Steven Ames shot a 64 Sunday and found himself in a three way playoff with Justin Leonard and George McNeill.  Two playoff holes later Mr. Ames was $828,000 richer and possessor of that interesting looking trophy.  He's also in need of a new itinerary for the yearly family vacation.  Since he wasn't planning on playing next year's opening event, the family's annual trip to Maui included a lot of beach time.  Not so much any more, “I always tell Gary Player golf always gets in the way,” Ames said. “I don’t want to play golf. I want to sit on the beach and relax.”  Now he'll just have to stay a little longer.

The rest of the field had their own pressure on the final day to claim full playing privileges for the upcoming 2010 season.  David Duval missed the cut and lost his full status, as did Robert Garrigus.  Jimmy Walker and Nicholas Thompson were the only players to begin the week outside the top 125 and move inside that number.  Mr. Walker actually made it on the number.  “It’s tough. You can’t do anything,” Walker said. “You just have to sit back and relax. Not relax, you can’t relax. But I did all I could do.”  Sounds like a man whose wrung himself just a little tight, but when it's your livelihood on the line I give him credit for being able to speak as opposed to blubbering in the corner fighting off nervous tics.  Rich Beem shot 68 Sunday for a ten under par total good enough for 122nd place after the dust settled.  “I must say it was about as odd as I’ve ever felt thinking about it. I never expected myself to feel the way that I did,” Beem said. “When somebody tells you that you can’t do your job next year when you know you’re so close, that’s not such a good feeling.”  Uh, Rich, there are a lot of folks right now only too aware of that feeling.  At least you were the one who put yourself in that position with your play.  Controlling your own destiny is, and has been beyond the reach of a lot of folks these days. 

Tiger Woods won for the seventh time this year.  Somehow my reaction to that seems so ho hum.  Seven wins, one year, coming off reconstructive knee surgery.  Is a BIG deal.  And yet, so, um, common.  As with greatness in anything, the expectation of victory dilutes the victory.  Only when it doesn't happen does one take note, then only to wonder how that happened and what's wrong with the Hero.  But that's for another time. He's now won on every continent where golf is played.  “I’ve never won down here, so now I have won on every continent, except for Antarctica,” Woods said. “I haven’t played the Antarctica Four-Ball yet. But to have won on every playable continent, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. And now I’ve done that.”   How interesting would it be to see Tiger Woods play in the Antarctica Four-Ball? 

Mr. Woods received a $3 million appearance fee for playing in Australia, half of which was paid by the government.  So was the investment worth the $1.5 mil? “He over-delivered,” said Ian Baker-Finch, the former British Open champion helping out with local TV analysis.  If the numbers coming out of Victoria are even close those three words are perfect.  The economic return has been estimated at $20 million.  A couple of years with returns like that and my 401k would be back to 2006 levels.  Even Adam Scott played reasonably well, finishing the week tied for sixth place and his second top ten finish in a row. 

For the first time in six years, a span so full of ups and downs even Jerry Springer would be an emotional wreck, Michelle Wie won a golf tournament.  Fitting that it was in Mexico at world number one Lorena Ochoa's Invitational.  The entire tour let out a collective breathe as finally Ms. Wie won, at a time when star power is what the LPGA needs to thrive.  New Commissioner Michael Whan has to like what he saw this past week.  Brought in to pick up the pieces of the disaster created by former commissioner Carolyn Bivens, Mr. Whan can now hope that Ms. Wie begins to play and win more frequently.  A warning is in order, keep those expectations low, the journey to this point has been a series of disasters followed by untold beat downs.  Things are finally looking up for the tour as a whole with this victory and the return of the Shop Rite Classic to the schedule.  It'll take time to clean up the mess Ms. Bivens made of things, but with the rise of Ms. Wie and some better play by the young American players the worst will be over. 

I want to congratulate Ms.Wie for her victory.  I've been hard on her over the years leading to this, well not so much her as she is just a kid, but her parents who where in charge of the entire dog and pony show atmosphere her career took on after she signed with Nike.  Perhaps they didn't kill the spirit of their child completely, only time will tell.  Hopefully more beer showers are in her future.