancy hormones affect the normal flow of bile in the gallbladder. It afflicts about 1 in 1,000 women, typically in the late stages of pregnancy, and usually subsides shortly after delivery.
“They pulled her out and she was quiet for a few seconds and then she let out this belt, this loudest scream,” Streelman remembers. “We just looked at each other and started bawling our eyes out.”
The experience helped put life in perspective for the 35-year-old journeyman who had missed his last four cuts. Little did he know how it would translate to the golf course and help him to his second career victory.
Streelman made seven straight birdies to cap a final-round 64 and a one-stroke victory Sunday at the Travelers Championship. It was his second straight 64 and he earned 500 FedexCup points for the win to move to 27th in the standings.
Sergio Garcia and K.J. Choi tied for second. They each shot 67.
Streelman’s birdie streak to finish a round is a PGA TOUR record, surpassing Mike Souchak’s previous mark of six straight from the 1956 St. Paul Open. His back-nine 28 also matched a record at TPC River Highlands.
“When you're in the zone like that, when athletes talk about being in the zone, everything is really slow, and it's really clear and concise, and it's very vivid,” said Streelman, who began the day four strokes back and was 2 over through his first seven holes Sunday.
“The lines are easy to see. The hole seems to appear bigger. It's almost to a point it doesn't matter how you read the putts because you just know they're going in before you hit them.”
At one point, Streelman had to back off his putt on the 12th hole because he started thinking about the fishing vacation he is taking next week in Flagstaff, Arizona
He made the putt and followed with six more birdies, then had to wait 45 minutes to see if it would be enough.
Garcia and Choi each had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie on the 18th but each could only manage par.
When Aaron Baddeley also failed to birdie the last, an emotional Streelman had his second win in just over a year.
“Sometimes in this sport, especially when you miss some cuts or you just make it so important, like you just lock yourself up; you don't have freedom,” Streelman said. “I wasn't really expecting too much this week, but I just had really good perspective, and it just kind of came to fruition today.”
265 Kevin Streelman (USA) 69 68 64 64 ($1,116,000)
266 K J Choi 65 65 69 67, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 65 69 65 67 ($545,000 each)
267 Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 67 66 65 69 ($297,600)
SELECTED TOTAL
277 Russell Knox (Scotland) 66 72 70 71 (T61) ($13,206)
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Labels: US PGA TOUR
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Monday, June 23, 2014
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