Published: September 23, 2009 09:59 pm      

Micheel recalls PGA Championship triumph in 2003

KINGSPORT, Tenn. — It was the 2003 P.G.A. Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. Final-round leader Shaun Micheel, who called it “an incredibly difficult golf course”, was leading playing partner Chad Campbell by a mere stroke entering the tournament’s final hole. Micheel’s drive found the first cut of rough while Campbell’s sailed past his into the middle of the fairway. Needing a birdie to virtually assure himself of his first tour victory and major championship, Micheel prepared to hit his 174-yard approach shot to the green. He struck the seven-iron clean and as he watched the flight of the ball, he heard those two dreaded words: Be right! They came from the lips of his caddie, Bob Szczesny.

“What’s funny about that is, as a player, you don’t like anyone talking to your golf ball, particularly your own caddie. It has a tendency to do the opposite of what the person says,” said Micheel at an awards ceremony following his participation in fellow Tour pro Cliff Kresge’s Autism Awareness Charity Pro-Am golf tournament on Monday. “I’m thinking why is he talking to my ball? But I hit it as well as I could and it landed just inches from the hole. Bob was right and one-for-one on the call. But he never talked to my ball again after that.”

To force a playoff, Campbell had to hole his approach shot for eagle to offset Micheel’s sure birdie. When his ball came to rest about 15 feet from the cup, the tournament belonged to Micheel. So far, it has been Micheel’s career highlight. But much to his disappointment, he hasn’t backed the lone win up with another.

“Most of the guys have an understanding of what it’s like to have won a major championship and then have to try to live up to the expectations of your friends, family, fans, and yourself,” Micheel said. “It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve really had time to reflect on how that affected me on a personal level. I haven’t been too vocal about it, but I beat myself up in my head all the time trying to figure out what I need to do to get back to playing like that. Maybe I never will.”

For much of the last three years, serious injury and personal grief have impeded his path to former greatness. In June of 2008, he underwent shoulder surgery for a torn labrum, an injury he suffered in early 2007 and one that required the insertion of six screws. While recuperating from the operation, he missed seven months of playing time, but gained cherished family and friends time. He was granted a 13-tournament major medical extension this season by the P.G.A. In that limited schedule, he had to earn enough money to keep his Top-125 status. When the exemption expired in July, he had not yet done so. However troubling those issues may be, they pale in comparison to the plight of Micheel’s 63-year old mother. She is battling terminal cancer and during his rehabilitation period, Micheel was her transportation to chemotherapy treatments.

“It’s been two years since I’ve really been healthy and had a great attitude about golf,” said Micheel, a resident of Memphis, Tennessee. “It’s just been a lot of issues off the course. My mom is dying of cancer and has maybe less than a year to live. My motivation to play golf is there, but my motivation to be away from home to play golf is not. You have to have both.”

Micheel admitted to playing well in the pro-am tournament and believes his game is starting to come around. In his 24th-place finish at this year’s Valero Texas Open, he posted a third-round score of 63. Still, career-wise he is faced with the prospect of returning to the P.G.A. Qualifying Tournament this fall or earning enough money in the Fall Series if he wants to regain fully-exempt status. However, there is also a third option.

“It’s looking more and more like I’m going to Europe to play. I’ve talked to Ernie Els about it. I’m fully exempt there and my goal- to live the American Dream- is to work less and make more,” Micheel said, who can boast that he ousted Tiger Woods in the first round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship in 2006. “I love playing, but right now with what is going on at home, I want to be available for my mom. I don’t want to be one of those fathers or sons who just goes off and plays golf while putting everybody else second. I’m going to find a way to get my game to where I can play a certain schedule and be home with my family. That’s what matters to me most right now.”

In 2003, his caddie wished for a good result and got it when oftentimes there is none in a pressure situation like that; in that same spirit regarding the outcomes of Micheel’s travails both on a personal level and as a professional golfer, one can only say, be right! Be right!