It has been too long since my last post, more than a week. Sometimes life gets in the way of a blog I guess…As a novice blogger I will do better in the future.
We are nearing the end of February and like all Canadian golfers I admit that I am getting a little twitchy waiting for the snow to melt and the courses to open. The fact that we are still at least six weeks away from playing here in Nova Scotia does not dampen my excitement, I am a “glass is half full” kind of guy so I say we are ONLY six weeks away from golf season, I should start to get ready!
While waiting to place my first drive of the year 270 yards out and in the middle of the fairway I get to do two things. Spend quality time at my local golf retailer and watch the pros play on beautiful lush green courses south of the border. This week it is the Accenture Match Play World Golf Championship in Arizona.
I have never played a real match play event; they are incredibly exciting to watch. When the brackets for this year’s event were posted on line I could not envision any one golfer as the obvious favourite – and that makes for a very exciting tournament! The PGA tweeted a link to the experts’ picks and I thought no way, the tournament is not going to be played on paper, it will be played on the course.
As a Canadian I have a patriotic loyalty to Mike Weir. The most successful Canadian on the PGA tour is always someone I want to see do well each week. Mike was not in the field at this week’s event and that left my choices wide open.
So like any self-professed expert I tweeted back “I don't like any of the Expert Picks: WGC-Accenture Match Play http://t.co/Xbd9ggL I'll go with @stewartcink this week” believing that Stewart had an opportunity to win if he could upset the defending Champ in round one.
He did. I have no particular connection to Stewart Cink as a golfer. I think he is as real a person in a professional sport as you can get and yes, I follow him on Twitter. He is one of the good guys. Any time one of the good guys is contending I want them to win. After winning his first round match I was sure my prediction was right on the mark!
Unfortunately Stewart lost in round two and will not win the match play event this year. My prediction was as accurate as at least 67% of those made by the experts so I am ok with that. The one thing I do know is that Stewart Cink has a new fan here in snowy Canada. After his second round loss he sent out a tweet “@RalphBastarache thanks for having faith but I couldn't quite deliver today!”
Next week at the Honda Classic in Florida I will be cheering for the good guys…if the final pairing on Sunday is Stewart Cink and Mike Weir, it will be the best possible finish as far as I am concerned and I will be hoping they end up in a playoff, that there will be extra holes. When it is over it will be unfortunate that one of them had to lose but I will know without a doubt that the winner is one of the good guys.
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