The Week: Prince of Darkness

Scott Hoch was vilified for halting a playoff but came out a winner in the end

By Alan Shipnuck

Hoch beat Furyk with a birdie on Monday morning, 14 hours after fans booed him off the Blue Monster. Wilfredo Lee/AP GOLF PLUS EXTRA Big Play: Brad Redding TRUST ME When he has his A game, Ernie Els is as overwhelming a force as Tiger Woods. What separates them is that Woods still has the toughness to grind out a win when he's not at his best. Els, meanwhile, has lost on the 72nd hole this year to the likes of Lian-Wei Zhang and Robert-Jan Derksen. NEXT UP PGA Tour: The Honda Classic Champions tour: SBC Classic European tour: Qatar Master LPGA tour: Welch's/Fry's Championship INSTANT POLL Which 2003 major was the best? The Masters The U.S. Open The British Open The PGA View Results

Scott Hoch doesn't care what you think. Golf's leading contrarian has made a career out of uttering unpopular opinions -- he has dissed the Old Course as overrated and the Ryder Cup as overhyped, raised the ire of his fellow pros for skipping the British Open and the hackles of PGA Tour staff for continually criticizing their course setups. On Sunday night at the Ford Championship, Hoch made one of the boldest statements of his career by doing nothing at all.

Locked in a sudden-death duel with Jim Furyk, Hoch reached the second extra green at Doral's Blue Monster and decided it was simply too dark to effectively read the break on his nine-foot birdie putt. (Furyk was facing a six-footer for birdie.) In an age when sports is entertainment and image everything, Hoch simply canceled the show, leading to a shower of boos and catcalls from the unsatisfied spectators. At Hoch's request, and with Furyk's consent, play was suspended at 6:33 p.m., seven minutes after sunset. The overtime was resumed Monday at 8 a.m., in golden morning light, and both players poured in their birdie putts. Hoch took the title with a textbook birdie on the next hole, Doral's 18th.

It was poetic justice that Hoch came out on top, because he made an unpopular decision that happened to be correct. Said Furyk following the postponement, "His charm, in a strange way, is that for good or for bad, he tells it like it is. You have to appreciate that [even if] you would like to stick a sock in his mouth once in a while so he wouldn't say it."

Hoch was unrepentant, saying, "If I feel that it's a disadvantage for me to continue because I can't see the line on my putt, then I shouldn't play and they shouldn't hold that against me." Who are they? Fans, reporters, Tour officials, network suits, Furyk's extended family, whomever.

Hoch was desperate to preserve his chance to win, at least for 14 more hours, because he is acutely aware of how fleeting time can be. At 47 and with high mileage, this could have been his last shot at victory on the PGA Tour. "The thing is, you don't know when you're going to win your last tournament, that's the issue," says Hoch, who nearly withdrew before the first round because of a sore left wrist.

Following the postponement, Hoch was criticized for being shortsighted, which was ironic, given that he spent much of the week discussing his vision. Hoch has had three LASIK surgeries in the last 18 months, but he insists his eyesight is fine. "I got my eyes fixed, but [the doctor] didn't give me night vision," an exasperated Hoch said Sunday evening.

It should be noted that during the playoff Furyk, too, was having trouble seeing. Playing a pitch into the green on the second extra hole, he had to bend over to check the lie. Still, Furyk indicated that he was willing to putt out had that been Hoch's desire.

It wasn't, of course, so on Monday morning Hoch and Furyk played another hole and a half, just enough for Hoch to earn the victory, and sweet vindication.

O.B.