A few short weeks ago, on the morning after the USPGA in Atlanta, Curtis Strange stared us in the eyes and revealed that Scott Verplank would be one of his wild cards for the Ryder Cup at The Belfry. It seemed a somewhat curious choice, especially considering no previous American skipper had ever gone with a rookie, but the captain's pick seems a whole lot wiser after Verplank's timely win in the Bell Canadian Open on Sunday.
Although it was only Verplank's fourth win on the US Tour (his maiden success came back in 1985 as an amateur), it couldn't have come at a better time. "Obviously I am playing okay," said Verplank, adding: "Not that it really matters to me, but maybe to everyone else it makes Curtis look a little smarter than he was. If I play like this at The Belfry, then he is going to look a whole lot smarter."
Verplank's win means that only two members of the 12-man American team - Stewart Cink and Paul Azinger, the other wild card - have failed to win a tournament this season. In contrast, four European players - Padraig Harrington, who has finished runner-up six times this year, Niclas Fasth, Pierre Fulke and Lee Westwood - have failed to win an event this year.
When explaining his decision to go with Verplank, Strange remarked: "I picked Scott for a lot of reasons. One is his game. He is a very, very good ball striker. He is a very straight hitter off the tee. He has no shortcomings at all in his entire game. When you look at the way Scott's record has been in the last two years, he never seems to have a bad tournament . . . I think he has a huge heart, when you look at where he has come from; injuries, fighting diabetes every day."
Verplank, whose wild card selection caused some controversy in the US, overcame some worrying moments on the homeward run on Sunday - most specifically a double-bogey on the 16th and a wayward drive on the last hole that finished some 60 yards right of the fairway - before closing with a 67 for 14-under-par 266, three shots clear of Bob Estes and Joey Sindelar. It gave him a cheque for $648,000 and moved him to seventh place on the US Tour moneylist.
"Sometimes you're meant to win," said Verplank after only the fourth victory of a career that held so much promise when he won the 1984 US Amateur, and then won the Western Open (as an amateur) a year later while still in university. His first professional win came in 1988 Buick Open but he then went 12 years before he won again last year at the Reno-Tahoe Open.
During that barren spell, Verplank was also been forced to overcome an elbow injury that threatened his career at one point. He required three operations, missing most of the 1991 and 1992 seasons and then playing the 1997 season on a medical exemption after missing the previous year due to further elbow surgery, and his win in the Reno- Tahoe Open last year was the fourth longest spell between wins in US Tour history, coming 12 years and 27 days after his Buick Open success.
"There have been all kinds of ups and mainly downs," said Verplank, who has diabetes and wears an insulin pump while playing to regulate his medication. "That was a thrill to win last year (in Reno), but this is more of a relief."
Meanwhile, Richie Coughlan's travails continued. Although he made his first cut from the last six tournaments, Coughlan laboured to a final round 78 for 288 which meant he lost 19 places on that last day. It earned him $7,448 and brought his season's prizemoney to $69,092 leaving him at 201st in the moneylist. Coughlan has made just six cuts from 20 tournaments this season, although he was forced to withdraw from two tournaments due to an injury he sustained early on in the season.
