Cohuna, about 300 kilometers north-west of Melbourne, is where Stuart Appleby was born. It’s prime dairy farming country where you work from dawn to dusk. And the population of around 3,000 will be celebrating their favourite son’s victory in the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia.
This was no ordinary victory.
Appleby was seven shots behind leader Jeff Overton going into the final round and knew he had to shoot a low number to contend.
He shot golf’s magic number, 59.
Only four other players have shot this score in the history of the PGA tour. This is like breaking the 9.8 second mark for the 100 meters dash. It is rarer than a hat-trick in cricket and a lot rarer than a Wallaby victory against the All Blacks.
Appleby honed his game by hitting balls from paddock to paddock on his parent’s property. His path has not been through the pampered golf academies. He has battled his way through the secondary Nationwide Tour and seen his share of life’s perversity.
In 1998, he missed the cut in the British Open. He was loading the boot of his car outside London’s Waterloo Station when his wife, Renay, was hit by a car and later succumbed to her injuries. He did not pick up a golf club for more than a year.
In 1999, his close friend, Payne Stewart, a next door neighbour, died in a plane crash, and since then, Appleby has been a father figure to Stewart’s two children.
A lesser man may have succumbed to the darkness: the despair and self-doubt that accompanies every personal loss; the loneliness of grief, where words always sound inadequate, when only the quiet embrace of friends and family can soothe the pain.
When you absentmindedly pat your Labrador and reflect at the loss.
He remarried in 2002 and had his most successful period over the next four years. He won a hat-trick of the season opening Mercedes Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2006. He has enough money to retire and play with his kids and race his stable of fast cars.
The last four years have been barren in terms of victories and last year he finished outside the top 120 for the first time in a decade.
Appleby was relieved after the victory and his emotion was palpable: “It’s really changed my season … It’s given some real valid weight to the time you spend on the range frustrated, and it’s been plenty of those. Every player that’s on, you know, golf, but certainly on the TOUR has that.”
“I knew what it was all about,” Appleby said. “I knew I had to make it – I knew I had to make it for the tournament, I knew I had to make it to have a 59. I’m sitting there going, ‘How many opportunities are you going to get to do this?’
“The cards had been laying out perfectly for me all day. Why wasn’t I going to do one more? I just got a good look at it and just – bang – it felt good.”
It was a nerveless final round from Australia’s quiet man of golf.
There was a muted half-fist pump and a matter of fact acknowledgement of the cheering crowd. He was three holes in front of Jeff Overton and victory was not confirmed yet. Appleby had done what he could and now there was the wait.
Overton had a birdie attempt on the final hole to force a playoff. His put stopped agonizingly short. Victory was Appleby’s and lady luck was repaying some of the accumulated interest.
Australian sport has had some wonderful ambassadors over the years, with people like John Eales, Steve Waugh, Pat Rafter, Cathy Freeman, Rod Laver and Artie Beetson – people who have enriched the sport they play and given more than they have taken.
We can add Stuart Appleby to this list.
Golf teaches you the most important lesson in life: don’t wait for fate to impose a penalty. Impose the penalty on yourself.
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