| _______________________ |
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Tim Clark no longer has to listen to about being the majority appropriate player to have never won on the PGA Tour. He staid that Sunday by violence the majority appropriate margin in golf.
Clark played the last twenty-six holes but a spook and done an 8-foot standard on the last hole for a 5-under 67 to win The Players Championship with a jot down 36-hole quip at TPC Sawgrass.
"I did all I could there," pronounced Clark, a 34-year-old South African who was a collegiate All-American at N.C. State. "Thats as great as I could have played."
He indispensable each shot on a march with greens that were crisp, organisation and dark yellow. The normal measure was scarcely 3 shots higher than it was for the prior 3 rounds.
Clark, 7 shots at the at the at the back of of going in to the weekend, done 4 true birdies around the spin to take the lead, and no one could catch him. Robert Allenby had the majority appropriate chance, but an 18-foot eagle putt on the 16th and a 12-foot birdie try on the island-green 17th came inside of a fragment of an in. from going in.
Clark became usually the second player to have The Players Championship his initial PGA Tour victory. He had left some-more than eight years and 204 tournaments with zero some-more to show than eight runner-up finishes.
While Clark was creation his comeback, Tiger Woods combined a hum but even being there majority of the day. He withdrew on the seventh hole given of a neck damage that he fears competence be from a prominent disk. Woods pronounced his neck has been bothering him given prior to the Masters.
"I"ve been personification by it," Woods said. "I cant fool around by it anymore."
For the initial time in his career, Woods went uninterrupted weeks but creation central money. After blank the cut by eight shots last week at the Quail Hollow Championshipfor usually the sixth time in his careerWoods was 10 shots at the at the at the back of of and already 2 over for the turn when he stopped.
Phil Mickelson could have changed to No. 1 in the universe with a victory, but the Masters hold up never gave himself a great chance. He had bogeys on 3 of his opening 6 holes, sealed with a 74 and scored equally for 17th.
Clark won for the fourth time worldwide, nonetheless this was his excellent performance. The Players Championship not usually is the richest contest in golf with a $9.5 million purse, but it facilities the strongest and deepest margin all season.
Clark won with a 66-67 week end in that he done usually one spook -- the 10th hole on Saturday. It was the majority appropriate week end on the fraudulent Stadium Course given Fred Couples had a 132 week end to win in 1996. The 36-hole quip surfaced the jot down of 6 that Woods set when he won in 2001.
Clark accomplished at 16-under 272 and warranted $1.71 million.
Allenby, winless on the PGA Tour given 2001, sealed with a 70 to finish a cadence back. He indispensable a birdie on the last hole to force a playoff, but he longed for the immature to the right and his 50-foot birdie try never had a possibility to go in. He warranted $1,026,000 for his second runner-up finish this year.
U.S. Open hold up Lucas Glover shot a 31 on the back, together with a 50-foot birdie on the 17th, and he wound up third at 14-under 274.
Lee Westwood of England had the 54-hole lead, usually as he did at the Masters last month, and couldnt hold on. He done one purchase standard after another, together with a 50-footer on the 15th hole to stay in the game, but his hopes finished with a tee shot in to the H2O on the 17th that resulted in a stand in bogey.
"I usually didnt fool around well sufficient today," Westwood said.
Westwood shot a 39 on the at the at the back of and fell in to a tie for fourth with Davis Love III, whose 68 was one of usually dual rounds in the 60s. The alternative belonged to Clark, and it was a beauty.
Clark was 3 shots at the at the at the back of of until knocking in an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth, and receiving that movement to the at the at the back of nine. First came a 6-foot birdie on the 10th, afterwards a formidable shot out of the at the at the back of fort to 5 feet for birdie on the par-5 11th. He done it 4 true birdies with an 18-foot birdie on the 12th to take the lead.
Then came a array of pars, nothing bigger than the 8-foot putt on the last hole that came with Clark holding a two-shot lead over Allenby and Westwood, who were 3 holes at the at the at the back of of him on the course.
Clark gritted his teeth and slammed a fist in celebration, a informed stage at The Players Championship. It was the same kind of putt that Adam Scott done to win in 2004, Fred Funk a year after and Sergio Garcia in 2008 to force a playoff.
Considering it was his initial feat on the PGA Tour, it was all the some-more suggestive for Clark.
"You wouldnt find one man in the locker room that wouldnt contend he was going to win soon, and he deserves it," Glover said.
Mickelson, who proposed five shots behind, was usually short of the par-5 second hole in dual shots until going over the immature and receiving bogey. He bogeyed the subsequent hole and was never in the picture.
"The march conditions were really difficult. It was just what I indispensable to be means to try to have a run at the leaders," Mickelson said. "Unfortunately, I didnt take value of it."
| _______________________ |
No comments:
Post a Comment