Golf Tidbits: Martin shines brightest in Vegas
Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – Las Vegas is a city full of bright lights that can distract you. The brightest lights on a golf course are the leaderboards.
Ben Martin doesn’t like to look at those leaderboards, though. In the final round on Sunday at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Martin caught a glimpse of one leaderboard after he bogeyed the eighth hole, and that was enough for him.
“I was nervous enough without looking at the scoreboard, so I didn’t have to think about anything else,” Martin said.
He did the right thing and let his caddie watch the scoreboard. Martin wasn’t the only one who was ignoring the leaderboards. Second-place finisher Kevin Streelman was in the same boat.
“I tried not to look at the leaderboard to be honest,” said Streelman.
The two were lucky the event didn’t last another couple holes or they would have been left in the dust by another player.
Last year’s Shriners winner, Webb Simpson, came out of nowhere on the back nine to grab a share of the lead, but he bogeyed the last to fall off the pace.
Jimmy Walker, a three-time winner last season, made a move on the back nine as well, but, like the other challengers, he ran out of holes.
Martin asked his caddie if he had to do anything special after he hit the green with his approach shot at the 18th. His caddie told him to 2-putt and all would be fine.
Martin only needed one. The closing birdie gave him a not-as-comfortable-as-it- looked 2-shot win.
The 27-year-old didn’t win in his first full season on the PGA Tour last year, but earned over $1.48 million thanks in part to three third-place finishes.
His four rounds in the 60s at the TPC Summerlin were a far cry from the week before at the Frys.com Open. Martin shot 78-79 at the Frys and finished in next-to-last place. He missed the cut by 14 strokes.
Though they were far from his best rounds, Martin allowed that they helped him knock the rust off.
“I’m not sure I beat anybody last week. I think we can chalk that up to a little bit of rust, a couple weeks at home. I just really tried to engage a little more this week,” Martin said after the second round in Las Vegas. “I think I still kind of had that home mind-set.”
The bright light of the strip didn’t distract Martin from his goal of winning for the first time on the PGA Tour, and neither did the bright lights of the leaderboard.
Martin hopes this win is a springboard to bigger things, like what Walker accomplished last year in winning three times and making his first Ryder Cup team.
After just one full year on the PGA Tour, Martin doesn’t want to rest on his laurels of having his tour card secured for the next two seasons.
LYLE CONTINUES COMEBACK BATTLE
After his second battle with leukemia, Jarrod Lyle has started the battle to earn enough money to retain his PGA Tour card for this season. He can play 20 events through a medical extension, and in those events, Lyle needs to earn roughly $284,000 to retain his playing privileges.
Two events in and Lyle is about 20 percent of the way to that total. He Monday- qualified for the Frys.com Open before earning a sponsors exemption into Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
Lyle has finished outside the top 30 in both events, but collected $53,795 thanks to tying for 31st and 42nd places in the two tournaments.
He has broken par in six of the eight rounds, but just two of the eight rounds were in the 60s. In those events, where the winning scores were 15- and 20- under par, two rounds in the 60s aren’t going to get you in contention or a big paycheck.
But, it is a process. Lyle didn’t play a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in 2013 and played just four Web.com Tour events in 2014. He made the cut just once as he tried to get his form back.
Lyle, who won twice on the Web.com Tour in 2008, heads back to his native Australia this week for a medical check-up. He will play the three big events in his homeland — the Australian Open, the Australian Masters and the Australian PGA.
“Things are going the right direction,” Lyle said in a television interview. “The support that we’ve had for the last three years, it’s been amazing.”
After a couple of months back in his comfort zone of Australia, Lyle will continue his battle to retain his PGA Tour card early in the new year.
MINI-TIDBITS
– Mikko Ilonen won the Volvo World Match Play Championship on the European Tour. He played at least 17 holes in all six of his matches, so endurance clearly wasn’t a problem. Joost Luiten, who won the consolation match, cruised to a 6 & 5 win over Pablo Larrazabal in the quarterfinals, and that was the only match all week that didn’t go at least 15 holes.
– Jeff Hart just missed tying a Champions Tour record at the Greater Hickory Kia Classic at Rock Barn. He hit 41 of 42 fairways for the week. He was bidding to join Hale Irwin, Calvin Peete and Ed Dougherty as the only players to hit every fairway in a three-round Champions Tour event.
Categorized in: PGA