I hesitate to even think this for fear of Seth Strickland hunting me down and beating me with a 3-iron for putting the whammy on him like this, but it's hard not to think that today's final round of the 2008 GCSAA National Championship and Golf Classic will be anything but an extended victory lap for the superintendent from Miami Shores (Fla.) Country Club.
Six shots clear of his closest competitor and a whopping 12 shots clear of all but two players in the 97-person National Championship field, what other possible conclusions can you draw? The back-to-back 68s that Strickland has posted in the first two rounds are the two best rounds I've seen played in this event in the nine years I've covered it for GCM. The only one that comes close is the final-round 68 that Tommy Robinson, superintendent at Ravinia Green Country Club in Riverwoods, Ill., fired in the second round of the 2004 tournament in San Diego to win that event.
Calling this one based on the early returns is no slam on the only two players with a realistic chance to catch Strickland, either. Shawn Westacott, superintendent at Jackson (Tenn.) Country Club, got himself dialed in on the back nine in round two. He ate up the par-5 14th hole on the Independence Course at Reunion Resort, carding an eagle 3, is big off the tee and is used to pressure situations from his playing days in college at Southern Mississippi. Mike Stieler, superintendent at Riverbend Golf Club in Coarsegolf, Calif., has been a contender in this event since that 2004 tournament, and his 69 yesterday was the second-best round of the tournament.
But for either player to realistically have a shot at Strickland, he's going to have to make some mistakes today. And thus far, that's something he has refused to do, with just two bogeys in the 36 holes he's played. When I've watched him this week, he's played extremely smart, careful golf. He's long off the tee, but isn't afraid to pull out a hybrid or a long iron when he wants accuracy over length. He's a good putter who frets over the two-footers just as much as the 20-footers. And not to give away too much of the story I will tell in the March issue of GCM if he does indeed close the deal, but let's just say Strickland has been rather focused on this tournament the past few months.
This being golf, there is certainly a chance the tide could turn today. A double bogey on one side coupled with an eagle on the other can shrink a big lead in a hurry and tighten the collar on any front-runner. I could be back on here this afternoon, eating crow, putting an ice pack on the bruises left by Strickland's 3-iron and talking about one of the greatest final-round comebacks in GCSAA National Championship history.
But I doubt it.
For those interested, there are a large batch of new photos posted to the GCSAA Tournament photo album that you can access on the right side of this page, some of which I've added to this post. I haven't had an opportunity to post captions with all of them, but there are photos from Saturday night's Welcome Reception, the scoring area in the main ballroom here at the Caribe Royale and a host of shots from second-round action at the Independence Course at Reunion Resort.
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