Thrice as Nice

Brimley, MI--Look no further than Mike Harris for proof that things occur in threes.

Three times in the final eight holes of the Canadian Tour's Bay Mills Open Players Championship, Mike Harris chipped in from off the green.

His improbable wedge work not only propelled him to his-first ever Canadian Tour victory, but it also gave him his third victory in Michigan since mid-June.

"It was raining chip shots," said Harris, who defeated Anders Hultman with a 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole and earned $32,000 to vault him into first on the Order of Merit.

"Michigan has been pretty good to me," he added.

After five career runner-up finishes, including three weeks ago in the Montreal Open, Harris at long last claimed his maiden Canadian Tour victory, and his fifth overall of the season (VT. Open, MI. Open, MI. Tournament of Champions, LeBaron Hills)

Harris entered the final round trailing third round leader Hultman by one shot. That margin stretched to three after Hultman birdied the final three holes on the front nine.

On no. 11, a 505 yard par-5, Harris' second shot came to rest in an awkward position. With one foot out of the bunker, he could only blast into the greenside rough.

"My chances of getting it close were nil," Harris said of the difficult lie in the bunker.

He then chipped in from off the green for birdie. After Hultman made par, the lead was two.

Two holes later, on the 134 yard 13th, Harris' tee shot sailed over the green into a small valley. Harris then flopped his pitch onto the back edge of the green, and watched as it trickled to the hole and toppled in.

"I couldn't justify it," Harris said afterward. "It's not like, oh, yeah, 'that's just how I drew it up.’ I was very matter of fact, and business like about it."

Now Hultman's lead had fallen to one. One hole later, Harris grabbed a share of the lead with his third birdie in four holes.

Following matching pars on the 15th, Harris faced a one-foot putt for par on no. 16 to remain even. Everyone assumed he'd make it, even the Golf Channel, which broke for commercial before it was even his turn to play.

Wrong. His bogey dropped him to 10-under, one behind Hultman.

Both players second shots came up just short of the green on the par-5 17th. From a grass bunker some 20 yards short of the flag, Hultman pitched to eight-feet. Harris' third, from a swale just right of the flag, struck the flag stick and tumbled in for an eagle.

Unfazed, Hultman drained his birdie to tie Harris at 12-under.

The closing hole produced similarly superb wedge play. Hultman hit a wedge to six-feet and Harris' approach landed just past the flag, spun back, and came to rest stone dead for birdie.

Facing a must-make putt, Altman poured in his birdie putt to tie Harris at 13-under.

The players then returned to no. 18 for a sudden-death playoff.

After reaching the green in regulation, Hultman played first.

His 16-foot putt eyed the left edge the entire way, but veered off as it neared the cup. He tapped in for par, clearing the way for Harris, whose birdie putt was never in doubt.

Afterward, Harris empathized with Hultman and reflected on how far his perspective on golf has changed since struggling on the Nationwide Tour last year.

"He was one shot up standing on no. 17 tee," said Harris, "and he made two birdies and still lost. At some point, he's had that happen for him, too. I've lost that way before. It's nice to win that way once. I told him, playing the game for a living, you might as well be committed to an insane asylum. I've talked to 20 people on the way home, and they said that's the best golf tournament they've seen in a long time."

Following a 2004 campaign on the Nationwide Tour in which he made just two of 17 cuts, Harris is now playing the best golf of his life thanks in large part to his ability to reduce the games importance.

"I have golf in the right spot in my life now," he said, "where it's not everything to me. And when it's not everything for me, I'm able to play better. When I don't live and die by the number I post, I'm able to sit back and play more aggressively and hit the shots. In the end, it's not going to determine how I feel about myself. I refuse to let it do that anymore."

Last year, "I hit a lot of golf balls, and was at the golf course at 8:30 every morning and left at six.  I thought that was the answer. I wouldn't have done any of this had I not gone through that."

In just nine events on the Canadian Tour, Harris has earned more than $77,000. Aside from claiming the number one spot on the Order of Merit, his win in Bay Mills also exempted him through the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School and secured exemptions into this week's Nationwide Tour event in Calgary as well as the following week's PGA Tour event, the Bell Canadian Open.

It's hard to believe that just this past winter, Harris racked his clubs for five months to "do quotes, drawings, and installing shelving" for an affiliate of the United Auto Group.

"As far away from the golf course as I could get," Harris said.

It took a mini hiatus from golf for Harris to realize, "My whole world is not golf anymore, and that is so liberating. Everything's in balance now. Golf doesn't consume my life anymore."

Sound familiar? Sean O'Hair has been uttering those words ever since he changed his perspective on the game.