BOUNCING BACK : Support After Being Beaned by Errant Golf Ball Spurs Irwin to Good Showing

Years from now, this Nissan Los Angeles Open will still be remembered for Hale Irwin’s accident.

For those who somehow missed it, a brief summary:

During Wednesday’s pro-am, Irwin was hit on the forehead by an errant golf ball, and he required stitches at a local hospital.

Stories about the beaning flourished, and the tendency to embellish reached a pinnacle late Sunday when CBS commentator Ben Walker shouted at a national TV audience, “What a performance by Hale Irwin after being so close to death.” In truth, Irwin was one of perhaps 10,000 golfers who will be bopped by a golf ball this year. The difference is that few of the others will shake it off and come within a couple of strokes of winning a PGA tournament.

Irwin shot a final-round 68 at Riviera Sunday to capture third place behind Mark Calcavecchia and Sandy Lyle. He earned $68,000, $31,000 more than he earned for winning here in 1976.

And by Sunday, the 16-stitch wound on his forehead was forgotten, he said.

“It was just golf today,” said Irwin, 43, a two-time U.S. Open champion. “It seemed everyone talked about nothing but the accident. Very few people talked to me about golf. I started playing well last week at Pebble Beach and kept playing well this week.”

Irwin would not, however, dismiss the effect of the injury.

“It made me feel very lucky, that I wasn’t seriously hurt. And it made me feel very nice when so many people expressed so much concern,” he said. “It helped put me in a good frame of mind, and this game is so much a mental game. Maybe it made a five-stroke difference in the tournament. Maybe a 10-stroke difference. I don’t know. But I think it did make a difference.”

The injury played no role in his early tumble Sunday when he slashed his way to a double-bogey on the second hole with a terrible chip that landed in a sand trap and a nearly-as-terrible blast from the sand that barely made it back onto the grass.

The six left him seven strokes back.

“That was just bad golf,” Irwin said.

He said the accident wasn’t on his mind coming down the stretch when he charged at the leaders by making five birdies in the final nine holes to pull within a shot of first.

“That was good golf,” he said. “That was fun. That’s the way I know I can still play this game.”

On the final hole, Irwin needed a birdie to tie for the lead. But his second shot on the long par-four was short of the green and he ended with a bogey and a total of 10-under-par 274.

“A disappointing finish,” he said. “I really thought I had a chance. But when I look back at the week, how can I be disappointed? I came close to winning an event I probably shouldn’t have even played in, considering the crack on the head I took.

“What I found out this week is that I can still play top-level golf. And I also found out that there are an awful lot of very, very nice people in the world. The concern they showed for me was an emotional thing. It was a very strong dose of positive reinforcement for me.

“But if I ever feel in the future that I need another dose of positive reinforcement, I’m going to find it in a way that doesn’t involve me being knocked down and bleeding.”