Just as surely as there are a handful of pleasant ways to win a golf tournament, there are any number of misery-drenched methods to lose one, the wildly contrasting chain of events that played out Sunday in the final round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
D.J. Trahan pounded the Classic Club into submission with a seven-under-par 65, birdied all of the par-five holes, stayed away from even a single three-putt and came from four shots behind to win his second PGA Tour event.
Justin Leonard's experience was just the opposite.
He lost a four-shot lead in the span of three holes, failed to birdie any of the par-fives, knocked his tee shot at the 18th into the water and walked off empty-handed. He was a picture of perfect dejection.
Someone offered Leonard condolences, telling him it was tough luck.
"Luck had nothing to do with it," he said, smiling thinly.
Trahan's three-shot victory over Leonard amounted to a seven-shot turnaround from the way the day began, with Leonard in the lead, calmly in control, apparently bothered by nothing.
That sublime feeling didn't last. Leonard closed with a 72 as his last chance for a miracle finish ended when he launched his drive wide, to the right of the 18th fairway and watched as the ball bounced into the water. All Trahan needed to do was finish in style, which he did with a six-foot birdie putt.
Trahan's rounds of 67-64-68-70-65 and 26-under total of 334 earned him the winner's check of $918,000, the largest of his five-year PGA Tour career.
Anthony Kim, the 22-year-old star-in-waiting from La Quinta, came up with a 69 in the closing round and moved into a tie for third at 22-under 338, the same place that 47-year-old Kenny Perry ended after his own 69.
Trahan's payday may help the 27-year-old decide he really can afford to buy a 175-acre property near Lane, S.C., for a hunting ranch, full of deer, dove and ducks.
It figures, because all week long, Trahan proved particularly adept in the hunting of birdies.
He had 35 in all, a flock of birdies that managed to support Trahan's position that the way to win the Hope is to keep collecting them until your bag is full.
"After the first round, I think somebody interviewed Justin and . . . he said it's a putting contest. And it truly is. The greens here are perfect on all four golf courses and it really is a birdie contest out here. You have to make a lot of putts."
