Even Iron Byron, the robot hitting machine featured in those old golf gear ads; even the giant Nelson statue at the TPC Four Seasons; even the most hardened cynic couldn't help but shed a tear at how this one turned out.
Scott Verplank, a Dallas native who carried a scoring standard at this tournament as a boy, who was befriended by Nelson and his wife, Peggy, and received encouragement from the golfing legend through the years, won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship on Sunday.
When he finally coaxed in the last two-footer (Verplank called it "an out-of-body experience") to par 18 and edge Luke Donald by a stroke, Verplank bent over and held his head in both hands before looking to the sky. It was eerily similar to Ben Crenshaw's reaction to winning the 1995 Masters shortly after the death of his own mentor, Harvey Penick.
"I think Byron had a hand in this week," Verplank said in the media pavilion after his round. "[Peggy] told me right before I came in here that he picked the winner this week. I think he might have."
More sober-minded observers might point out that Verplank won Sunday because he hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens in regulation. He made three straight front-nine birds to blow by playing partner Donald, the 29-year-old Brit.
Such an uplifting finale seemed unlikely, if not preposterous, early in the week, when several downer storylines, Nelson's absence chief among them, dominated the news.
First, only two of the top 10 players in the World Ranking bothered to show, a signal that Nelson was a better recruiter than anyone knew.
Then thunderstorms on Tuesday prevented Phil Mickelson from flying into Dallas, and he missed his early tee time for Wednesday's pro-am, an offense punishable by disqualification. But the Tour sent out a press release that said, in part, "Phil did everything physically possible to get here Tuesday night but was grounded in Little Rock due to circumstances completely beyond his control."
Finally there were the greens, which Rich Beem called "the worst I've seen in nine years on Tour." They were a bumpy, pitted mess that every player struggled to tame, and almost all assailed. (Mickelson called them "fine.")
