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Thursday, November 26
Leonard has his chance, and blows it
By Bob Harig
ESPN.com
CHASKA, Minn. -- He won a major championship, clinched a Ryder Cup. Then Justin Leonard decided he needed a transformation.
|  | | On a day where a 70 would have won him a major, Justin Leonard shot a 77. |
So he changed his coach, his manager, his caddie, even his golf ball. Perhaps more important, he worked on changing his swing under the direction of Butch Harmon, who did the same thing with a pretty famous client.
For three days it worked, and Leonard was the class of the PGA Championship. On Sunday, it didn't, and Leonard was left smarting, unable to take advantage of the wide-open door left by Tiger Woods.
A day after shooting 69 in the brutal conditions at Hazeltine National Golf Club, when nobody else broke 70 and only four players broke par, Leonard could not get it done in the pleasant Minnesota sunshine.
He struggled to a 5-over-par 77 when a 70 would have won the tournament.
Leonard had a three-stroke lead over Rich Beem. Who? Before this weekend, most of the world didn't know Beem, a guy who quit the game to sell cell phones a few years ago, a guy who despite a victory two weeks ago was still ranked just 73rd in the world.
It is a loss that might take a while to get over. Leonard kept a stiff upper lip afterward, but you know it won't be easy.
"The getting over part is only a few minutes old,'' he said. "Ask me in another couple of weeks.''
Clearly, this was a major chance gone awry.
"The last three days I had done a really good job of taking advantage of my opportunities,'' Leonard said. "Today I didn't take advantage of a big opportunity and that stings. It stings a lot. And it will sting for awhile.''
And it should.
Opportunities like this just don't come along in the era of Woods.
When Leonard won the 1997 British Open at Royal Troon, Woods was a rookie with the Masters under his belt. But Ernie Els won the U.S. Open that year, followed by Leonard at the British and Davis Love III at the PGA.
What a foursome. And it was supposed to be the beginning of some great rivalries in golf.
But since then, Woods added another seven majors. Els finally added another last month at the British Open. Leonard has yet to do so.
"When you look at who has won the majors in the last five years, there's probably one player who sticks out, so yeah, I would say it's a lot more difficult to win majors than it was five or six years ago,'' Leonard said.
That's what makes Sunday so tough. Woods was five strokes behind him when the day began, a position from which he has never won a major and still hasn't. Although he overtook Leonard, he wasn't able to pass Beem, finishing second at a major for the first time.
Leonard never really had a chance to worry about Woods. Beem caught him by the fourth hole. And when Leonard flared a 6-iron into the water at the eighth hole and made double-bogey, he was never a factor again.
"I wasn't playing well, so I didn't feel a whole lot of pressure,'' he said. "Rich played a great round of golf and he played great yesterday as well. He certainly played better than anyone over the weekend and that's when you win a major championship.''
Leonard, who came from five strokes back the final day at Royal Troon in 1997, knows major championship misery.
He was presented a gift in 1999 at Carnoustie, where Jean Van de Velde went to sleep on the 72nd hole. Trouble was, Leonard was still in a daze when the playoff began. Upset that he had bogeyed the last hole himself, he was almost stunned to learn he still had a chance. But he was out of the four-hole playoff almost as soon as it started, the answer to a trivia question whenever anyone asks about Paul Lawrie's victory.
A year later, he began the work that brought him back to this point. The simple term is he simplified things.
But, of course, under the gun it is not that easy.
Leonard learned that the hard way on Sunday.
"I didn't play that well, I put too much pressure on my putter and short game,'' he said. "It just wasn't in the cards for me.''
Bob Harig of the St. Petersburg Times is a regular contributor to ESPN.com
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