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Woody Austin donned a scuba mask, making fun of plunging face-first into a large pond near the fairway on the 14th hole at Royal Montreal during the Presidents Cup last weekend.

ON THE FRINGE

By Doug Ferguson

updated 4:21 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2007

MONTREAL - Even as Woody Austin walked up the 14th fairway at Royal Montreal wearing a scuba mask, his family and friends back home in rural Kansas were making “Aquaman” hats for a homecoming like no other.

He will never live this down.

And he has never lived it up quite like this.

Austin was either the toast of the Presidents Cup or the team mascot, but it was all good stuff.

The indelible image of his amazing week was Austin trying to hit a shot from the large pond left of the 14th fairway, failing miserably, then flailing his arms when he lost his balance and eventually plunging face-first into the drink.

Playing on his first national team, it was quite a baptism.

“I have a feeling that he will be hearing about that for the rest of his life,” U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus said.

Maybe the story will be told about what followed, how he birdied the last three holes — three of the toughest on the back nine at Royal Montreal, no less — to earn a halve that was as improbable as the 43-year-old Austin even making this team.

Also forgotten was Thursday afternoon, when Austin twice made clutch par putts on the closing holes for another halve against Mike Weir and Vijay Singh that set the tone for American success.

It is not unusual for someone obscure to make such a splash (sorry, Woody) in these events, whether it was Peter Baker for Europe in the 1993 Ryder Cup or Kirk Triplett for the United States in the 2000 Presidents Cup.

But this was different.

It wasn’t just one week at Royal Montreal, rather two months that changed his life.

“Woody Austin will have a gallery wherever he goes now,” Nicklaus said.

Until two months ago, Austin was the quintessential journeyman. He was 30 when he finally earned his PGA Tour card as the medalist at Q-school. Before that, he toiled on the mini-tours and in Japan, worked as a bank teller in his native Tampa, Fla., and took one job stocking shelves at a drug store.

His victory at the Buick Open in 1995 was enough for him to beat out David Duval as PGA Tour rookie of the year. He went another nine years before winning again, this time in Hartford. Otherwise, not many knew who he was except for the occasional display of his temper, which Austin might call a product of high expectations.

Sure, there was that incident at Hilton Head in 1997 when he got so mad that he smashed his putter against his head in rapid-fire succession until it broke (the putter, not his head). Any number of weeks, Austin would carry on loud and spirited conversations with himself about how the cards always seemed to be stacked against him.

Just look at him now.