WHEN FRED COUPLES was opening the final round with three straight birdies to surge into the lead, Aaron Baddeley didn't flinch. After all he, too, opened with a birdie at the first hole and was in the perfect position to capitalize when Couples faltered later on. His two shot win over Vijay Singh -- more on him later this week -- gives him his first win in more than four years (the 2007 FBR Open). And after posting a T6 last week at Pebble Beach it gives him the same number of top-10s he had all of last season and half of his total over the past three. You will likely here a lot of talk about his switch in instructors back to his first swing coach Dale Lynch in the coming days. And if the change is going to make him a consistent threat -- he joins Dustin Johnson, Sean O'Hair, Camilo Villegas, Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim as the only players in their 20s with at least three PGA Tour wins -- perhaps it's time to start talking about him as a potential major championship contender.
Where it was won: A couple of key moments stand out in the victory. At the seventh, just as Couples was melting down -- more on that below -- Baddeley rolled in a 21-foot birdie putt from the fringe that gave him a three stroke lead at the time. Nobody would get closer than two strokes from the lead for the rest of the round. He made a mess of the 12th hole -- carding a double bogey -- but he was able to bounce back with an unlikely birdie at 13 -- negotiating a 27-foot putt, once again from the fringe, that had about six-feet of break -- and parred in to secure the win. For the week, he played our two key back nine holes -- 10 and 18 -- at four under, with no shots dropped.
Where it was lost: After those three straight birdies, it could very easily have been where Couples won the tournament. But while his success on the Champions Tour has filled him with confidence -- see his performance at last year's Masters -- it may have also gotten him used to three competitive rounds of golf inside of four. Standing on the sixth tee, Couples had carded just three bogeys in his first 59 holes this week; by the time he left the seventh green he had given back all three shots he picked in the first three holes. After that he looked mentally drained and he recorded four bogeys, one double bogey and gave back twice as many shots in the final 13 holes as he did in the first 59.
Shots of the week
Stat of the week: So steady was Baddeley's play that he finished dead last in bogeys, with just three throughout the week and he dropped just five shots.
How I did:
KJ Choi, T7
JB Holmes, T12
Brendon de Jonge, T29
Matt Kuchar, T35
Andres Romero, T55
Early look at next week
-We need more match play
-Mike Weir's struggles continue
-Vijay Singh with a resurgence
-I like: Charl Schwartzel, Ross Fisher, Jeff Overton, Edoardo Molinari
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