OAKMONT, Pa. -- Two years ago, Zach Johnson and Michelle Wie were one-half of a foursome playing a practice round at the John Deere Classic.
Wie was the big-ticket item at that year's Deere. Johnson was the closest thing the tournament had to a local hero. One of the other two players was a then-24-year-old guy from Australia named Aaron Baddeley.
The only time I've ever seen a hole-in-one in person -- other than in miniature golf -- was when Baddeley made one in that practice round, on the 16th hole pushing against the Rock River at the TPC at Deere Run. Had Wie made it, the world would have stopped..
Wie didn't make the 36-hole cut two days later, and neither did Baddeley. But he has won PGA Tour events in 2006 and this year, and takes a 2-shot lead into today's final round of the U.S. Open here. Wie, meanwhile, can barely remember what it's like to make a cut in any kind of golf tournament.
Everyone but Baddeley himself assumes Tiger Woods will take control of things today and win his 13th major. I don't know. Baddeley won two Australian Opens when he was still a teen. He has a world of game, and showed a bunch of it Saturday.
Of course, nothing would be better than Bubba Watson rallying from three shots off the lead to win. Our national golf tournament being won by a guy named Bubba? From a town of 1,500 people in Florida called Bagdad. That would be priceless.
I've seen Woods win majors in person, but I was at Hazeltine in Minnesota when Rich Beem held off Tiger to win the 2002 PGA Championship, and I saw Woods fail to catch Johnson on Sunday of this year's Masters. Why not Baddeley tomorrow? Or better yet, Bubba from Bagdad.