Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – It’s supposed to be hard to win The Players Championship. While not quite a major, the tournament, contested at demanding TPC Sawgrass by the world’s best players, is supposed to be a little more perilous than a $2 Nassau at City Park.
But while that message – with every waterlogged golf ball and subsequent epithet – got through loud and clear to 73 golfers Sunday, Stephen Ames acted as if his 18 holes were just a precursor to an afternoon at the Denver Zoo followed by dinner at Elway’s.
As nearly everyone around him crashed and burned, Ames, who had just one PGA Tour victory in 207 starts entering the week, glided blissfully to the biggest win of his career.
“From the first hole on, I was watching the scoreboard and I was aware of what everyone else was doing,” Ames said completing after his final- round 5-under-par 67. “It was heartbreaking watching them, but I just got on with my game.”
Beginning the day with a one-shot lead, Ames needed only to look in front (Sergio Garcia had a closing 78) and beside him (playing partner Vijay Singh shot 77) to know that victory was his if he could remain upright. The Canadian’s dominating 14-under 274 for the week was six shots better than Retief Goosen.
Finishing in a four-way tie for third were Pat Perez, Henrik Stenson, rookie sensation Camilo Villegas and Jim Furyk. Villegas, a last-minute addition to the field, fell just $95,000 – or one more birdie at some point during the week – short of jumping into the top 10 on the tour money list, and with it, a berth in the Masters.
Ames, who moved from 67th to sixth after winning the $1.44 million first-place check, no longer has to worry about Augusta. In fact, Ames was so not worried about the Masters that he said he might not even tee it up in the season’s first major in two weeks.
“I’d rather go on vacation, to be truthful,” he said. “It wasn’t on the schedule, the kids are on spring break and we were going to (his native) Tobago. Now, I would have to cut that short and say, ‘Daddy’s going off to play golf again.”‘
Ames didn’t finish better than a tie for 33rd in the tour’s first five events this season, and that came in the World Golf Championship Match Play, where he lost by a record 9-and-8 score to Tiger Woods.
But two weeks ago, Ames finished tied for 20th at Doral and followed two weeks ago with a tie for seventh at the Honda Classic. But Ames admitted that those results weren’t indicative of what was about to happen, a win that some – including himself – might label as career-changing.
“Let’s see: The first time I won came in 2004 at the Western Open,” Ames said. “This is The Players Championship, with 48 of the top 50 players in the world playing – what do you think?”
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or at acotton@denverpost.com.
