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Playoff Win Gives Wilson
A Rocky Mountain High
 By JOHN FINERAN
INTERNATIONAL Daily News
CASTLE ROCK, CO — Dean Wilson now has another better
reason to be known on the PGA Tour.
No longer will the 36-year-old Hawaiian
be known as one of Annika Sorenstam’s playing partners when the LPGA Hall
of Famer became the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event at the
2003 Colonial.
Now you forever can call Dean Wilson the
winner of the 21st INTERNATIONAL at Castle Pines Golf Club.
When Wilson knocked home a 6-foot birdie
putt on the second playoff hole (Castle Pines’ ninth) to beat U.S. Ryder
Cup team captain Tom Lehman after both had tied with 34 points, he also permanently
quieted those home-state critics who didn’t think he would ever amount
to anything in golf.
“Growing up in Hawaii watching golf
and wanting to be on the PGA Tour and winning is something I wanted to do as
a kid,” Wilson recalled. “That was my goal. It seems like I heard
a lot of people saying it couldn’t be done, ‘You can’t beat
those guys, they’re so good. It’s tough. It’s been quite a
battle.”
Now, finally, the Wilson can look past all the struggles: walking on the BYU-Hawaii
team as a freshman and playing well enough to receive a scholarship to BYU on
the mainland, where he was a teammate of Mike Weir; turning pro and playing in
Australia, Canada, Asia and Japan, where he won six times; getting his PGA Tour
card in 2002, losing it and regaining it at the 2004 Q-school.
Now as a PGA Tour winner — his winner’s
check of $990,000 moved him from 63rd to 21st on the money list with $1,900,601 — Wilson,
the first Hawaiian-born player to win on the PGA Tour since David Ishii won the
1990 Hawaiian Open, has a two-year exemption to play. But even more important,
he will be in the field at Hawaii’s Kapalua in the 2007 Mercedes Cup, a
tournament reserved for 2006 tour winners.
“That will be exciting, being a PGA
Tour winner, being in Hawaii, from Hawaii, representing the state,” Wilson
declared. “I don’t know about all the perks that come with (winning),
but I’m just satisfied, really satisfied, to have a trophy and have my
name on it.”
It didn’t matter that it took an extra
two holes — the third time The INTERNATIONAL champion was decided in a
playoff — to receive the coveted hummingbird trophy from Castle Pines president
and found Jack A. Vickers.
Both golfers finished regulation with 34 points, Wilson after a final round of
12 points and Lehman a final round of 10. After both two-putted for par on the
first playoff hole — Castle Pines’ 18th — both found the fairway
with their tee shots.
Lehman’s 8-iron from 178 yards cleared
the greenside bunker barely, leaving him a 30-foot putt for birdie. Wilson’s
8-iron from 160 yards stopped six feet left of the cup. After Lehman’s
putt slipped agonizingly past the hole, Wilson stepped over his putt and stroked
it in for the win.
“I had a good feel with my putter
this week and it was a relatively simple putt,” Wilson said. “I just
kind of looked it over, and once Tom made par, I thought this is as good a chance
as any. Pick that line, pick the speed you want to hit it, be confident and just
roll it in. I tell you I was excited when that thing went in.”
Wilson became the fourth player to make
his victory in The INTERNATIONAL his first on the PGA Tour. The other three were
Steve Lowery, who beat Rick Fehr in a playoff in 1994; Clarence Rose, who eagled
the 17th in a playoff to beat Brad Faxon for the 1996 title; and Rodney Pampling
of Australia in 2004.
The victory also was worth 375 Ryder Cup
team points, zooming Wilson from 68th on last week’s points list to 22nd,
giving him an outside chance, with a win or another Top 10 finish at this week’s
PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, to earn a spot on Lehman’s
12-man team that plays Europe on Sept. 22-24 at The K Club in Ireland.
Captain Tom, who leaped from 29th to 19th
on the list with his runner-up performance, was impressed.
“In the playoff, Dean played very
well,” said Lehman, who will have two captain’s picks to announce
after the standings following the PGA are settled. “I was up first and
hit good shots, and he followed suit. He put in the fairway, knocked it on and
made a birdie. Outstanding player, and I congratulate him.”
Lehman, who hasn’t ruled out being
the first playing captain for the U.S. team since Arnold Palmer did double duty
in the 1963 Ryder Matches at East Lake in Atlanta, was more disappointed with
the loss. In particular, he lamented his missed 15-foot eagle putt at the par-5,
492-yard 17th hole that fell inches short of giving him three additional points,
enough to win for the first time since the 2000 Phoenix Open.
“It’s no fun finishing second,” said
Lehman, whose finish was his fourth Top 10 in 15 events and boosted his 2006
earnings over $1.6 million.
“You know I hit the ball extremely
well once again but I didn’t make as many putts as I would like to have
made,” added Lehman, who had six birdies and two bogeys. “The big
putt today for me was the 17th hole. I had a 15-footer for eagle and it looked
so fast and so shiny going down the hill. I hit a beautiful putt right on line
and it came up about four inches short. I didn’t think there was any way
I could leave it short.”
It didn’t console Lehman, either,
when he learned his performance — he made 21 birdies against eight bogeys
for the week — left him at 13-under 275, good enough to win if The INTERNATIONAL
was a stroke-play affair.
Fortunately, Wilson, whose medal score of 279 would have left him in a seventh-place
tie, got a chance to use the modified Stableford scoring system to his advantage.
In 72 holes, he had 22 birdies, including seven on Sunday, and two eagles, more
than enough to offset 11 bogeys and three double bogeys.
“Before the playoff, I had some time sitting up there and Corey (Pavin)
came by,” Wilson recalled. “He kind of said on TV they made mention
(that Lehman was 13-under and Wilson 9-under).”
Wilson knew he was fortunate to still have a chance to win, and also fortunate
that the playoff didn’t end up by a three-playoff affair. It would have
been if left-hander Steve Flesch hadn’t missed a birdie putt on the 18th.
Flesch finished with 6 points for 32 points to tie for third with Japan’s
Daisuke Maruyama, whose +13 round was the day’s best.
Stewart Cink finished in fifth with 31 points and also moved from 20th to 12th
in the Ryder Cup points race.
“I knew that if I snuck in here after the last few days in stroke play,
I wouldn’t be ahead because I made so many mistakes,” Wilson said. “I
probably had more doubles than anybody else in contention.”
At the end, when the points were all added up, it didn’t matter.
Dean Wilson won’t be giving back his INTERNATIONAL trophy any
time soon.
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