Jacobson making a case for best player without a win
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
With two holes to play in Sunday's Valero Texas Open, it looked as if Fredrik Jacobson might win for the first time in his eight seasons on the PGA TOUR.
And I'm not saying this just because I had the foresight/good fortune to have picked the Swede to break his 156-event winless drought with my pre-tournament selection for PGATOUR.COM.
Adam Scott's inexplicable bogey on the par-5 18th hole had opened the door wide enough for the 6-foot-1 Swede with the funky swing to sneak through for his breakthrough victory. Now trailing by just a shot, Jacobson had only a short wedge into the par-4 17th, and the par-5 ahead.
I figured it was 70-30 Jacobson would birdie one of the two holes to force a playoff, and 50-50 he would birdie both holes and finally hold up some crystal in the U.S.
Jacobson, after all, was playing to his strength. "Freddie is a putting machine," NBC announcer and Hall of Famer Johnny Miller said of Jacobson while he was finishing 10th in last week's THE PLAYERS Championship.
But Freddie wasn't a putting machine when it mattered most Sunday. He badly pulled a 9-foot birdie try on the 17th hole and, even worse, left his 16-foot tying attempt at the 72nd hole short.
"Rarely do they go in when they're short, you know," Jacobson deadpanned afterward. "Very few over the years. It wasn't what I wanted. I obviously wanted to give it a run and it didn't get there."
As a result, Jacobson once again came up just short of that elusive first "W" in the U.S. So much for Jacobson, who has three runner-up finishes in the last four years on the PGA TOUR, becoming the third consecutive foreign-born player to earn his first TOUR win.
There is no shame in losing to Scott, the young Aussie whose seventh career PGA TOUR title should revive his sagging career (Scott had gone two years without a win). But Jacobson knows this was a week where he clearly could have, should have won because he hit the ball as crisply as he has hit it in a long time.
It's not often when Jacobson ranks in the top 10 in driving accuracy and greens in regulation for the week, but that's exactly what he did at the new Greg Norman-designed AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio. But after making seven birdies in Sunday's morning round (necessitated by Friday's rainout), Jacobson made just two birdies in the afternoon.
"I probably struck the ball today better than I ever have for any single day without making a whole lot of putts," he said. "I went bogey-free for 36 holes and shot 9 under for the two rounds and hardly felt like I was making any putts."
Still, Jacobson has made quite a turnaround to his season. In his first nine events this year, he had just one top-10 finish -- a tie for sixth at his hometown The Honda Classic at PGA National. But thanks to the 10th at THE PLAYERS and the second in San Antonio, he has earned almost $900,000 the last two weeks to improve to 25th in the FedExCup standings and 84th in the latest Official World Golf Rankings.
Having gone over the $9 million mark in career earnings on the PGA TOUR, it's not a stretch to say Jacobson -- the second-most-well-known Freddie in golf -- is one of the best players who has yet to win, especially with Rory McIlroy and Tim Clark having removed their names from that list the previous two weeks.
Jacobson was a star ice hockey player and table tennis player during his youth in Sweden, but seems headed to become a late bloomer in golf. His graying sideburns seem premature for a 35-year-old, but golf can do that to you.
He is known for having perhaps the deepest voice on the PGA TOUR -- think Barry White, only lower -- but Sunday, Jacobson just missed being known for something else.
Finally becoming a winner on the PGA TOUR.
The wait continues.Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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