"Blogs Misfires On Peterson 'Snub'"

(Click to enlarge and read this nonsense for yourself)That is the eloquent headline of an embarrassing item by Jim Nugent in Global Golf Post.

The weekly digital publication usually goes straight to the trash bin so I thank the reader who braved their way through and sent Nugent's lame rebuttal to coverage of the USGA's John Peterson-Walker Cup snub.

Here's what Nugent wrote:

The golf blogosphere was all aflutter last week over the apparent snub by the United States Golf Association of LSU player John Peterson, who did not make the U.S. Walker Cup team that travels to Scotland this week to contest the biannual match.

Uh, that's biennial, Jim. But the digging has just begun…

Several bloggers seized on this decision to vent their anti-USGA rhetoric, but they ignored two convenient facts.

First, it was pointed out that Peterson finished second in a Nationwide Tour event. The facts are deeper. He led through three rounds, and finished second when Harris English went flying by him in the final round to capture the title. English did make the Walker Cup team.

Shame on John Peterson for daring to not win every professional tournament he enters! And for being the first person to ever not finish first after leading through three rounds! And for leading all of the way to the last hole, only to lose by one!

In that event, he also beat Walker Cupper Peter Uihlein by three, Walker Cupper Blayne Barber who finished 120th and Walker Cupper Chris Williams, who missed the cut. (My math: 3-1 win for Peterson.)

Of course, English also lost to Peterson at the NCAA Championship and the Jones Cup, where Peterson went flying by him in the final rounds of those events.

But please, keep digging Jim, it's your greatest gift!

Additionally, it was never pointed out that Peterson chose to sit out the summer's second-most important amateur event, the Western Amateur, played just weeks before the final selections were to be made. With the deepest field assembled all summer long, and with Captain Jim Holtgrieve and International team selection head Steve Smyers in attendance, Peterson was nowhere to be found.

So right, and I didn't point this out. Because I was respecting Peterson and his privacy.

It's true, he passed up the Western, won by Ethan Tracy, who did not make the Walker Cup team either. But more importantly, I know from two very reliable sources, that Peterson made clear to the committee something that will come as a shock to folks who hold memberships in multiple clubs: Peterson comes from a family of modest means, and he made his amateur golfing schedule based on the places he wanted to play and could afford to play.

Furthermore, Peterson went to summer school in 2010 to clear his schedule for the spring and summer tournament season, just to be able to make a run at making the Walker Cup team. He went on to win two major events (NCAA, Jones Cup), nearly won a prestigious Nationwide Tour event, finished sixth in the Porter Cup, lost in the round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur and finished 7th in the USGA-sanctioned world ranking. That's not the American ranking, but the world ranking.

In his quest to make the team, Peterson also passed up exemptions to Nationwide events and more important to someone who has professional aspirations, lost out on Nationwide Tour status by remaining an amateur that week in Columbus. After all, that awful second place finish Nugent refers to would have earned Peterson membership, even though Harris English flew right on by him...on the last hole.

But finally, Nugent leaves out the most revolting element in all of this and which I have held off sharing until I could confirm from more than one source. Now that I have, here goes.

Peterson, who was one of five or so players clearly eligible to be selected for the team, never received a phone call from anyone at the USGA about the final selection decision. He learned from Golfweek.com's story by Ron Balicki, just like the rest of us.

Now that, Jim Nugent, is a "misfire."

Thankfully, Peterson marches on and according to a Tweet from Sean Martin, makes this pro debut next Monday in the Nationwide's Boise Open qualifier.