During Morning Drive’s postmortem on Rory McIlroy’s performance, a question was raised about the last “non-Tiger” feel good story of this magnitude. Erik & Gary were racking their brains, and kept defaulting back to 1986.
All I could do was think about “almost” story from Turnberry in 2009.
The 5 minutes between Tom Watson’s perfect drive on 18 and his missed 8 foot putt still represent the worst emotional crash I have experienced as a sporting spectator. Nicklaus in 1986 would have felt like a quaint story compared to seeing a 60 year-old Tom Watson holding the Claret Jug.
I was already in a vulnerable state from watching Mickelson lose his story-book ending at Bethpage to Lucas Glover a few weeks earlier. For 71.5 holes, I thought the Golf Gods giving me my redemption. And then Cink rolled in a seemingly meaningless birdie bomb and ripped it away.
Immediately, I developed a visceral hatred of Stewart Cink. It wasn’t a personal thing, as I used to like Cink for years. But any image of him took me back to that July afternoon, and I involuntarily blurted out “Screw You Stewart Cink! I hope you’re happy for crushing Golf’s soul!”
Am I alone in this?
And now my emotional growth and ability to move on is being tested by a series of Dove commercials. Well, let’s see how I’m doing. Let’s see another image.
“SCREW YOU, STEWART CINK!!!”
Nope, still not over it.
What, you have another test? OK, let’s see it.
Now, that’s just plain mean.
