Appleby sure he did his wife proud
Widowed husband knows Renay wanted a win
Posted: Sunday December 13, 1998 09:49 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Not for the first time this year, tears welled in Stuart Appleby's eyes when mention was made of his late wife Renay.
But after Sunday's victory in the Presidents Cup as a member of the International team, the blond, spikey-haired 27-year-old Australian felt he had done her proud.
"It was her dream," said Appleby, who capped the Internationals' effort in the last singles match against 1998 Masters and British Open winner Mark O'Meara.
"I know she was proud of me and proud of the friends that have helped me."
He lost 1-down to O'Meara in the singles, but finished with one win and one draw in the foursomes and a win in his only fourball match to assist the International team to its historic nine-point win.
Renay Appleby, 25, was killed July 23 in a freak road accident in London as the couple were about to board a train for Paris on a second honeymoon. The pair were constant companions on and off the course, Renay often caddying for and advising the two-time U.S. PGA Tour winner.
The Presidents Cup is Appleby's first victory since Renay's death, after he missed the cut in his return to the PGA Tour, came third then fifth in two Australasian tour starts and was then just beaten in last week's Australian Open by countryman Greg Chalmers.
Appleby said during that tournament that life was getting better since the loss of his wife, but he was getting used to it.
"I'm just glad to end the year on a good note," he said.
Beneficiaries
The Renay Appleby Memorial Fund will be one of almost 40 charities which will benefit from the proceeds of the Presidents Cup.
A unique aspect of the Presidents Cup is that the competitors don't receive prize money based on performance. Instead, the net proceeds are divided into equal shares for players and captains and donated to charities chosen by them.
The take from the 1998 tournament is expected to exceed $1.5 million (U.S.) The Presidents Cup in 1994 contributed $750,000 (U.S.) to charity, which was topped in 1996 when $800,000 (U.S.) was raised.
Charities nominated by players and captains are:
International
Stuart Appleby - The Renay Appleby Memorial Fund, Cystic Fibrosis Australia Inc.; Steve Elkington - Harris County Constable Dept.; Ernie Els - Child Welfare of Southern Africa, The Cancer Association of South Africa, Emmaus; Carlos Franco - Fundacion Makel, Fundacion Dequeni; Wayne Grady - Downs Syndrome Association of Queensland; Shigeki Maruyama - Japan committee for UNICEF; Frank Nobilo - New Zealand Golf Foundation; Greg Norman - Greg Norman Junior Golf Foundation, Royal Children's Hospital Foundation; Craig Parry - Mercy Hospice; Nick Price - Nick Price Junior Golf Foundation, Searly Cripps Childrens Home, Harare Childrens Home; Vijay Singh Hubbard House, Birmingham Golf Foundation (Big Oach Ranch); Habitat for Humanity of Alamance Country Inc.; Peter Thomson - Odessey House Foundation, Arthritis Foundation of Victoria, McFarlane Burnet Center for Medical Research, Tullamore Aged Care Center, The Smith Family National Office.
United States
Mark Calcavecchia - Fore Kids; Fred Couples - American Cancer Society, Odyssey 2000; David Duval - Betty Griffin House, Friends of the Library; Jim Furyk - University of Arizona Foundation; Scott Hoch - Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children, Methodist Church; John Huston - First Step; Lee Janzen - Covenant House; Justin Leonard - The Bridewell Foundation, Camp Esperanza; Phil Mickelson - House of Hope and Children's Cancer Research Center; Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II - Barbara and Jack Nicklaus Junior Golf Endowment Fund; Mark O'Meara - Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children, Lake Highland Preparatory School; Tiger Woods - Tiger Woods Foundation.
Nice Garden
Notwithstanding conditions ranging from temperatures of more than 40 C (100-plus F) one day to pouring rain the next, the course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club was soundly praised all week by both the International and U.S. teams.
Greenskeeper Jim Porter got his moment of glory when victorious captain Peter Thomson, a Melbourne native who has played the course hundreds if not thousands of times, called him to the stage during Sunday's closing ceremony to thank him personally.
"You were a winner in your own right," Thomson said, his arm around the somewhat startled Porter.
Winning putter
Not even the prototype putter which 1998 Masters and British Open winner Mark O'Meara used to win the Skins game last month could save him at the Presidents Cup.
O'Meara used a Taylor Made Nubbins putter to seal the $430,000 (U.S.) Skins win in California.
The U.S team was beaten on the greens, leveled by consistently devastating putting by the Internationals, including New Zealander Frank Nobilo's 40-footer to win the first match of the first round, a precursor to the rest of the tournament.
"They were going in from everywhere," a frustrated O'Meara said.
He said he started the week with his lucky-Skins putter, but couldn't come up with the goods.
"I had been using a prototype putter at the start of the Skins game and this week," he said.
"But I went back to my old putter today. I changed putters specifically to play here, and putted better too."
Kiss off
Fred Couples was being comforted in defeat by a hug from new wife Thais. John Huston held the umbrella, shielding the couple from the drizzling rain and from a throng of photographers as Mark O'Meara holed a short putt on the 18th Sunday evening, the last shot of the last game in the tournament.
O'Meara won, the team didn't.
When the umbrella was lifted, Thais gave Couples one last kiss on the cheek.
Approaching stage right, and with camera shutters all-aflutter, O'Meara approached the other cheek, all puckered-up.
Couples turned to requite, but then shied away.
He meant well
Greg Norman, the spiritual heart of the International team, may have been relating to U.S. team captain Jack Nicklaus' remark a few days earlier that his charges were like his sons.
But Norman got a little muddled -- presumably -- when he tried to describe the role that that International team captain and five-times British Open winner Peter Thomson had played.
"He has been the matriarch, the backbone of all of us," Norman tried.
"Patriarch," Thomson interrupted.
"Did I say matriarch? You are an old woman, you told us to have iced tea on the bus, not beer."
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