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Thursday, April 5, 2007
Daughter’s birth trumps Masters debut for Quigley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Augusta — On a day when wind gusts and drag-strip greens made grown-up men look like 6-year-olds trying to master the par-3 loop-de-loop, Brett Quigley played golf at the implausible intersection of bogey and Nirvana.
His opening tee shots went into the woods. People yelled, “Congratulations.” He was 3-over through six holes and was moved to tears — just not for reasons you might think.
There was a hospital bracelet on his wrist. A pink tee in his pocket. A picture of his daughter stuck between pages of his yardage book.
“I probably wasn’t as sharp as I would’ve been if I had been here the last couple of days,” he said. “But it was so peaceful out there.”
His score?
“Didn’t matter.”
Actually, 76 isn’t all that bad for his first Masters. Quigley is tied with Phil Mickelson.
But the circumstances that led to his inaugural Masters round Thursday — a day after the birth of his daughter in Florida — were unlike any other player in the field, even if it really wasn’t that unusual for the Quigley family.
In August 1969, Paul and Geneva Quigley prepared for the birth of their child. Paul, stationed in the army at Fort Devens, Mass., also was an avid golfer and had only one concern. There was a post tournament coming up.
“I told my wife, ‘If this kid is going to be a golfer, he or she will wait until after the tournament,’ ” Paul Quigley recalled. “She looked at me like I had six heads.”
All six heads turned out to be prophetic. Brett was born on Monday, the day after the tournament. Thirty-eight years later, the timing of Brett’s first child wasn’t quite as well-timed.
Clearly, Lillian Sage Augusta Quigley has no future in golf. Her impending arrival chased her father off the course during a practice round Tuesday, two days before his Masters debut. He had just left the 11th green and was walking to the 12th tee when he decided to check for messages on the cellphone that he sneaked onto the course.
He was at Amen Corner, of course, when it rang.
“Literally, as I turned the phone on, it started ringing,” he said.
A friend told him he needed to fly home to Jupiter, Fla., to be with his wife, Amy. Quigley, whose wife wasn’t actually due until April 16, didn’t quite grasp the urgency of the situation.
“I said, ‘I’m on 12, I’ll just play the last couple of holes,’ and he said, ‘No, Amy’s in labor. Her water broke.’ I said, ‘Oh gosh,’and I turned to my dad and said we gotta go. [Practice partners] Lucas [Glover] and [Jeff] Sluman were kind of in shock.”
That phone call came shortly after 1 p.m. Amy’s contractions were three minutes apart. Quigley left his clubs and his father (also his caddy) in Augusta and caught a flight for Jupiter. Four hours later, he was in the hospital. After a protracted labor, doctors performed a C-section. The newest Quigley was born at 2:55 a.m. Wednesday.
Brett spent the rest of the sleepless day with his wife. He changed two diapers. (“I feel like a real veteran.”) He thought about not returning to Augusta, but his wife convinced him. He made it back in the evening.
It was his first Masters, but he floated through the day. He got to the course and handed out cigars on the practice green. (Another 150 have been ordered.) Adrenalin carried him through fatigue. He smiled all day. Nothing fazed him. Paul Quigley said he couldn’t recall his son ever being so relaxed on the course.
Turns out, the biggest moment in somebody’s career isn’t so intimidating when it comes the day after the biggest moment of his life.
“Exhausting. Incredible,” said Quigley, who also has an uncle on the Champions (Senior) Tour. “There were probably five or six times out there when I was fighting back tears.”
When asked about the timing of his daughter’s birth, Quigley recalled telling his 93-year-old grandmother the due date. “The first thing she said was, ‘Couldn’t you have planned that any better?’ ” Quigley said.
Given the family history — well, no.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Masters
Aussies have best shot at victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Augusta — Up to this time, there has been less talk about who wins the Masters this year than about (1) the change in command, (2) Billy Payne’s early moves, such as the return to automatic invitations to PGA Tour winners, (3) Arnold Palmer’s return to the first tee box, and a whole lot of matters, other than why we’re here: Who might win the thing. Not even Tiger Woods has taken over in the usual storm of prognostication. The sports staff of the local paper was polled and not one member picked Tiger to win.
So, there seemed to be a tempting invitation to speculate, and it behooves me to step into such a delicious breech, this hour of indecision. Therefore, I have your winner here: Australia.
That’s right, Australia. I’d say that’s a pretty good spread at Augusta National this week. Seven guys going for me. And remember, no Aussie has ever won the Masters. Some close calls. Poor old Greg Norman finished second three times, once in the most heart-smashing manner. You know it, you’ve seen it in reruns. Larry Mize chips in off the 11th green in 1987, and how more sudden can sudden death be than that? He had come into the 18th hole the year before with a chance to catch Jack Nicklaus — and ruin a helluva story — and missed. Norman again finished second to Nick Faldo in 1996, and that’s one he’d just as soon forget.
Before he lost an arm in a horrendous accident Jack Newton tied for second in 1980, four strokes behind Seve Ballesteros. And that’s about how it has been for the Aussies down through the years. Until now. Look, are you forgetting? Our national champion is an Aussie.
Remember Geoff Ogilvy? He waited around patiently. Tiger Woods had missed the cut. Then Phil Mickelson’s game blew a gasket at Winged Foot. Winner of the U.S. Open, Ogilvy from Adelaide.
How about Nick O’Hern of Perth? Twice he has beaten Woods in the World Match Play Championship, a tall left-hander who putts with the kind of weapon a chimney sweep might use. Nick was in early Thursday with a 76, 4 over par, and wasn’t feeling too badly about it when he saw some of the other scores.
“With no wind and wide fairways and no rough,” he said, “it’s the toughest course I ever played. You’ve just got to take it on the chin. I never saw the scores this high this early. That’s Augusta.”
It’s Augusta, but it’s not match play, so there’ll be no shot at Woods again, head to head.
Look at Stuart Appleby. He finished tied for second at last week’s Shell Houston Open. His game does taper off a little after the turn into springtime, but he did make a flourish at Houston again last week. Robert Allenby has always been a potent challenger, but he is a bit quirky. Up and down, and if the shot isn’t a draw, he may go into the tank. But he’s player enough to have won four times on the American tour.
Rod Pampling has more to be remembered for than being the only player who ever led the British Open after the first round, then missed the cut. That in 1999, the year the world cursed the return to the new (old) Carnoustie course. Pampling planted his game over here and has won twice, Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Tournament last year on top of his dossier.
Aaron Baddeley actually was born in the United States, in Lebanon, which I thought was in Vermont — but the book says New Hampshire — while his father was an engineer for Mario Andretti’s racing team, but grew up in Australia, and there founded his golf game. He has won twice here, but established himself more famously as “Bads” in those girly television commercials.
That brings me around to my ace in the hole. Adam Scott knows how to win in this part of the world. He won the Players Championship at Sawgrass in 2004, then cleaned out in the field in the Tour Championship at East Lake last fall, the one Woods and Mickelson chose to pass up. Five times this bright and sparkling young man has won on this soil, with some emphasis on the Houston tournament, which he won last week. They always say that it’s encouraging to come into Augusta fresh from winning. Actually, it happened so long ago that Sandy Lyle was a blushing kid, which was 1988, a week after he’d won at Greensboro.
There you have it. Can you come up with a better seven-card hand?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Masters
Pitching must stand up against Mets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
When you consider everything, ranging from manager Tony LaRussa still fresh from a DUI arrest to maybe the worst starting pitching rotation ever for a defending world champion, the St. Louis Cardinals are a mess. That’s why the New York Mets spent the first week of this season exploding to the top of the National League East.
Well, that’s part of the reason. Despite the Mets ranking among baseball’s most overrated teams every year, they actually are more than hype this time.
What this means for the Braves is that the perennially aching Mike Hampton has to stay healthy. It means John Smoltz and Tim Hudson can’t stop resembling their vintage selves. It means Chuck James, Mark Redman, Lance Cormier and whoever else fills out the Braves’ pitching rotation must have more solid starts than sorry ones. It means the revamped bullpen has to continue looking potent.
“You can overpower teams with pitching, but the Mets have an American League lineup, to me,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, referring to the visitors tonight at Turner Field for the home opener of his also streaking team (3-0). “Everybody in the Mets lineup is outstanding. They can get away with a little less pitching, possibly. But the entire world, you need pitching.”
Even the Mets. Thus some encouraging news for those already chasing this bunch that is 3-0 after outscoring the Cardinals 20-2 in St. Louis: These aren’t the days of Seaver, Koosman and McGraw. Although the Mets have accomplished closer Billy Wagner, they haven’t much else in the bullpen. Plus, Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez are just shy of ancient, but they are the Mets’ starting aces.
The problem for the Braves is that bats more than arms spur the Mets’ thoughts of repeating as NL East champions.
They have the blur that is leadoff hitter Jose Reyes. They have the clutch ways of Paul Lo Duca, along with the consistent bashing of Carlos Delgado, Carols Beltran, David Wright, Shawn Green and Moises Alou. So, given that the Braves’ goal is to capture a 15th division title in 16 years, and given that the Mets are the scariest team standing between the Braves and that goal, and given that they play each other 17 more times after tonight, the Braves have to become Mets killers right now.
We’re back to pitching, with Smoltz suggesting that we’re not talking about just any kind of pitching.
“To be blunt, our pitching the last five years has not been real good,” said Smoltz, the Braves’ elder statesman, referring to a unit that was anchored for nearly a decade by Cy Glavine, Cy Maddux and Cy Smoltz. There also were the All-Star likes of Steve Avery, Denny Neagle, Russ Ortiz and Kevin Millwood. Added Smoltz, “We’ve got to re-create that pitching-rich aura that was here all the way up until the last few years. That only can happen by going out and being dominant and not having any weaknesses. I think we’ve shored up a lot of those concerns, but the first month is just Step One in the process.”
So what does this have to do with the Braves and the Mets?
Think psychologically, if nothing else. “I liken all of this to a golf tournament where you can’t win it in the first day, but you actually can lose it,” said Smoltz, whose team will face the Mets nine times before Memorial Day. “You don’t want to get in a big hole with some of these teams, and that kind of goes along with, we’ve got to create a little bit of ‘Oh. You know. These guys are pitching. These guys are solid.’ It’s not a situation of saying to ourselves, ‘Let’s just hang in there.’ It’s a situation of, ‘Let’s go out and create what once was a strong point of our ballclub.’ “
To slay the suddenly mighty Mets, the Braves haven’t a choice.
Permalink | Comments (68) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Can Thrashers seize the moment?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Stanley Cup playoffs are a great event that almost nobody — almost nobody in this country, anyway — watches. I wonder how many Atlantans will be watching the Thrashers. I wonder because this is all new, at least new for those among us who weren’t around when the Flames were based here.
The Thrashers have never played a postseason game. That changes next week. The NHL playoffs are different from the NBA’s. Any team that gets in has a realistic (as opposed to a theoretical) chance to play for the Cup. The Thrashers could surprise everyone and be playing not just next week but next month.
If that happens, Atlanta will tune in. This is, as we know, a bandwagon city. But I’m guessing the first round will get little attention from the masses because the bandwagon hasn’t really budged. Yes, there’s a core audience for hockey in this town and there always has been, but the core hasn’t expanded greatly in the eight years since the Thrashers set up shop. Part of that is their fault for not winning big enough soon enough. More of it has to do with hockey itself.
It’s a bad TV sport in an era when being good on TV is all that matters. (It’s a great in-person sport, but because television money pays so little of hockey’s overhead the teams have to charge their paying customers two arms and two legs.) The Thrashers have been good all year, but they really haven’t caught the fancy of the man/woman in the street the way the Braves did in 1991 or the way the Hawks did in 1988.
These playoffs are the Thrashers’ chance to catch hold the marketplace in a way they haven’t quite yet. They need to stick around for a while. They’re capable.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
