HOUSTON (Texas), Nov 5: Canadian Mike Weir birdied the first extra hole to win the US PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship in a wild playoff Sunday.
Minutes after bogeying the par-four 18th the first time, Weir made amends by running in a seven-foot putt at the same hole to win the playoff at the Champions Club.
He shot a final round three-under-par 68 to tie American David Toms (67), Spaniard Sergio Garcia (68) and South African Ernie Els (68).
They finished at 14-under 270, one stroke ahead of third-round leader Scott Verplank (71) and fellow American Kenny Perry (69).
Tiger Woods, who endured a sore back all tournament, got within three strokes of the lead at one point, before bogeying the final two holes to tie for 13th, six strokes off the pace.
For the second year in a row, Weir saved the best for last. He also won the final official tournament of last year, the American Express Championship.
Weir hit a perfect drive in the playoff, but had to wait about 10 minutes while Els and Garcia tried to hit recovery shots over the trees right of the fairway.
Els hit a beauty, lofting his ball over a tree to the back of the green on his way to a par.
Garcia, despite receiving a free drop from behind a bush thanks to an immovable obstruction that was situated between his ball and the hole, couldn’t extricate himself from trouble and had to settle for bogey.
Toms, who drove in the fairway, overshot the pin with his second shot and made par by two-putting from about 35 feet.
Weir, who did well to remain patient waiting for Garcia to play, struck a nice wedge that landed just beyond the pin. His birdie attempt was not an easy putt — downhill and quick — but he trusted his stroke, read the line correctly and poured it in.
Final round scores:
270 x-Mike Weir (Canada) 68 66 68 68 (wins on first playoff hole), David Toms 73 66 64 67, Ernie Els (South Africa) 69 68 65 68, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 69 67 66 68
271 Kenny Perry 70 67 65 69, Scott Verplank 67 65 68 71
272 David Duval 69 69 63 71, Bob Estes 71 66 65 70, Jim Furyk 70 71 62 69
275 Chris DiMarco 69 68 69 69, Joe Durant 73 65 67 70, Bernhard Langer (Germany) 65 68 69 73
276 Stewart Cink 70 70 67 69, Tiger Woods 70 67 69 70
277 Tom Lehman 69 68 72 68, Davis Love III 70 72 66 69
278 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 70 73 68 67
279 Scott McCarron 70 70 70 69
280 Mark Calcavecchia 71 64 69 76
281 Frank Lickliter 65 73 69 74, Jeff Sluman 73 70 66 72
283 Robert Allenby (Australia) 76 67 67 73, Justin Leonard 69 66 71 77
284 Steve Stricker 74 70 72 68
285 Steve Lowery 67 70 73 75
286 Brad Faxon 68 70 70 78, Billy Mayfair 72 74 72 68, Hal Sutton 70 73 70 73
287 Scott Hoch 74 71 70 72—AFP/Reuters