INCAgolf All you ever wanted to know about golf (well almost)

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Bill Haas, the 2011 FedEx Cup Champion and Tour Championship winner, is not an underdog or an overachiever or any of those other adjectives used to describe people who win when they aren’t supposed to. He’s not like Jeremy Lin, the current poster boy of overachieving athletes. No coach overlooked Haas as he was coming up through the ranks of junior golf and at Wake Forest.

As a son of Jay Haas, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, he was supposed to make it. But on Sunday at the Northern Trust Open, he must have felt like the odd man out in the three-way playoff with Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. It was Phil’s tournament to win and if he didn’t win then everybody wanted his protégé, Bradley, to walk away with the trophy.

Starting the day only two shots back of Mickelson and Bradley, Haas was clearly in contention, but before he took the outright lead for the first time at the 17th hole, his name had barely been mentioned as the possible winner of the tournament.

Bill Haas clinched his fourth PGA Tour victory Sunday at the Northern Trust Open. Of American players in their 20s, only Dustin Johnson with five owns more wins.
That he got into a playoff by only shooting a 2-under 69 to get to 7-under par proves that all you have to do on a tough golf course is hang around par. Haas didn’t really do anything spectacular on Sunday until he made a 43-foot putt on the second playoff hole to beat Mickelson and Bradley. For most of the day, he struggled with his driving. But as he showed at the Tour Championship, he has a penchant for making remarkable recoveries.

“I don’t say this in a negative way, but everybody is cheering for Phil. He just won this last week, he’s the man, and if I’m at home, I’m cheering for Phil,” Haas said. “Everybody is saying, ‘Go Phil, go Phil.’ Keegan has a big fan base. I’m not saying like fans did anything wrong. I just was somewhat under the radar, I guess.

“I wasn’t in the final group with them. They both birdie 18, they certainly had the fans on their side, which if that’s the way it is, that’s fine, flying under the radar. It was unexpected for me and for the fans maybe the way it ended up.”

The Northern Trust Open was a departure from the past three weeks on the PGA Tour, when a player squandered a big lead on the final day. This week was a tightly bunched leaderboard, where par was a good score. Haas might not have been the one expected to win, but he was the last man standing on Sunday afternoon.

Hopefully, 2012 will produce more tournaments like the Northern Trust Open and winners like Haas. Riviera wasn’t tricked up or unfair. It was a great test of golf that produced a proven winner. The USGA should consider bringing the U.S. Open here in the future. I’m sure Bill Haas wouldn’t mind.

Sunday (Red) Storm
Keegan Bradley accomplished everything on Sunday at the Northern Trust Open, except for winning. That 27-foot birdie putt he made on the 72nd hole to join Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas in a playoff was as clutch as you’ll ever see on the PGA Tour. Sure, the 25-year-old 2011 PGA Championship winner was sometimes excruciatingly fidgety and slow in his final round, but he held it together in front of his idol.

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