Remembering Ames' win at Players Championship

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

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One, single dimple.

That was the key to one of the biggest wins in Canadian golf history. Ten years ago, Stephen Ames captured the Players Championship. And he didn’t just win it – he almost lapped the field, winning by six shots. That would be the best field in golf at that time, by the way, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.

“It seems like a while ago,” Ames said reflecting on what he calls the highlight of his career. “Time passes quickly. When I look at the pictures, I can’t believe how young the kids were.”

Those kids, Justin and Ryan, are now 19 and 15 respectively, and were among the first to congratulate their father when he won his title at TPC Sawgrass. Ames is now 52 and enjoying his career on the Champions Tour.

Tempus Fugit.

His performance at the Players in 2006 wasn’t a huge surprise. Ames had played the course well in previous appearances, despite not really falling in love with it.

“The first time I played the course in 2000 I thought, ‘Wow this is a tough course,’” he stated. “But it suited me.”

In 2002, a final-round 67 gave him the clubhouse lead at six under and it appeared he might raise the crystal trophy until New Zealander Craig Perks chipped in twice over the final three holes to take a two-shot win.

The next two years he was tied for 17th and tied for 13th although he missed the cut in 2005.

In 2006, Ames struggled through the West Coast swing, as per his usual – he never enjoyed those early tournaments – before posting a tie for seventh at the Honda.

While Ames is regarded as having one of the purest swings in the game, the key to good play for him usually lay between his ears. He relied often on the words of his sports psychologist, Alan Fine, who worked with the Canadian golfer in the days leading up to the first round of the Players.

“I was really trying to get quieter and quieter,” Ames said of the noise that often took over his inside his head. “Alan had me focusing on one dimple at address. If I couldn’t see just that one dimple, I wasn’t focusing properly.”

That week, that dimple looked like a dinner plate. Ames was able to stand over the ball, relaxed and quiet. With every swing, his caddie and brother Robert, would remind him to stay committed, find the dimple and swing.

The first round added up to 71. Ames recalls it being 18 holes of relatively weak ball flight.

“I remember I was trying to steer my irons,” he admitted. “I just kept telling myself to swing confidently and stay committed.”

That obviously worked as the next day he came back and not only swung the club well but rode a hot putter for a 66 that left him a shot back of the lead held by Jim Furyk.

His third-round 70 was more of the same solid play and left him alone atop the leaderboard and ready for the final group on Sunday.

Getting ready for the final day of a tournament when you’re in the lead is a waiting game. The late tee time means a lot of sitting around and thinking about what might be.

But for Ames, this day was different.

“I was as calm as I can remember,” Ames said. “I meditated for an hour before the round. I went through my routine on the range and just felt at ease.”

When he got to the first tee, he may have been calm, but he was also charged up. His opening tee shot on the 423-yard hole left him just a sand wedge into the green. On the second, a 532-yard par 5, he hit five-iron onto the putting surface to set up a birdie.

He made another birdie on the fifth to go to 11 under and at that point, was four shots clear of the field.

But on the 10th, he faced the only blip of his round. He hit his tee shot under the lip of a bunker and was forced to chunk it out, leading to a double and dropping him back to nine under. Now his lead was just two.

However, the next eight holes were simply magical. Ames controlled his ball as if it were on remote control. He birdied 11, added another on 13 and yet another on 15. On the 16th hole, he hit his second shot on the par 5 to a bowl on the front right of the green and promptly drained his next shot of an eagle. He was now seven shots clear of the field.

On the infamous 17th, he landed safely on the left centre of the green and navigated his ball over the ridge that runs down the middle, leaving himself a short putt for par.

And on 18, which always ranks as the most difficult hole on the course, he hit a perfect drive, a great second shot and rolled two putts in for a par and a 67. Only two other players broke 70 that day and Ames score was the best round of the day by two shots.

In all my years of watching golf tournaments and seeing shots played, I’ve never witnessed a player in more complete control of his golf ball. It was as close to perfect as I’ve witnessed.

Ames said those four days were as well as he’s ever played in a tournament. He’s had moments since then where that feeling of calm commitment has returned, but never for an entire tournament and never as strong as it was that week. But every time he tees it up, he tries to find it, searching for that one-dimple focus.

The victory was enormous for Ames and certainly ranks among the top thee or four wins by any Canadian golfer. To defeat that field by that margin on that course is nothing short of amazing. But truthfully, it doesn’t get the recognition it justly deserves. It’s just a half-step back of Sandra Post’s win at the LPGA Championship and Mike Weir’s Masters victory.

“I think it’s been overshadowed by Mike’s win, which is understandable,” reflected Ames. “He won a major. But I feel like I won the fifth major.”

A decade after he lifted the crystal, the win still shines as the brightest moment in a career that’s had quite a few.