Those who felt compelled Sunday evening to flip back-and-forth between the Packers-Falcons game and the Frys.com Open were rewarded with snippets of Bryce Molder's six-hole playoff victory over Briny Baird.
The victory – his first on the PGA Tour – was a long time coming for Molder, 32, a can't-miss kid in 2002 after four first-team All American seasons at Georgia Tech.
Meanwhile, the most dominant player in golf, Yani Tseng, scored her sixth LPGA victory of the season at the Hana Bank Championship in Korea. Tseng, 22, has won nine times worldwide this year, including victories in Australia, New Zealand and her native Taiwan. Too bad so few people pay attention to women's golf, because Tseng is a gem.
Also lost in the college football-NFL-MLB playoff shuffle was professional victory No. 1 for the flamboyant Ricky Fowler, who bested Rory McIlroy by six shots at the Kolon Korea Open. While the win takes a monkey off Fowler's back, his feat is more significant to the One Asia Tour, which co-sanctioned the event with the Korea Golf Tour.
Launched three years ago, the One Asia Tour is engaged in a turf war with the Asian Tour for pro golf dominance in the region. Its ability to attract (read offer appearance fees to) big names like McIlroy and Fowler is nettlesome to the long-established but under-funded Asian Tour.
Perhaps more important, One Asia is providing a proving ground for the influx of talented young players from Korea, China and elsewhere in Asia. To that point, remember the name Meen-whee Kim. He finished third behind Fowler and McIlroy, and one place ahead of countryman Y.E. Yang. At age 19.
I was tipped off to Kim's potential at the inaugural Asian Amateur Championship in 2009 in China. An acquaintance who is a Titleist talent scout was smitten by Kim at first sight, particularly the then-17-year-old's athleticism and young Tiger Woods body type. We watched him play a couple of rounds, and he didn't disappoint. Kim finished third at the Asian Amateur, the Augusta National- and R&A-sponsored tournament that awards a Masters berth to the winner and a spot in International Final Qualifying for the British Open to the winner and runner-up. Kim would go on to win the individual title at the prestigious Asian Games in 2010, before turning pro last winter.
Kim tied for 8th at the One Asia Tour qualifying tournament in January (won, incidentally, by '09 Asian Amateur winner Chang-won Han of Korea), then got off to a horrific start as a pro. He missed the cut in his first three events on the One Asia Tour, shooting a cumulative 22 over par in six rounds. Kim righted the ship at the Nanshan China Masters in early June, posting a 7-under 281 and tying for 11th place. He followed that with joint 23rd at the Indonesian Open, joint 7th at the Thailand Open (where he finished 14 under), and third in Korea at minus-7.
Kim's biggest test of his rookie season figures to arrive Nov. 10 when he tees off at the Emirates Australian Open – which also features the One Asia imprimatur – against a field that includes Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and Geoff Ogilvy.
Elsewhere in golf:
• Speaking of Kims, the demonstrative LPGA standout Christina Kim scored her first victory on the Ladies European Tour, at the Sicilian Italian Open. She finished bogey-bogey but still won by four shots in the 54-hole event.
• Lee Slattery of England, who has bounced back and forth between the European and Challenge tours for a decade, claimed his first European Tour victory at the Bankia Madrid Masters.
• Miguel Angel Carballo won the the Nationwide Tour's Children's Hospital Classic in Chattanooga. Carballo, 32, from Argentina, secured his PGA Tour membership for 2012, moving up to No. 5 on the Nationwide money list with two tournaments to play before the season-ending Tour Championship. The top 25 on the money list earn PGA Tour eligibility.
• Brad Faxon notched his first Champions Tour title when the final round of the scheduled 54-hole Insperity Championship in Texas was rained out. Faxon, 50, posted 69-65 in the first two rounds and bested Tommy Armour III by one stroke.
• Julien Quesue of France won the European Challenge Tour's Allianz Golf Open de Lyon, posting his second top 3 in three weeks. Quesue, 31, advanced to ninth place in the Challenge Tour Order of Merit, assuring himself a European Tour card for 2012. The top 20 on the Challenge OM earn European Tour status, and only the Roma Golf Open remains before the Challenge Tour Grand Final in Puglia, Italy.
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