The 2009 British Open: something nobody else said

I've been reading quite a few articles about The Open Championship (golf), otherwise known as the British Open (over in the U.S., anyway). Tons and tons of articles about how Watson lost it on the 18th, how Stewart Cink got into a playoff with his birdie on the 18th, a lot about the anti-climactic playoff...

It isn't true. Watson didn't lose it on the 18th with a lousy putt, he lost it on the 14th with a nearly-perfect putt of almost the same length that grazed the edge of the hole. And Stewart Cink didn't get into the playoff with a dead solid perfect putt on the 18th that he knew was going in when it was still four feet from the hole, he won it on the 13th with a putt that literally circled the hole and looked like it was going to pop out just before it dropped in. (Cink's knees actually nearly buckled on that one.)

The fact is, many sports are "a game of inches", despite the length of the field or course, or the size of the players. IN golf, though, you can see the inches. Or less. For those two putts, I'd estimate that Watson missed on the 14th (after a very careful and deliberate study, by the way) by half the width of the ball. Same thing for Cink making the birdie on the 13th. So how wide is a regulation golf ball? Well, to be metric about it, a golf ball is about 43 millimeters wide. So that's the difference between winning and losing for Watson and Cink, after hundreds of yards of drives and chips and putts -- 43 millimeters. For others that have difficulty relating to metric measurements, less than 2 inches.

To see what I mean: Sports Center Highlight of the Night

By the way, I still hate ESPN. And some day I'll explain why.