AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > August > 18 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBig days for blue-collar guy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Medinah, Ill. — We’ll move on now to the further adventures of Billy Andrade, actually William Thomas Andrade, age 42.
It hadn’t been one of his better years on the tour, and he was the seventh alternate on the list for the PGA Championship. Then he came out of a movie Tuesday afternoon and learned that he’d run the table: from seventh to a place in the tournament. He played a quick practice round on the Capital City Club course, caught a flight to Chicago the next morning and teed off at 7:30 Thursday, filling a spot vacated by Steve Elkington. Now, the PGA has never been one of his strong events. Best finish was 6th at Oak Hill in 2003, accompanied by a $135,500 check.
On top of that, this hadn’t been one of his better years, four cuts and a disqualification in his first seven tournaments.
“I was playing well. I just wasn’t scoring.”
Then he found his groove, or whatever he’d been missing. Tie for third at Westchester, tie for second in the Booz Allen, and in two weeks had a $663,000 bundle of cash, and Billy was back, or nearer to his comfort level.
Nothing pretentious about Billy Andrade. He doesn’t have his own jet, nor want one. His wife, Jody, is his agent. They do have two homes, a modest place in Rhode Island, where he was born, and their home in the Brookhaven area. Loves to cook, linguine and white clam sauce his self-acclaimed specialty.
“To be honest, you know I’m not a top-10 player in the world. Those guys, they have all the expectations on them. The rest of us are just, you know, maybe this will be my week.”
He was in the early lead after his 67 Thursday, but settled into third place behind Lucas Glover and Chris Riley. There was no second-round cooling off Friday, a birdie on the first hole, then his only bogey so far, birdie again on the third hole, birdie on the fifth, the five pars in a row on the way to the out-reaches of Medinah’s championship course, birdie on the 10th, a par-5, then another streak of pars, the feature a 15-foot saver on the 14th green, where he tipped his cap and bowed to the rousing crowd’s roar.
He was in the stretch now, the 16th, a fearsome dogleg left, 453 yards long; the treacherous 17th, a par-3 over the lake – where Davis Love III had triple-bogeyed Thursday – site of some famous disasters; then home, the 443-yard 18th. Billy had parred them all the first round.
Well, it was not to be. The evil 17th tricked him into a bogey, coming off a steep downhiller from the fringe. Back to 7-under par, and home.
Meantime, he and Henrik Stenson had been joined on the lead by Luke Donald, the Northwestern alumnus, to whom Medinah is a virtual home course.
Medinah No. 3 now plays to the longest yardage in the history of major championships, and while such figures are oft times deceptive, it remains that Andrade ranks 151st in driving yardage on the PGA Tour. At 443 yards, the 18th hole plays to par-4 and Billy’s last birdie had fallen on the par-5 10th.
His second shot to the elevated green left him about 20 feet for possible birdie, and back into a tie for the lead at 8-under par, and a 36-hole score of 136. Billy took his time, backed off, got set over the ball again with that oddly shaped putter and his claw (ugh!) grip, then the stroke. The ball fell in from the side with its one last roll. Birdie! Another fist thrust. Joy to behold. Tied for the lead again. He had gone out in the final pairing on Saturday at Oak Hill three years ago with Shaun Micheel, who would win it on Sunday, shot 72 and finished 6th. Time for redemption.
“I’ve been doing this for 19 years, why not a PGA Championship now? I want to go to Kapalua [for the Grand Slam playoff] and I don’t want to go on vacation. I want to play there,” Billy said, summing up his situation.
On his way to the tee he got a good look at Stenson for the first time, Billy said. “He looked young enough to be my son. Then as I walked up to the tee later, some guy said, ‘Hey, Billy, why don’t you take it to the old guys?’ So there you are.
“I’m having a blast. If you play well you have a good time. But you have to remember, there are two days left.”
In his life, the two biggest days of them all, as it stands at Medinah.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher
Comments