Maybe it's because the Heritage was played a week following the great finish at the Masters, and we were pooped out from all that excitement. I wonder at times if golf isn't becoming so oversaturated that it would be best to just take a week off following a major. We can table that discussion for another article at a later date.

The tournament was uninspiring from the start. Rain and cold weather canceled the opening ceremonies. Even when a major winner was leading the tournament, it didn't help. British Open champion Ben Curtis took the second round lead, but the focus was on how he won a British Open rather than how he was playing the Heritage. A closing nine of 40 on Saturday put a halt on Curtis becoming the 19th major championship winner at the Heritage.

A bit of intrigue arrived in the form of Ted Purdy, who shot 65 on Saturday to gain a four-stroke lead. Purdy isn't what you'd consider a household name in golf. On the PGA Tour, he had never finished in the top 10 and his only claim to fame was winning last year's Arkansas Open, just two days short of a year ago from this week's Heritage. Still, there was some hope that perhaps Ernie Els, who came in second to Phil Mickelson at the Masters, could muster up a good round Sunday to bring some excitement to the tournament.

Els finished third on Sunday and, as expected, Purdy finally realized he was leading a PGA Tour event after birdieing the fifth hole. That was Purdy's last birdie for the tournament. He struggled to make pars, and after bogeying the sixth, 10th and 15th holes, found himself tied with Stewart Cink, who had finished his round hours earlier.

Cink is one of the most misunderstood players in golf due to some popular misconceptions, one being that he is a poor putter and a great ballstriker. However, this year Cink ranks second in putting and was fifth in that stat last year. Compare that with his ballstriking, where he ranks 146th in driving accuracy and 66th in greens hit this year, and 177th in driving and 97th in greens hit in 2003. His ballstriking was a lot sharper when he arrived on Tour in 1995 than it is today.

Now, while Cink has worked very hard on his putting, he isn't a person you would pick to make that crucial winning putt. Everybody still shudders over the three-putt he made at the 2001 U.S. Open to cost him a shot at the championship. Again on Sunday, poor putting reared its ugly head -- he wasn't able to make short putts on the second, third or fourth sudden-death holes, which would have wrapped up the title for him.

Another interesting stat is that all three of Cink's wins have been come-from-behind victories. At the 1997 Hartford Classic, he made up four strokes with a final-round 66. At the 2000 Heritage, he again was four back heading into the final round, then shot 65 to beat Tom Lehman. This week, he rebounded from nine back with a closing 64, the second largest come-from-behind win in PGA Tour history (The record is 10 strokes, by Paul Lawrie in the 1999 British Open).

As a final example of just how uninspiring this year's Heritage was, look at how it ended. The television coverage ended as controversy swirled regarding a possible Rules infraction by Cink. For the next half hour, PGA Tour officials received numerous phone calls from television viewers who were stunned when Cink brushed aside lose pebbles behind his ball. Because the hazard was a waste area and not a sand bunker, Cink was allowed to move lose impediments. However, some thought he had improved his lie. Tour official Slugger White disagreed. After reviewing the videotape, White ruled that it wasn't a penalty, thus giving Cink the championship title after an anxious 30-minute wait.

KEYS TO VICTORY

Stewart Cink: Twenty years ago, the prize money earned by anyone who finished outside the top 20 wasn't very large, so there was little incentive to play well at the tournament if you knew you weren't going to finish that high. Today, if a player is 22nd heading into the final round, as Cink was, he knows a very good round could net him a top-10 finish, which in most cases is a $100,000 payday. So Cink was able to go low early to put some added pressure on the leader.

Cink's final-round 64 included an eagle, six birdies and one bogey. For the day, he hit nine of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. His birdie putt at 18 was a gem and it posted a number which, at the time, didn't look good enough to beat. However, in golf you never know what will happen, as shown on Sunday.

Cink's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 36 of 56 (T59th)
Driving average: 280.5 (24th)
Greens hit: 45 of 72 (T10th)
Putts: 105 (26.25 a rd) (T11th)
Putting breakdown:
0 putt greens: 0
1 putt greens: 39
2 putt greens: 33
3 putt greens: 0
Eagles: 1	
Birdies: 18	 (T3rd)
Scrambling: 17 of 27 (T45th)

Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.

WHY THEY DIDN'T WIN

Ted Purdy: Inexperience did Purdy in Sunday. What should have been a stroll in the park for him turned into a nightmare. In the process of just making pars, he made a couple of errors that cost him the tournament. If and when he gets another chance, he will be a better player from the lessons he learned on Sunday.

Just as with Cink, Purdy's stats was very routine. The one shining stat is putting, as Purdy only took 104 for the week.

While Purdy lost the tournament, he can take home some positives from his finish. First is the fact that he has secured his Tour privileges for 2005. The second is is that Purdy earned $518,400, just $60,000 short of what Purdy has earned in his entire career on both the Nationwide and PGA Tour.

Purdy's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 44 of 56 (T11th)
Driving average: 283.0 (19th)
Greens hit: 41 of 72 (T33rd)
Putts: 104 (26.00 per rd) (T6th)
Putting breakdown:
0 putt greens: 1
1 putt greens: 39
2 putt greens: 31
3 putt greens: 1
Eagles: 0	
Birdies: 17 (T9th)
Scrambling: 25 of 31 (7th)