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Golf's landscape has changed in many ways since a few Scots brought it to North America some 150 years ago. For one thing, nearly every course on this side of the big pond, the Atlantic Ocean, has a smaller pond, or a lake. But really, did this have to lead to the all-too-frequent scene of a tournament winner and various other folks jumping into the drink, or being pulled in, after the final putt is holed?
Just last weekend, for example, Inbee Park's caddie was dragged into a pond by the last green after Park won the U.S. Women's Open at the Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. Then there was the scene beside the last green at the French Open, which Pablo Larrazabal won at Le Golf National outside Paris. The 25-year-old Spaniard came into the tournament ranked 481st in the world, chose to play without a driver, and after winning, decided to become a diver.
Well, sort of. Larrazabal didn't exactly go headfirst into the water on the course, which could have been plunked out of any U.S. resort and shipped to France. But he did jump with conviction. After all, the practice has become almost de rigueur, or, necessary for anybody who wants to be thought fashionable and current.
But enough is enough. Being current shouldn't have to mean jumping into currents. Did Lorena Ochoa's friends and family need to drag her into the lake after she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April? Ochoa didn't look keen on getting wet, but hey, it's de rigueur, right?
Maybe players and their retinues think the splashing around looks good on television. Photographers certainly, well, lap it up. There's Ochoa with 13 of her nearest and dearest in the water at the Mission Hills club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. They've pulled her in and are holding her high in the lake. It's all there, in a double-page spread of Golf World magazine's April 11 issue.
But don't think the dunkin' is new. The cover photo of Golf World's March 26, 1982 issue shows then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman taking the low, wet road into the lake beside the last green at the TCP's Stadium course in Sawgrass, Fla. He's in jacket and tie and a few photographers are perilously close to falling into the water moments after the first Players Championship at the new course was over. Winner Jerry Pate pushed the commissioner in.
Beman was told this was in the plans, and had given his watch and wallet to his wife, Judy. Course architect Pete Dye also had an idea he was heading for the depths. Pate had told Dye two days earlier he planned to submerge him if he emerged the winner. Pate followed Beman and Dye into the lake. He was first in the tournament and third into the water.
"It was great stuff for television and for the 30,000 or so spectators seated in this magnificent amphitheater," Golf World reporter Ron Coffman noted in his wrap-up of the tournament.
That was then, this is now. You see, it's definitely not new.
But why did Pate decide to hit the water in the first place? Well, it had become his trademark. Pate had first taken the leap after winning the 1981 Memphis Classic. He hadn't won in three years and had told his wife Soozi at dinner after the second round that he'd jump in if he won. He followed through, as any fine golfer does.
It was only natural, therefore, for Pate to go for a swim after winning the Players the next year. (He won the tournament with an orange ball, by the way). Pate didn't win again until February 2006, when he took the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, a Champions Tour event in Lutz, Fla.
So what did Pate do in Lutz? Yup, a Lutz. Not a triple Lutz, but a Lutz nonetheless, in a manner of speaking, or swimming. Photos show him in a lake with Outback co-founder Chris Sullivan.
Only one question remains: Will the RBC Canadian Open winner take a dive into the pond in front of the 18th green at the Glen Abbey Golf Club? Should RBC chairman and CEO Charles Winograd be there, would he also take the plunge if the champion jumps in?
One thing that seems certain is that Stephen Ames won't go for a swim if he wins. Ames was at Glen Abbey last Monday.
"It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of," Ames said of post-victory watery celebrations. "Why would anybody want to get wet after playing 18 holes?"
Good question.
