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Friday, April 11, 2008
‘Other lefthander’ making an impression
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Augusta — Some names just automatically roll off the tongue when the talk is about who might win the Such-and-Such Open. You know, Lefty, Tiger, Vijay, heck, even Freddie Couples, the elder statesman. The champion of our own national Open, Angel Cabrera, rarely ever makes it. Nor Steve Flesch.
Whenever have you seen Flesch’s name in the headline as the guy to beat in the next tournament? None and never. He’s just “the other lefthander.” After Phil Mickelson, and Mike Weir, even Bubba Watson, who’s more a showman than a contender yet. Mickelson’s name is in lights at Augusta National again this week. Weir, though, won the Masters and just about disappeared from view.
Flesch, though, is another story. This is his third Masters, and his best finish has been a tie for 17th four years ago. He has won on the PGA Tour four times, mainly such off-Broadway attractions as the Reno-Tahoe and the Turning Stone, two that earned his invitation to the Masters this time. Oh, he did win the Colonial, once one of the tour classics, and he won the Malaysian Open when he was sharpening his game on the Asian Tour.
Mainly, though, this is what you get from Steve Flesch: A bright, pleasant smile revealing a show of ivories, a gentle nature and a 40-year-old not overly impressed with himself. He plays golf. That’s his profession. And he plays left-handed, which is his distinction. He has been on the Tour since 1998 and has been living quite comfortably. But he’s never the left-hander who’s considered a contender here. Besides, get this: After he checks in with his score of 139 at the halfway point Friday, who should muscle his way up to join him but Mickelson himself. Spoil sport.
“I decided the par-5s were where I was going to be able to take advantage of the course, and today I was 5 under par on them,” Flesch said — while Mickelson was being interviewed on television — and he felt pretty good about that.
What he did, actually, was adopt the Zach Johnson School of Conservative Thought on the par-5s. Johnson, you know, won the Green Jacket last year by laying up on all par-5 holes, and netted 11 birdies. Flesch said, “I’m trying to lay it up 85 to 95 yards, leaving me a perfect 60-degree wedge,” and he did on the second and eighth holes, both birdies. Then he came to the 13th, and he felt strong. He went for it in two and eagled. Then the 15th, and all that water. He turned to his 5-wood and blasted the thing 237 yards, over the green, “not worrying about long. He chipped up and birdied.
His day was made, 5 under par and a tie for third. After a two-year absence, Flesch was back on the leaderboard at Augusta National. Modesty runs in his veins, and it came out as he had his give-and-take with the press.
Steve Flesch is a Kentuckian, grew up in the town of Union, which has become part of suburban Cincinnati. “It’s horse country with a lot of farming and a little tobacco,” he said. “It’s about ten miles from Cincinnati, and getting closer every day.”
He’s a natural left-hander but grew up trying to play right-handed, “because that’s how my dad played, and I just figured that’s how you played. I played baseball and batted left-handed. When I was 10 years old, I was playing with my uncle. He was left-handed, and I said let me hit one of yours. I did. It felt more natural, and that’s where it started.”
Mickelson, the story goes, is a natural right-hander who trained himself swinging in front of a mirror. There has been little similarity in their careers, but there is much contentment in Flesch’s life that Lefty rarely knows. Flesch has lived a pleasant life, brought joy and a form of Kentucky luxury to his wife and two children, and never been threatened with a return to qualifying school. He’s poised once again, and now the time has come to pull the trigger, not that that would make much of a change in his Union lifestyle.
