Stolz is latest non-American winner
Do not be dismayed if the name Andre Stolz had you rushing to figure out what sport he played. Stolz seemed about as likely to match Tiger Woods for PGA Tour victories this year as he did getting an invitation to the great one's secret (sort of) wedding in Barbados.
Still, there was Stolz on Sunday holding the trophy in Las Vegas and about to cash a check for $720,000 after winning the Michelin Championship, his first victory on the PGA Tour.
This is the same guy who had yet to crack the top-30 in any PGA Tour event this year and had a stretch of eight straight missed cuts.
It simply proves again that golf is a game with growing depth, that top-notch players come from all over the globe, without fear, and that Americans are not pre-ordained to win every tournament.
Stolz is from Australia, making him the seventh Aussie to win this year.
Perhaps more amazing is the fact that Americans have won just seven of 22 PGA Tour events since June 1.
In fact, for the entire year, Americans have won a total of 20 tournaments. And even that number is a bit misleading. Five of those victories -- Heath Slocum (Tucson), Jonathan Byrd (B.C. Open), Vaughn Taylor (Reno-Tahoe), Bart Bryant (Texas Open) and Fred Funk (Southern Farm Bureau) -- came at tournaments played opposite a bigger event.
The only Americans to win the top-field tournaments are Phil Mickelson (twice), Todd Hamilton (twice), Stewart Cink (twice) Jonathan Kaye, John Daly, Chad Campbell, Zach Johnson, Joey Sindelar, Steve Flesch, David Toms, Woody Austin and Woods.
And you wonder why the United States struggles so much in the Ryder Cup?
It is simply not a game dominated by Americans anymore. Winners have hailed from seven other countries, led by Fiji's Vijay Singh with eight victories.
You can extend the argument to the LPGA Tour, where Americans have won just 10 of 27 tournaments and two players, Meg Mallon and Cristie Kerr, accounted for six of those victories.
There is no shame in this, of course. Such an evolution was inevitable. Players compete for the most money and play on the best courses in the United States. So they aspire to be here.
And with the lure of television and the Internet, it is much easier for a foreign-born golfer to imagine playing at the highest level.
"They see their buddies do it, and then they believe there is no reason why they can't do it, too," said former British Open champion and ABC-TV golf analyst Ian Baker-Finch. By the way, Baker-Finch is from Australia.
His countryman, Stolz, might be unknown to most Americans, but he has gotten around.
Last year, he led the PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit. He won a tournament on the Japan Tour. He finished T-2 at an event on the European Tour. And he won a Nationwide Tour event and finished 13th on the money list, which gave him his PGA Tour card for 2004.
"He's not exactly a spring chicken first-timer," said Tom Lehman, who finished second to Stolz by a stroke and was bidding for his first victory in four years. "He's been around the block a few times."
But Stolz was struggling. His best finish, T-34 at the HP Classic, came way back in May. He had a streak of eight straight missed cuts and missed 11 of 19 overall. He was 217th on the money list and staring at a return to Q-School.
That would have been quite a disappointment for a guy who had moved his family from Australia to Orlando.
So what does he do? He goes out and makes a bunch of birdies in Las Vegas, including a bogey-free 67 on Sunday. The win means a trip to next year's Mercedes Championship and a full exemption through 2006.
And Stolz never wavered, despite a level of play on the PGA Tour that he said is still tough to comprehend. He referred to it as "shooting a million under par.
"I could see a few guys shooting it, but the amount of guys doing it is what really gets me," he said.
And that must really get to a guy like Lehman, who would have been hard-pressed to believe he could shoot 20 under and lose by a stroke.
The fact that Stolz could come out of nowhere and win suggests how difficult it is to do on a consistent basis and adds even more of an aura to Singh's season. His eight victories have been topped just once (by Woods in 2000) since 1950. Every week, there are players, more of them, capable of stepping up and going low.
Stolz is simply the latest.
Bob Harig covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at harig@sptimes.com.
