T

he Waste Management Phoenix Open finally concluded on Monday, Feb. 7 after 5 straight days of stop-and-go play due to cold temperatures at dawn causing frost on the greens. For last week at least, no one would have ever known that Phoenix is located 33° North and 112° West with coordinates that spell the Sonoran Desert.

This schedule malfunction threw off the entire rhythm of the event to where only half the field finished the 1st round on Thursday followed by the other half on Friday. The PGA Tour deemed on Friday that the tournament would roll over and conclude on Monday morning.

Interestingly enough, the leader after round 1 was not exactly representative of golf’s elite. American Tommy “two gloves” Gainey shot a blistering 63 to finish at 8 under par to take a 1 stroke lead over fellow American Dustin Johnson. The 35-year-old Gainey’s nickname comes from the fact that he wears two gloves while playing golf, the only player on the PGA Tour that does that. Gainey’s road to the PGA Tour is a story in and of itself. He played on the PGA’s feeder Tour, The Nationwide Tour in 2010 and managed to win two events to earn a promotion to the PGA Tour.

At one point prior to his foray into professional golf, he had worked in a manufacturing plant wrapping air-conditioning units with insulation. His two glove strategy must have come in handy in those days. When asked if it was an advantage wearing two golf gloves in the cold weather Gainey commented: “I’d have to say it’s not really much of an advantage when it gets that cold because everybody, wearing a glove or not, is still freezing, and your hands are feeling kind of numb. And that’s the way my hands were feeling, kind of numb.”

Gainey was oblivious to the fact that he was playing against the best players in the world as he carded a 2nd round score of 65 to maintain his lead of 1 stroke after the 2nd round.

Gainey was not bashful to admit that he was facing the prospect of a major payday if he happened to win the event when he said: “Where can you go and play almost for a million every week? And this week I think it is a million if I’m not mistaken.”

This time the man in 2nd place was fellow American Mark Wilson who had won earlier this season. Wilson shot a spectacular seven under par 64 in round 2 to put some heat on Gainey. Asked to comment about his play Wilson said: “It’s just taking it one shot at a time. Everything just flowed good today and I felt very calm.”

Gainey, however, continued his fortuitous journey maintaining his focus to post a score of three under par, 68 in the 3rd round to maintain a slender 1 stroke lead over Wilson who answered with his own 68. Gainey touched on his good fortune when quizzed about his position in the tournament: “You know, I’m hitting it great. I’m making putts, and I think I’ve got good karma right now. And that’s good. I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Having won earlier this year at the Sony Open in Hawaii and playing 36 holes in one day, Wilson appeared comfortable with the string of delays. Reflecting on that victory as an analog to what was happening now Wilson remarked: “It was a good flow. I was playing well, so I just wanted to keep rolling.”

The 4th and final round came Sunday afternoon and Gainey began to show signs of cracking early on the back nine. Wilson tied Gainey on the 8th hole with a birdie at which point Gainey’s game started breaking down With a birdie to Gainey’s bogie on the 12th hole Wilson had now taken a two stroke lead at 16 under par. Play was soon halted for a Monday finish, a pause that could not have come sooner for Gainey who was clearly imploding.

This was to no avail though as when play resumed on Monday, Gainey made the fatal error of putting 2 balls into the water on the water-lined, par 4, 17th hole yielding a triple bogey 7. And that was all she wrote for Gainey.

Wilson had other pursuers by this point with the likes of American Jason Dufner finishing at 18 under par to post the clubhouse lead. Wilson held muster to make a challenging par putt on the 18th and final hole to tie Dufner.

Dufner and Wilson were now heading into a playoff. Wilson’s recent winning experience paid dividends through his patience in the playoff. It only took Wilson two holes to dispatch Dufner for his 2nd victory in 2011.

He converted a pressure packed birdie putt on the 2nd playoff hole, the par 4, 10th which Dufner failed to match. Gainey to his credit exhibited admirable maturity in a gut wrenching moment when he said: “You’ve got to win with class and you’ve got to lose with class, so I’m trying to deal with that right now.”

Mark Wilson has achieved a remarkable feat with his 2nd emphatic victory stamp in just five events at the dawn of the 2011 PGA Tour season. He commented on this milestone as follows: “I’m just enjoying the ride here and that’s just kind of the way I’m going to look at the year here, just ride this train as long as I can.” It is a ride that Wilson hopes will take him to many more victorious destinations in 2011.