NO GIMMEES ON 18 - THE MATCH ISN'T OVER 'TILL THE LAST PUTT DROPS

NO GIMMEES ON 18 - THE MATCH ISN'T OVER 'TILL THE LAST PUTT DROPS 

PALM SPRINGS, California - I can barely remember the names of some of my ex-golf buddies who have walked off the 18th green with their panties in a bunch over the years. I recall one red-faced dude unstrapping his bag and making a bee-line for the parking lot after suffering the indignity of having to line up a two-foot gimmee for the half. "Are you seriously going to make me putt that?"

Yesterday's occurrence at the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Open should be an eye-opener for those of us who concede relatively easy putts at crucial times in a match. I hope that it's also a wake-up call for golfers who confuse gamesmanship with poor golf etiquette.

On Sunday, with a major win seemingly in the bag, golfer I.K. Kim had only to tap a dinky one-foot par putt into the hole and golfing immortality would be hers. Yet, somehow, she muffed it. Kim could have wrapped up her first major championship but, instead, ended up losing in a playoff to Sun Young Yoo. The fact of the matter is, when the pressure is on, golfers often miss un-missable putts. Throughout sports it is known as choking and in golf, it most often happens sometime during the playing of the 18th hole.

If a professional golfer, whether it be woman or man (remember Phil Mickelson's drive into the garbage can on the final hole of the 2006 US Open) can go to pieces when the pressure's on, amateur golfers are certainly not immune to it.  As for the red-faced dude, before making his abrupt, albeit entertaining exit, he tossed a crumpled up twenty in my general direction. You guessed it. He missed the putt.


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Keywords for this article: 18th Hole, choke, gimmee, I.K. Kim, Phil Mickelson, pressure, putt, golf, swing, instruction, ebook
Revised 09-03-2012