Much has been made about assistant club pro Michael Bembenick shooting 89-103 in last week’s Web.com Tour event. The Golf Channel message board has been cruel, ESPN claims he took a spot from someone else and that he held up play. Personally, I think the guy had guts for finishing and signing his card after such humiliation. I mean, really, he showed me some character.
Sure he should not have been in the field, but a lot of sponsor exemptions shouldn’t be in fields – Michelle Wie comes to mind when she was playing in all those men’s events a few years ago when she told the world “I wanna be like Tiger.” Poor girl can’t play a lick now, but that’s another story. And remember when Jerry Rice got an exception in a Nationwide Tour event a couple years ago and shot in the high 80s? Or Bernard Langer’s son in a European Tour event on 2007, when he shot in the 90s? So give me a break, it happens.
And the pace of play thing that Micheal Collins of ESPN mentioned – I’m not sure how long it took him but I guarantee you one thing, I can play 18 and shoot 150 in less time than some of these PGA TOUR guys can shoot 75 (meaning less than 6 hours). So give poor Michael a break. And another thing ESPN – just because he had a couple bad days doesn’t invalidate his teaching skills. You think Hank Haney could light it up if he teed it up next week? Some of the world’s best players have been lousy teachers.
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