Marco Dawson has followed a long and winding road in his professional golf career that began in 1986 and includes stints on the PGA, Web.com, and Champions Tour. Until he joined the Champions Tour last year he had only one Web.com tour win in over 30 years and 574 professional starts.

Dawson’s mug bears resemblance to nefarious Walter White from Breaking Bad
But to his own admission he played most of those years doubting his ability and a bit afraid to succeed. He changed his attitude when he started walking among the apostles on the Champions Tour and has found a new comfort zone and some real success. In the last year and a half he has won once in 30 starts and earned himself over $1.5 million and the respect of his aging peers.

As was the case at St. Andrews inclement weather was a major factor

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It all came to a climax Sunday in face-to-face-to-face duel with two of the stalwarts of the Apostle Tour Bernard Langer and Colin Montgomerie in the weather delayed final round of the British Senior Open at Sunningdale in England.

Week after week Bernard is always in the fray

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In the wind and the rain all Marco did was match 64’s in the final round with Langer, including a back nine 31 to shoot an 18-under par score and win the first major championship of his career.

Monty was fighting the elements as well as his opponents

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Mrs. Doubtfire seemed in control of the affair until he semi-bladed an approach from a fairway bunker on 11 that led to a bogey and a two-shot swing when both Langer and Dawson birdied the short par 4. Dawson birdied the tough 12th and made an eagle on 14 to take command of the tournament for good.  A steady string of pars kept Langer at bay and Dawson buried a 30-footer on the last for an exclamation point birdie to seal the victory.

Steely determination on the final putt put all doubt to rest

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$500,000 and a handsome silver claret jug makes Marco a happy camper

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There are so many stories each week in professional golf but rarely does one play out where a true journeyman pro who has persisted through the ups and downs of a long and difficult career path find all the bounces go their way for one week in a major championship.  Dawson is respected by his peers as one of the truly good guys out there and it looks like the breaks finally fell on the good side of the ledger for this affable and gentile pro.

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July, 2015

There were only five guys who have won The Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year….until yesterday when Jordan Spieth shot 69 and outlasted the field to win the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He joins the heady group of Craig Wood, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods who have done this Two-Step….pretty sassy moves for a 21-year old Texan.

The week began with a litany of guys complaining about the course style, conditioning, and set-up as inappropriate for a U.S. Open Championship. This reached a fever pitch when Gary Player went into a diarrhetic rant blaming the USGA’s decision making picking Chambers Bay for everything from killing The First Tee Program to Global Warming.

How short are the memories of these critics and touring pros? Torrey Pines 2008 Tiger and Rocco epic duel was played on sketchy greens, Congressional 2011 Rory’s domination was on mushy renovated greens not close to ready for prime time, or Justin Rose at Merion two years ago deftly managed to win on rock hard landing strip fairways between stifling Bluegrass rough. Pick any venue that Open Doctors Robert Trent Jones Sr. or Rees Jones prepared over the last 50 years and you have ample fodder for player complaint. It is a tradition, U.S. Open venues are sadistic and torturous set ups meant to protect par.

Chambers Bay seemed other worldly to some……..

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Truth be told the course came through with flying colors….albeit most of them brown tones not green….in providing a stage of compelling drama until the last putt didn’t fall. For all the carping, Sunday yielded over 20 scores in the 60’s. The USGA should be commended for flexible decision making in the course set up the last two days. Holes 15 through 18, two par threes, a reachable par four, and a wicked risk/reward par five, gave at least six guys a credible chance to capture the flag.

Plenty of red numbers on this final scoreboard

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Dustin Johnson did what Dustin Johnson has done three times before grabbing a major by the throat with accurate long driving and adept short iron approaches. An opening round 65 put him in control of his own destiny and 18 birdies over the four days should have been enough to bring him his first major. But as we have seen with Dustin before mediocre putting, four three-putts in the last nine holes, led to his demise and another major championship slipped from his grasp.

The last one hurt the most…..

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The real crowd pleaser was Jason Day who showed courage on a Ken Venturi scale as he battled Benign Postural Vertigo trekking up and down the severe elevation changes of Chambers Bay. With an unsteady gait and lots of deep breaths to refocus Jason made five birdies in the last nine holes on Saturday putting him in the final group with Dustin on Sunday. But five bogies and a double in the last round squelched the anticipated fairy tale ending.

Jason Day’s steely resolve in the face of adversity….

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Branden Grace, a South African with six wins on the European Tour-two this year, was rock steady for four days using a boring driving trajectory and solid lag putting to adeptly manage the links layout and conditioning. Chugging along nicely down the stretch one untimely errant railroad track swing on the drivable par four 16th on Sunday led to double bogie and put the kibosh on his hopes.

For Branden Grace the one that got away on 16…

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Possibly the best story of them all was Louie Oosthuizen who gave three shots back to par on the front nine Sunday apparently killing his chances, making the turn at 2-over par. He then reminded us that South Africa produces players who are not afraid to go low running off 6 birdies in the last seven holes to shoot 29 on the back side in the final round of a major. Maybe only Johnny Miller understands what that feels like. After opening 7-over par on Thursday Louie simply shot 66-66-67 to set the bar at 4-under in the clubhouse for the others to shoot at.

Louie O was going low on the back nine…..

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In the end it was Jordan, with the patience and perseverance of a cagey veteran, wrapping two birdies around a potentially disastrous double bogey on 17 to post a 5-under score that proved good enough to get the silver.

Putting the double bogey behind him Jordan’s confident approach into 18…

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His bounce back driver/three metal on 18 to set up his finishing birdie was Brett Farve-ian clutch. A friend of mine observed “He has the ability to simply wipe it out and live and act in the present..it’s as though he made that double on the front nine in the opening round, it simply is part of his score going forward..perhaps it is merely the exaggerated ego of youth; perhaps his coal mine/Central Pennsylvania DNA …but whatever it is, it is the rarest quality in a golfer and it will serve him well for as long as it lasts.”

Jordan get used to seeing your reflection in these….

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Now the anticipation begins, can young Jordan continue this major’s streak at St. Andrews next month. The only other player in history to win The Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open in the same calendar year was Texan Ben Hogan. Fire up the band.. this could be the seldom seen Texas Three-Step in the making?

June, 2015

In the flagship event of the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Surrey, England 23-year-old Byeong Hun An floated his boat in royal style winning with a record setting score of 21-under par. Probably the strongest field each year on the European circuit and this young South Korean wonder, who won the U.S. Amateur at the tender age of 17 at Southern Hills in 2009, closed with 7-under 65, the round of the day to win for the first time on this tour.

An’s textbook finish served him well all day long at Wentworth

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This storied championship is 61-years-old and is one of the most cherished trophies in golf to have on your mantel. Faldo won it four times, Peter Allis, Bernhard Langer, and Monty 3 times. Jacklin, Ballesteros, Woosnam, and Luke Donald won it twice each. Having your name on this trophy is a very big deal.

Francesco Molinari hand a hand an a half on this title leading through the first three rounds. But his driving accuracy and putting abandoned him on the way to a final round 74.  He watched playing partner An make five birdies and stake one for a tap-in eagle on the Par 5 12th on his way to lapping the field. Except for a stirring back nine which included 4 birdies in a five hole stretch by the most interesting golfer in the world, Miguel Angel Jimenez, on his way to a tie for second at 15-under, no one could stay in Byeong’s rear view mirror.

An’s career has been a slow march under the watchful eye of his teacher David Leadbetter and his agent Chubby Chandler. Since he turned pro in 2011 he has earned his stripes on the Challenge Tour and the European Tour with total winnings from 2011 to 2014 of around 112,00 euros. Three top tens so far this year the progress has been steady adding another 288,000 euros to the pile but no one would have figured that his breakout win would have been on a stage of this magnitude.

The 833,000 euro winner’s check and a jump from the 132nd ranked player in the world to the top 60 will change everything. Spots in the U.S. Open and Open Championship as well as sponsors invites to prestigious PGA Tour Events and opportunities to play in WGC World Championships should give An an opportunity to establish himself as a regular part of the conversation of the up-and-coming Asian 20-somethings who are making their indelible mark on the world golf scene.

Getting his arms around his potential-An wins by 6 shots over a world class field

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As we could see today with his stoic demeanor playing with the lead Ben An is not uncomfortable being in the limelight. His father and mother were both Olympic class Ping Pong players from Korea and China respectively, his mother is one of the most famous champions China has ever produced. I have a feeling when he makes the President’s Cup Team this fall he could be a dominating force in the team room ping pong competitions.

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May, 2015