Best of the Players Championship: The 25 Most Dominant Performances
By Bill Felber
Ames was a little-known journeyman pro from Trinidad by way of Canada with one PGA Tour win to his name when the 2006 Players began. If the golfing public knew him at all, it was probably for his humiliating 9 and 8 defeat at the hands of Tiger Woods a few weeks earlier at the Accenture Match Play.
Against a field that included Woods, Adam Scott, Davis Love III, Retief Goosen, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, he did not look like an especially inspired choice to win.
That inspiration may have faded even more when Ames threw out an opening 71 that left him in a 19-way tie for 37th place. But a Friday 66 vaulted him into solo second, just one stroke behind Jim Furyk, and he found himself one ahead of Singh and Sergio Garcia Saturday afternoon when Furyk managed no better than a 75. Ames, who had shot 70, closed with a 67 Sunday to beat Goosen by six strokes, with Furyk and the rest of the field nine back or more.
Goosen, who was Ames’ playing partner Sunday, got within two strokes on the 10th hole. But Ames rode three birdies plus an eagle at the par 5 16th to his six-stroke margin. “He played awesome,” Goosen said.