US PGA Tour (St. Jude Classic): Justin Leonard (USA)
European Tour (BMW European PGA Championship): Angel Cabrera (ARG)
Asian Tour (Maekyung Open): S.H. Choi (KOR)
Japan Golf Tour (Mitusbishi Diamond Cup): I.J. Chang (KOR)
Sunshine Tour (Vodacom Origins of Golf): Desvonde Botes (RSA)

Quite a busy week on the world golf circuit.

Leonard very nearly became the first person to blow an 8-shot (or better) lead going into the final round since they began tracking such things in 1970, but he managed to hang on by a stroke against the hard-charging David Toms.

On the U.S. telecast, Lanny Wadkins really let Leonard have it, lambasting him for playing so conservatively. Most of the punditry I’ve read about it has agreed with Wadkins, that Leonard was employing a prevent defense, if you will.

But this kind of hindsight is always 20/20, and if Leonard is going to play aggressively with an 8-stroke lead, then he risks a faster, more spectacular, Van de Veldian collapse of triple bogeys and such. Then, of course, we’d be hearing about how crazy it was for him to play so recklessly with such a big lead. Leonard played for pars, which he got on 15 holes, and after all, he did win.

***

Angel Cabrera looked good in winning the European PGA Tour, staring down Paul McGinley in the end. I loved how the course (The Wentworth Club) ends with two par fives. If the leaderboard was more crowded than it was, that sort of setup would’ve made the race to the finish bizarre and chaotic…that’s a good thing. It was really great to see Renton Laidlaw back in the saddle calling the shots, too.

***

Eduardo Romero. Craig Stadler. Jay Haas. The guys who are pushing fifty and still beating back the young guns continues to grow, and it now includes 50-year-old Sang-Ho Choi of Korea, who won this week’s Asian Tour event at age 50. He’s so obscure a player that I couldn’t find much of a bio page for him for the link above. He did have one advantage, though: He’s the club pro at the course the tournament was played.

***

It was a good week for Korean golfers. Besides Choi, Ik-Je Chang won the Japan’s Tour Mitsubishi Diamond Cup, going wire-to-wire. Last year, he was the Order of Merit winner on the South Korean golf circuit, and we probably haven’t heard the last from him.

***

Finally, in South Africa, Desvonde Botes also won wire-to-wire and took the lead on the Sunshine tour order of merit. He also has the distinction of having perhaps the greatest name in golf.