Vijay Singh played brilliantly at the Phoenix Open, but it was an unlucky bounce off the flagstick on a John Huston tee shot that sealed the win

Courtesy of CBS

By Keith Lyford
One of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers

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Vijay Singh missed nary a putt and overpowered the TPC of Scottsdale with heat-seeking 340-yard drives, but the decisive moment in his three-stroke win wasn't a shot he hit. That moment came when John Huston suffered one of the cruelest breaks I've ever seen in tournament golf. Having made three straight birdies to trim Singh's lead to two strokes, Huston was on a roll when he reached the 16th hole, a 162-yard par-3. He flushed a nine-iron, and the shot had ace written all over it. Instead, the ball hit the flagstick dead center and ricocheted back off the front of the green, coming to rest at the bottom of a swale about 60 feet from the hole. A stunned Huston could offer only a one-word response: "Wow." If the ball had missed the stick, he would've been left with a surefire birdie to cut the lead to one stroke. If the ball had gone in, who knows how the final holes would have played out. This much is certain: At the 17th -- a drivable par-4 -- Huston, who would've just completed four consecutive holes under par, surely would have been primed to hit a great tee shot. Instead, after settling for par at 16 and still reeling from his horrible break, he yanked his drive into the pond that fronts the left side of the 17th green, sinking any chance he had of catching Singh.

Keith Lyford, 50, an instructor based in Lenox, Mass., is one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers.

Issue date: February 3, 2003