Klauk earns second win
MITCHELLVILLE, Md. (AP) -Jeff Klauk made a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win the Melwood Prince George's County Open on Sunday.
He had a final-round 3-under 69 and finished 12-under 276 for his second career title.
"I've had that putt a thousand times in my life," said Klauk of the winning shot that resulted in a one-stroke victory, his first since 2003. "Right to left, just outside the hole. I just visualized it going in. It was probably the best putt I hit all week."
Klauk, one of four co-leaders to begin the day at The Country Club at Woodmore, finished off the win with a birdie from just in front of the hazard line behind the 18th green.
The putt got him to 12-under and ahead of Jeff Brehaut, who was holding the clubhouse lead at 11 under, and David Mathis, who was playing in the final group right behind Klauk and 11 under.
When Mathis, needing a birdie to tie, hooked his second shot at the par-5 hole into the water near the green, Klauk's victory was secure.
Brehaut (67) and Mathis (70) tied for second. Scott Gutschewski (69), Craig Bowden (69) and Australian Greg Chalmers (70) shared fourth place, two shots back. Ricky Barnes (71) and Gary Christian (71) tied for seventh, three behind the winner.
"I was nervous, don't get me wrong," said Klauk, who is in his seventh season on the Nationwide Tour. "I've been working with my coach, Cody Barnes, on keeping my mind quiet. Everybody knows out here you've got to really trust yourself and believe. I've been doing that this year, more so than any swing change. It's just believing in yourself and I finally started doing that."
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Watson ready to defend Sr. PGA Championship title
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -Somewhere between the champions dinner and the 5-inch rough he encountered during his practice round at Oak Hill this week, Denis Watson came to realize how difficult a test he's facing when he defends his Senior PGA Championship title.
"It started sinking in last night," Watson said Wednesday, a day after being one of numerous past PGA winners to be honored. "I started to see that this is a big deal."
A bigger deal, perhaps, was the rough Watson found himself trying to hit out of along the East Course's narrow fairways. The deep grass is an indication the ever-demanding Oak Hill won't prove to be the walk in the park he thought it might have been when he first played the course two weeks earlier.
"Two weeks ago, they said they had the rough pretty much where they wanted it. And it's probably at least two to three times that," Watson said. "It's a brutal test."
Welcome to Oak Hill, the Donald Ross-designed course that current Champions Tour money leader Bernhard Langer believes "will hold up forever."
"No matter how long the guys will hit it off the tee, it doesn't matter," said Langer, who's playing Oak Hill for the fourth time of his career. "This course is very, very difficult."
Established at its current site in 1926, Oak Hill has hosted two PGA Championships, three U.S. Opens and the Ryder Cup in 1995. Out of the five combined majors played at Oak Hill, only 10 players have finished under par. And it's a course that's earned its credentials, boasting such champions as Jack Nicklaus (1980 U.S. Open) and Lee Trevino (1968 U.S. Open).
Add a good chance of rain and a forecast high of 52 - unseasonably cold even for upstate New York in May - for the first round Thursday, and Oak Hill's 7,001-yard, par-70 tight and well-protected course could prove to be an even nastier challenge for the field of 156 competing for the $2 million purse - $360,000 goes to the winner.
Langer is considered part of a group of favorites that includes Jay Haas, Tom Watson and Loren Roberts. And then there's Denis Watson, who has spent the past year quickly making up for two lost decades of golf.
A rising star on the PGA Tour in the mid-1980s, Watson's career was eclipsed for 22 years by an injury after he snagged his 9-iron on a hidden tree stump during a tournament in South Africa at the end of 1985. One operation after another failed to fix the effects of a ferocious whiplash that devastated nerves, bone, muscles and ligaments from his right hand all the way up through his shoulder and neck.
Though he kept playing on and off, and rarely well enough to climb onto the leaderboard, Watson's breakthrough didn't arrive until after his ninth surgery in 2006, followed by months more of rehabilitation and painful therapy.
The payoff finally came last year, his first on the Champions Tour when Watson achieved one of the great comebacks in sports history when he captured the Senior PGA on Kiawah Island, S.C.
Since then, the 52-year-old from Zimbabwe has picked up wins at the Boeing Classic in August, the AT&T Classic in March and the FedEx Kinko's Classic on May 4. Although he still has a hard time believing it all, every victory feels like a validation and he's hoping to maintain a high momentum.
They say if you pray for things ... ," Watson said with a gulp of emotion. "I say, just give me a chance to be there on a Sunday, I want to see if I can handle it. Golf is so much about overcoming yourself."
Although he needs to work constantly on his shoulders and neck because they're "never going to be 100 percent," Watson said he's playing without pain except for "normal old age stuff" and occasional numbness in his right pinky finger.
Getting a second chance has provided Watson an upbeat perspective on life and his career.
"It's very easy to speculate, geez, if I hadn't gotten hurt, I might have won 20 times, like my friend Nick Price. I could have won the British Open. I could have won the U.S. Open," said Watson, who was a three-time PGA Tour winner in 1984 and runner-up at the 1985 U.S. Open.
"I tend to look at the other side and say, 'You know, I might have had a miserable life!"'
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
A strong finish gives Paula Creamer a generational victory
BROKEN ARROW, Oklahoma (AP) -Paula Creamer squandered another late lead and fell into a playoff she didn't want. She got the result she desperately needed, beating Juli Inkster on the second extra hole Sunday in the SemGroup Championship.
One week after losing to Annika Sorenstam in a playoff, Creamer bogeyed the 18th hole at Cedar Ridge for the third straight day and wound up in overtime when the 47-year-old Inkster, trying to become the oldest LPGA Tour winner, poured in an 18-foot birdie putt.
Instead of getting nervous, Creamer got mad.
She twice gave herself birdie putts in the playoff, making an 8-footer on No. 10 for the victory.
Lost in a terrific duel was the end of Lorena Ochoa's winning streak. Going for a record-tying fifth straight victory, Ochoa never got on track, even in a final round absent of much wind. She closed with a 2-under 69 to tie for fifth, five shots behind.
"It's done," Ochoa said. "I tried really hard and it didn't work. Hopefully, I'll start a new streak next week."
Creamer was headed for the worst kind of streak.
She said she gave away the Stanford International Pro-Am last week in south Florida, losing the lead with a careless bogey on the 16th hole and losing to Sorenstam with a bogey on the first playoff hole when she left a 6-foot par putt short.
Creamer was a combined 6 over on her final three holes at Cedar Ridge this week, and looked as if she finally figured out how to finish it off until a hybrid from the 18th fairway sailed over the green and she missed a 10-foot par putt to shoot 1-over 72.
Inkster, who hasn't won in two years, made her longest putt of the day for a 70, and both finished at 2-under 282.
But the seven-time major champion never gave herself a good look in the two playoff holes, and watching Creamer make birdie on the 10th hole was bittersweet. Earlier in the round, Inkster missed from about the same spot, one of five putts she missed inside 10 feet.
"I never felt comfortable with the putter," Inkster said. "It's funny how you can wake up and feel like you have a two-by-four in your hands instead of a putter. It's disappointing. I played good enough to win."
Creamer earned $270,000 for her sixth career victory, and second this year.
She almost let this one get away, twice three-putting for bogey, slamming the end of her putter into her bag after one on the 13th, then going over to a cart path and using a crease in the cement to check her alignment.
Eventually, it paid off. There's no telling how Creamer would have responded to blowing tournaments in consecutive weeks, but she showed plenty of grit to make sure it didn't happen.
"She definitely made me win it," Creamer said. "I'm done. I'm mentally done right now."
Ochoa's bid to join Nancy Lopez and Sorenstam with her fifth straight LPGA Tour victory never got off the ground. She broke par at Cedar Ridge for the first time all week, but starting eight shots behind, it wasn't even close. She had to settle for her eighth consecutive top 10.
"I don't know why, but this was a tough course for me, especially on the greens," Ochoa said. "It's the way it is. It's golf. But I'm happy. I look forward to the next week."
Despite a welcome respite from the whipping wind that made Cedar Ridge a little more forgiving, no one challenged the final pairing. Creamer and Inkster put on quite a show, right to the very end.
Creamer and Inkster both played the front nine in even par, but there were momentum shifts at every turn, including two-shot swings on consecutive holes that created a brief tie for the lead.
Inkster had a chance to tie for the lead on the fifth until missing a 4-foot birdie putt. One hole later, she fell two shots behind when she chipped weakly and missed a 6-foot par putt. Creamer gave it right back, however, when she three-putted the seventh after Inkster hit her approach into 3 feet.
But on the next hole, Inkster hooked her tee shot into the hazard and had to get up-and-down from 40 yards for bogey, while Creamer's 7-iron grazed the cup and settled 18 inches away.
They settled down with pars after that until Creamer showed some resiliency. After a three-putt bogey on the 13th, she hit a sand wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the 14th, restoring her lead to two shots until the 18th.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Scott beats Moore in playoff at Nelson
IRVING, Texas (AP) -When Adam Scott was home in Australia after the Masters, he knew he needed to be somewhere else.
"This was not a good time for me to sit at home and wait a couple of weeks before coming back," Scott said. "I didn't need to fine-tune anything. I just needed to get out here. ... Obviously, it worked well."
Instead of wasting his good play against his mates down under, Scott cut short his visit home to get back on the PGA Tour, and Sunday he beat Ryan Moore on the third playoff hole to win the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.
Even though Scott blew the three-stroke lead he carried into the final round, he made a 9-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to force a playoff. Playing it again on the third playoff hole, Scott made another birdie putt, a 48-footer that rolled over two ridges and into the cup.
"I needed to walk out of here with a trophy," said Scott, who also got $1.152 million. "I needed to go and close this thing out. It was tough, but I managed to do it."
After Scott's dramatic putt when they played the 18th hole for the third time in an hour, and second time in the playoff, Moore still had a chance to force another hole. But his pin-high putt from the fringe skimmed just past the cup.
"I'm just a little frustrated I didn't make mine," said Moore, who closed with a 2-under 68 to match Scott (71) at 7-under 273.
The first playoff for Scott and Moore was a fitting end after their back-and-forth Sunday duel. They finished four shots ahead of Bart Bryant (72). Nicholas Thompson (67), Mark Hensby (69) and Carl Pettersson (69) tied for fourth at 2 under.
It was the fourth career runner-up finish for Moore, the first player since Tiger Woods to skip Q-school and go straight from college to the PGA Tour. Woods got his first victory in his fifth start as a pro, while Moore is still looking for his first after 70 tournaments since 2005, after he was a four-time All-American at UNLV.
"A loss is a loss, but I tied for first at the end of the day," said Moore, who has a runner-up finish in each of his four pro seasons. "I was just proud of myself for battling around on a tough day in tough conditions."'
The redesigned TPC Four Seasons played drastically different again after rain overnight combined with blustery conditions Sunday. It was an unseasonable cool day with temperatures barely reaching 60 degrees, with wind gusting to 30 mph making it feel cooler - and making club selection harder. There were only 10 subpar rounds.
The winning score was the highest since the Nelson moved to the Las Colinas venue in 1983. Only three other times had a winner failed to finish at least 10-under par, and two of those were in rain-shortened tournaments.
"I love days like today," Moore said. "It's like the last man standing, really."
The playoff started with both players making pars, first at No. 18 and then at the TPC's signature par 3, the 198-yard 17th hole, where Moore had taken a one-stroke lead in regulation by curling in a 12-foot birdie putt.
Scott, who got his sixth PGA victory, missed opportunities to win on each of the first two playoff holes, leaving makable birdie putts short both times.
Moore's tee shot to start the playoff went way right into the gallery, but he made a great save to the green and was able to two-putt for par.
When they were back to 17, Scott went for the flag tucked in the right front of the green beyond the lake, and landed the ball about 10 feet from the cup. Moore was well left off the fringe, near the same area where Scott two-putted from 84 feet to save par in regulation. But both two-putted, sending them to 18 again.
"In the end, I think (the statement) was to myself, I could actually win it when things weren't going my way," Scott said. "But it wasn't quite the statement I had in mind. I would have liked to have gone out there and have played like Ryan played and won by a few."
Scott pushed his first tee shot of the day way right into trampled grass, but salvaged a bogey after a nice approach short of the green. He was then steady until hitting his tee shot fat and into the water at the 174-yard fifth hole. That double bogey shrunk his lead over Moore from three shots to one.
After Scott and Moore both birdied the par-5 seventh, Moore got even at 6 under with a 6-foot birdie putt on the 461-yard eighth.
Moore went ahead with a 7-foot birdie at the 10th hole, and maintained that lead until consecutive bogeys. His tee shot at the 180-yard 13th went into a greenside bunker and he couldn't make the 10-foot par putt, then his approach at No. 14 went into another bunker behind the green that put Scott up by one.
But Scott, who had a 7-foot birdie attempt at No. 11 stop one roll short of dropping into the cup, hit his first two shots at No. 15 into the rough and wound up with bogey.
"I will probably take away more from gutting it out than winning by five," Scott said. "It would have been a tough defeat."
Notes: It was the 16th playoff at the Nelson since 1968, more than any other tournament. The last was in 2004. ... Tim Herron had a bogey-free round and was in position for his first top-10 finish in 11 tournaments this season. Then he had consecutive double bogeys after his last two tee shots went into the water.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Tom Watson successfully defends Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am title
LUTZ, Florida (AP) -Tom Watson successfully defended his Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am title on Sunday, saving bogey after hitting into the water on No. 18 for a 1-under 70 and a one-stroke victory over Jay Haas and Scott Hoch.
A year after ending a title drought lasting 93 tournaments in Florida, Watson finished at 9 under for his 50th title on the Champions and U.S. PGA tours.
"I'm on a streak," Watson said at the TPC Tampa Bay. "I've got to buy a house down here."
Hoch (71) had a chance to force a playoff, but his short par putt on 18 lipped out.
"I just hit a terrible putt," Hoch said. "I had not been putting all that good, but I haven't missed anything like that."
Watson's 7-iron approach on the 456-yard 18th missed the green to the right and trickled into the water. After dropping, he pitched with a sand wedge to 5 feet, made the bogey putt, then waited inside the scorer's trailer well behind the stands surrounding the green as Hoch played the final hole.
Like Watson before him, Hoch, who also started the day at 8 under, hit his approach right of the green, yet he appeared to catch a break when the ball settled just off the putting surface. His chip stopped 4 feet, 3 inches from the hole. But Hoch's putt squirted away after lipping the hole.
Watson started the day three behind second-round leader Mark Wiebe, and for much of the afternoon it appeared as if Wiebe would win for the second consecutive start and third time in 13 Champions Tour events since turning 50 last September. But after moving to 12 under with a birdie on 14, Wiebe drove into the water on the par-4 15th and a subsequent triple bogey dropped him to 9 under.
He was still only one shot behind Watson when he doubled the par-3 17th after missing the green left. Wiebe's second shot on the hole, a putt, failed to reach the putting surface, further adding to his troubles. He shot a 5-over 41 on the back nine to tie for fifth at 6 under.
"You know, I came pretty close," Wiebe said. "My driver is my favorite club and if something let me down today, it was my driver."
Haas shot a 7-under 64, the low round of the day. He was 4 under on the back nine.
The victory was Watson's first on the Champions Tour this year and 11th overall. He won 39 times, including eight majors, on the U.S. PGA Tour.
The 58-year-old Watson, the event's first successful defending champion, began the tournament with an 8-under 63 on Thursday, a round that included birdies on seven of his final nine holes. He followed with an even-par 71. Sunday's round included four birdies, but ultimately it was his bogey save on the final hole that won it.
"I backed in through the back door," Watson said.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Immelman becomes first South African in 30 years to win Masters
AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) -Trevor Immelman became the first South African to win the Masters since Gary Player in 1978 on Sunday, shooting a final-round 3-over 75 to claim the title by three strokes.
Four months after he had a tumor removed from his back, Immelman handled the wind and pressure of Augusta National far better than anyone chasing him to earn his green jacket.
Immelman played Amen Corner in even par and stretched his lead to as many as six shots on the back nine.
A two-putt par on the final hole finished his 75, matching the highest final round by a Masters champion. Even so, it was good enough for a three-shot victory over Tiger Woods, whose hopes for a calendar Grand Slam ended with a thud.
Woods twice missed birdie putts inside 8 feet and had to settle for a 72 and his second consecutive runner-up finish in the Masters.
"I learned my lesson there with the press," said Woods, who started the talk about a Grand Slam by stating three months ago that winning all four majors in the same year was "easily within reason."
The only slam possibilities now belong to Immelman, a 28-year-old with a polished swing, who finally realized his potential in the wicked wind of Augusta and a final round that yielded only four rounds under par.
Immelman, who finished at 8-under 280, started the week by playing a practice round with Player, his boyhood idol who won his third Masters in 1978 and set a record by playing for the 51st time this week.
Player told Immelman he was good enough to win the green jacket, and he left him a voicemail Saturday night that Immelman played on his speaker phone for his family to hear. The message: "I know you're going to win."
"He's been on me all week, telling me to believe in myself," Immelman said. "He also told me to keep my head still on putts. It's really a special moment, and I'm glad I pulled it through for him."
Immelman's wife, Carminita, and their 1-year-old son were waiting for him behind the green. Jacob took hold of the 18th flag, fussing when he couldn't go into the scoring shack to be with his father.
Immelman's parents also were there to greet him with hugs behind the 18th green. His father, Johan, is the former commissioner of the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.
"It's his moment, not mine," said the father, who waved away a reporter.
No one doubted he was capable of winning a major, but maybe not this one. Only four months ago, doctors discovered a tumor in his diaphragm that required surgery through his back to remove it. The tumor was benign and the recovery was quick.
This week at Augusta, where Immelman had only broken par once in his five previous Masters, he built a two-shot lead with three rounds in the 60s, and held it together during a few nervy moments.
Immelman made a 10-foot par save from the bunker at No. 9 to keep a two-shot cushion, but he continued to look shaky. His missed the 11th green well to the right, his chip didn't quite reach the green and he was left with a 20-foot putt that was slick and dangerous.
Ahead of him, Woods was gaining momentum.
Woods holed a 70-foot birdie putt on the 11th, made an acrobatic escape from the trees on the 13th and spun a wedge down the slope on the par-5 13th that left him 5 feet away for birdie.
Immelman holed his par putt. Woods missed, just as he has done the last two years on the back nine of a major he once dominated. Brandt Snedeker and Steve Flesch, the last two players with any hope, folded quickly.
Woods closed with a 72 and has finished third, second and second in his last three Masters. It also was his fifth runner-up in a major.
Immelman earned $1.35 million (?850,000) for his second victory in the United States, with Woods also finishing second behind him two years ago in the Western Open.
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
Masters victory still as thrilling for Johnson as it was last year
AUGUSTA, Georgia (AP) -Everyone in the Johnson family was out of sorts.
Zach Johnson had a headache. His wife wasn't feeling well. Their little boy was fussy, and he was wearing as many strawberries as he was eating.
Then they pulled into Augusta National, and the mood instantly brightened.
"It was like the clouds parted and here comes the sunshine," Johnson said on Tuesday. "... Felt pretty good. Just the old vibes, the old memories, the feelings. It's just great to have."
Being the Masters champion feels just as good now as it did when he was putting on that green jacket for the first time a year ago.
And yes, it's all still a little surreal.
Johnson's victory last year was, suffice it to say, one of the more unlikely at the Masters. Sure, he had won on the U.S. PGA Tour before, and he was good enough to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2006. But he wasn't one of those up-and-coming stars whose game demands attention. He's not the best putter on tour, doesn't have the most impressive short game and he's certainly not the longest hitter around.
He didn't go for a single par 5 last year. In any round. That kind of low-risk, low-reward strategy will usually get you invited back to this tournament, but not as its defending champion.
"I always felt I could win a major, but not this one last year because in the practice rounds it was playing so long," Johnson said. "But then the wind picked up, and things changed."
Now it's his entire life that's changed. Everywhere he goes now, he's introduced as "Zach Johnson, Masters champion."
"It hits you about two weeks to a month after, and after that it hits you periodically," Johnson said. "Every now and then, you wake up and you go into your closet and, `Oh yeah, I forgot about that one."'
Not that he could forget this week. As the defending champion, his name and face are everywhere. He's got his very own spot in the champions locker room - with a permanent brass nameplate - just like Woods, Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. He's got a prime tee time on Thursday, two groups after Fred Couples and two in front of Woods.
And then there's the Champions Dinner on Tuesday.
"Tonight is going to be a complete honor, and I'm just going to be a sponge," Johnson said. "I'm going to be a fly on the wall just soaking it in, listening in, listening to some stories because that's what I hear it's all about. And eat some good food, I hope."
Being from Iowa, steak is on the menu. Shrimp, too, in a nod to his wife's hometown of Amelia Island, Florida.
And, of course, corn.
"A corn casserole, if I'm not mistaken," he said. "Or corn pudding."
All the trappings aside, Johnson knows he can't spend the entire week reliving last year's tournament. This is still a work trip, after all.
"I don't want to dwell on last year, but there's a lot of positives that I can take away from it and certainly implement," Johnson said. "I can win here. That's a good thing."
Despite his green jacket, Johnson still hasn't achieved heavyweight status. Even the label on the bin for transcripts from his news conference on Tuesday had "Zack Johnson."
It's not that he's a one-hit wonder. Far from it. A month after his win at Augusta, he proved it was no fluke with a victory at the AT&T Classic. He tied for second at the U.S. Tour Championship, shooting a 60 in the third round. He's made the cut in all eight events he's played this year, with his best finish a tie for ninth at the CA Championship.
But his game is still as low-key and unassuming as Johnson himself.
"I feel like I can win more majors, there's no question," he said. "I'm not going to go into any major saying, `I need to win,' or `I should win.' I'm going to go into majors looking for opportunities, that's all it is. I want to be in contention. I want to have opportunities to get in contention."
And if other people still need some convincing, that's their problem.
"I won a major in Tiger's era," Johnson said. "They can say what they want."
Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
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