What can you say about Dicky Pride, the Tuscaloosa-born golfer whose deep Alabama allegiance even holds up his pants and who just ran away with the Mitsubishi Electric Classic?
What else but:
Roll Pride!
From a most unexpected player, one who made this field the hardest way — through pre-tournament qualifying — came just the kind of one-sided win that would make Nick Saban almost smile. The first over-50 PGA Tour Champions victory for the 51-year-old Pride was rightfully the product of Sunday’s low round (67) combined with the inability of any of his pursuers to light a single match and apply the least bit of heat at the end.
Oddly enough, not all things Alabama are guaranteed winners. As good as Sunday’s round was, Pride pointed to the 68 he shot in qualifying Tuesday as his perhaps best golf of the week. It opened the door for the 14th qualifier to ever win a tournament over the 41-year history of this midlife tour.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
At the close of business Sunday, as his routine two-putt par on the par-5 18th rounded out an 11 under for the tournament and a three-shot victory over Stephen Ames, Kirk Triplett and Paul Goydos, Pride emitted a loud, “Yeah! Let’s go!” If it violated any of the TPC Sugarloaf covenants, no one complained.
“I’m from Alabama, that’s just kind of how it goes, man,” Pride said afterward.
“Honestly, I did everything that I could to keep my composure and not get excited and not start thinking about winning. You know, keep my mind focused on the shot I had. It builds up, and when I finally was able to let loose, I enjoyed it.”
As the world emerges from beneath the restrictions of COVID, maybe it was even fitting that the theme of this tournament so strongly tilted toward a new day dawning.
None of this tour’s usual suspects were in the running. Eight of the top 10 PGA Tour Champions money-winners for 2020-21 were on the grounds this week, and none finished above eighth place.
Then, with the field cleared of the most proven winners, those within range did nothing to make Pride blink. The two playing with Pride in the day’s final group — Paul Goydos and Atlanta’s Billy Andrade — both shot modest 72s and could do nothing but watch as their playing partner disappeared over the horizon.
Of the eight players who began Sunday at the lead or within two shots of it, Pride was the lone one to visit the 60s.
Said Andrade, who finished 7 under, T-5, “Nobody put any pressure on him, so it was kind of a walk in the park for him.
“He drove it well, he kept it in play, he hit almost all the greens as I can remember. He didn’t have a whole lot of issues except on 15 (his lone bogey) and 16 (a sand save). Hats off, he shot 67 on a hard golf course on a hard day. I knew that was the number. I knew if I shot that number I would have a chance to win. Sure enough, he did it.”
For a now-forgotten moment, it was another of the game’s little-known grinders, Doug Barron, who most challenged Pride over the back nine. He was tied for the lead coming to the par 4 15th, but then got into a terrible mess. From the fairway, he missed the green to the right, finding a deep swale. It held all the horrors of a Florida sinkhole. Short-sided, Barron attempted a delicate chip that rolled back into the collection area. His next shot skittered through the green and off the front. His eventual double bogey six ended his tenancy atop the leaderboard.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Pride gained belief on the tough 206-yard par 3 8th hole, canning a long birdie putt from off the green, only the second player in the field to birdie the hole. “A huge putt,” as Pride put it.
By the 15th, with no leaderboard there, Pride didn’t realize he had a four-stroke cushion as he was stumbling to his only bogey of the day. But descending into the greenside bunker at 16, he saw he was three up. “It made that a lot easier,” he said.
Pride’s career is almost as undecorated as wallboard, but Sunday’s title did complete a career hat trick for him. He has a win on the PGA Tour (1994), the Triple A tour now known as the Korn Ferry (2015) and now the tour of elders.
“When I won on the PGA Tour, I was a 24-year-old rookie that didn’t have a clue and I’m way more scarred now,” Pride said with a smile.
“This one means a lot because it was a lot harder for me. When I won Memphis in ’94, I was young, naive, and ignorance is bliss. It really ranks up there. It means a lot to me.”
Pride had his biggest pro payday Sunday, winning more for this title ($270,000) than for his long-ago PGA Tour victory ($225,000). He thinks now he just may be able to afford to buy a new belt. The old one he wore Sunday, featuring the various national championship years of Alabama football, is a couple titles behind.
“I’m hoping I can afford to get a new Alabama belt,” he said. “I started this about 15 years ago, actually in Memphis. I wore an Alabama belt, walked on the range and (Floridian) Chris DiMarco said, ‘That’s the ugliest belt I’ve ever seen,’ and I have worn one in competition every day since. And I only wear them in competition. I might retire this one.”
Roll, Pride!
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