Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The game of golf would lose a great deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green."
By the time Justin Leonard and Jerry Pate reached the final green of their respective tournaments Sunday, they would have gladly eschewed their flatsticks for less conventional tools. After hitting indifferent lag putts, each stood over a three-footer to win a trophy.
Leonard made. Pate missed.
Such is the excitement -- and frustration -- of golf, all rolled into one crazy afternoon.
At least one of 'em made the putt. And for Leonard's sake, it meant staying off the pages of the record book. As the Weekly 18 states, he came awfully close.
1. Justin time
When Sergio Garcia lost a six-stroke lead entering the final round of the Wachovia Championship a few weeks back, cries of the "c" word emanated throughout golf circles.
That's right, many people thought Garcia had choked.
But a closer investigation of that day shows that the young Spaniard shot even par and fell victim to a tremendous pair of 6-under 66s by Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. Singh later won the three-man playoff, but Garcia didn't choke; he merely got beat.
With that in mind, had Leonard relinquished his eight-shot lead at the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic, it would have qualified as a full-blown, heart-in-your-throat, Greg-Norman-at-the-1996-Masters choke job. After all, no player has ever lost after leading by seven or more entering the final round.
Leonard's win was hardly the stuff of beauty. After making 18 birdies and only one bogey in the opening 54 holes, he proceeded to shoot a final-round 3-over 73 that included three bogeys and not a single birdie. On the final hole, up two strokes and needing a bogey to clinch the title, Leonard pushed his tee shot into a bunker, then blocked his second shot way right. His third shot barely cleared another trap to reach the green and he ran his 45-foot par putt three feet past the hole.
But this is where Leonard's experience came in handy. He calmly sank the putt, earning his second victory of the season.
Leonard made that last stroke look easy, but there are plenty of players -- with the weight of an unseemly record on their minds and butterflies in their stomachs -- who would have missed that putt. And the dreaded "c" word would have echoed forever.
2. Amanda knows best
Leonard won $882,000 for his efforts in Memphis, but by our count, he owes at least half of that to his wife, Amanda. No, we know what you're thinking and the Leonards' relationship is just fine, thanks. We just meant that if it weren't for Amanda, then Justin might never have showed up for this event. "She was looking up kind of my history, and she was kind of going through Memphis. [She said] 'You know, you have played really good at Memphis.' I said, 'Well, it fits perfect in the schedule. I have played well, so let's go.' "
3. And the award goes to ...
If an Academy Award was handed out for the best post-win PGA Tour celebration, we'd have a few solid nominees already. First there was Fred Funk's hat-slam on the final hole of the Players. Then there was Tiger Woods' first pump at Augusta National. And on Sunday, after making a five-footer for bogey and a one-shot win on the final hole, Leonard simply fell over and lay down on the green, as if he'd been shot. Unlike Funk and Woods, however, had Leonard missed his putt, he may have had the exact same reaction, save the smile.
4. Iron deficiency
Paul Goydos made a run at the dubious record for fewest putts in a four-round tournament this week, finishing three shots off the pace set by David Frost just six weeks ago at Harbour Town. We call it a dubious record because it's less a measure of how well a player is putting than how poorly he is hitting his irons. When Frost set the distinction, he reached only 34.7 percent of the greens in regulation and finished T-38. Goydos fared a bit better, ending with a share of 12th place, but he, too, wasn't very accurate with the irons, reaching only 44.4 percent of the greens.
5. What about Bob?
Following Bob Estes' T-8 finish in Memphis, a venue where he won in '01 and came in second a year ago, there's no better time to check out his current stats. One word sums up his recent play: underwhelming. So far this season, Estes has made the cut in 11 of 13 starts, but until this week had no finish higher than T-17 and only two others in the top 25. Entering the FedEx St. Jude he was ranked 99th on the money list, part of a precipitous decline for a guy who placed 75th last year, 33rd in '03, 26th in '02 and ninth in '01.
6. Eye, for one
Sometimes it's not the swing or the putting stroke. It's not what's in the bag. It's not mental, physical, psychological or physiological. For pro golfers, sometimes the smallest change can make all the difference. Such is the case for Billy Andrade, who is now wearing PeakVision sunglasses, a USGA-legal accessory that features distortion-free lenses that Andrade claims help him read greens much better. Skeptical? The proof is in the paycheck. After finishing 125th on the money list a year ago, Andrade has now made the cut in nine of 13 events this season, including a T-12 finish in Memphis. In fact, Andrade has already surpassed his '04 money total by more than $284,000 and his putting average has improved from 82nd to first, with 1.7 putts per green in regulation.
7. Ted's excellent adventure
Byron Nelson champion Ted Purdy recently threw out the first pitch at an Arizona Diamondbacks game in his hometown of Phoenix and the best we can say is, well, at least there was no one in the batter's box. Purdy's pitch would have been high and tight -- to say the least -- had a right-handed batter been standing in.
8. All the Presidents' men
One of the underlying themes of the next three months will be the races to earn automatic berths on both the U.S. and International teams in the Presidents Cup. Entering the FedEx St. Jude, Davis Love III and Purdy were clinging to the final two spots on the U.S. squad, with Joe Ogilvie and Zach Johnson chasing. Then on Sunday, Leonard jumped into the top 10, making things even more interesting. But the guy who's really surprising us is Chad Campbell, who's dropped all the way to 13th in the ranking. Oh, and by the way, if Love fails to earn an automatic bid, you can certainly expect the five-time team member to be named a captain's pick.
9. All the (other) Presidents' men
On the International side, things are even tighter at the back end of the lineup. After the ultra-strong Magnificent Seven (Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Adam Scott, Mike Weir, Stuart Appleby and Peter Lonard), Stephen Ames, Shigeki Maruyama and BMW Championship winner Angel Cabrera hold a slight advantage over a quintet of pursuers -- Nick O'Hern, K.J. Choi, Craig Parry, Tim Clark and Rod Pampling. Even though he's ranked 14th right now, we'd be shocked if Clark gets left off the squad.
10. Ben there, done that
Can we please see a birth certificate from Ben Curtis? He claims he was born and raised in Ohio, a Midwest boy at heart, but you've got to think he has a little British blood in him, too. We all know about the improbable Open championship he won at Royal St. George's two years ago. But Curtis' opening-round 68 at the BMW Championship was almost as unlikely. Consider this: Through 11 PGA Tour events this season, Curtis has made the cut only twice, earning $22,425 -- good for 217th of the 235 players who have won money on tour. In his previous 20 rounds, Curtis never shot better than 71, maxing out with an 83 in the first round at Bay Hill. And yet, there he was across the pond again, only one shot off the lead after one round. He finished 71-76-72 for a share of 33rd for the week.
11. Not Bjorn in the USA
Having never made the switch to full-time PGA Tour member, Thomas Bjorn has long been a proponent of European players competing in the biggest European events. This week's BMW Championship is as big as they come across the pond and Bjorn, who served as a Ryder Cup assistant captain last year and played in the previous two matches, took players to task for skipping the event, according to Britain's The Independent. Among the Euro players who declined to play were Justin Rose, former Ryder captain Bernhard Langer and Garcia, who opted instead to begin his two-week vacation by ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the Barclays Classic media day on Monday. Sergio was the only member of last year's European Ryder Cup squad to forgo the BMW.
12. Two out of three ain't bad
Not sure we've ever seen numbers like these before. Matthew King had an interesting final three scores on his card Sunday at the BMW Championship: 3-10-3. That's right, he made birdie on the par-4 16th hole, quintuple-bogey on the par-5 17th and eagle on the par-5 18th. King finished with a final-round 5-over 77 to finish in 70th place for the week.
13. Radar love
For years, Mike Reid was known on the PGA Tour as "Radar," in deference to his knack for hitting deadly accurate shots. But these days he also calls himself "Turtle" -- you know, as in slow and steady wins the race. At Laurel Valley, Reid was steady as they came, shooting four rounds of 2-under 70. Heading to the final hole down three strokes, Reid made eagle to squeeze his way into the playoff, then chased that with a two-putt birdie on the same hole to clinch his first career major at any level.
14. Pate's fate
Up one stroke at the Senior PGA Championship and faced with a second shot over water on the par-5 final hole, it seemed as if Jerry Pate had finally learned a little something: Humility. Often known as a brash, cocky player during his PGA Tour days, Pate took the advice of his caddie, who had already grabbed a 9-iron in hopes of his player laying up. Pate knocked his second shot down the fairway, then hit his third to the back of the green. That's where the trouble started. Pate three-putted from about 25 feet, leaving him in the playoff with Quigley and Reid. "I'm not a lay-up player and I chose to lay up," Pate later said. "It was not a good decision."
15. It's a shame about Ray
Was that really Raymond Floyd's name we saw on the leaderboard for much of the Senior PGA? Surprisingly enough, yes. The 62-year-old Floyd, who hasn't finished higher than 21st in any Champions Tour event this season, was 3 under through the first three rounds before shooting a Sunday 77 to share 14th place. A 22-time winner on the PGA Tour and 14-time champ on the senior circuit, Floyd hasn't won since the 2000 Senior Players Championship.
16. Ownership has its privileges
Whichever team wins Super Bowl XLIII might want to send Arnold Palmer a thank-you note. Last week, the NFL voted that the game would be held in Tampa in January 2009. As part of the bidding team's efforts to bring the big game to the city for the fourth time, each owner received an Arnold Palmer signature putter. We're not sure whether this was the gift that tipped the scales, but you can bet Arnie will have pretty good seats to the game.
17. Ace in the hole
The hole-in-one is usually nothing more than an anomaly in professional golf. It's almost always an early-round surprise or the byproduct of a player out of contention aiming for the pins. Sure, there are a few big-time aces that come to mind. Amateur Billy Joe Patton on Augusta National's sixth hole in the 1954 Masters. Nick Faldo in the 1993 Ryder Cup in his singles match against Paul Azinger. David Toms in the third round of the 2001 PGA Championship. And now we can add the LPGA's Jimin Kang to that list. On Sunday, Kang followed a bogey on the 14th hole with a hole-in-one on the 15th. She played the final three holes in 1 under to earn her first career tour victory.
18. Quote of the week
"I'd better go to the gym."
-- Mike Reid, upon being presented the oversized trophy for winning the Senior PGA.
Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com