Deutsche Bank Championship, Round 4
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
STRICKER GETS IT DONE (5:55 p.m.): Last week at The Barclays, Steve Stricker came up short on a 10-foot putt that would have forced a playoff. He made sure not to do that again this week.
After a clutch birdie from just inside 15 feet on the 71st hole, Stricker's second shot on the par-5 18th trundled just off the back of the green. Needing to get up-and-down for birdie to get the win, he hit a perfectly bumped chip shot from the rough that popped up and trickled down to within 3 feet of the hole.
There was no coming up short on the chip or the putt. Stricker rolled in the putt to cap off a 67 and with it got his third victory of the year and took over the top spot in the FedExCup standings. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Stricker's scorecard from today:
CABRERA COMES CLOSE (5:48 p.m.): Jason Dufner and Scott Verplank are the clubhouse leaders at 16 under and waiting to see if there will be a playoff. Masters champ Angel Cabrera could have been waiting too, had he had managed a birdie on the par-5 18th.
It was the first time this week he's had to settle for par on the closing hole after posting birdie in each of the previous three days. By having to settle for par, Cabrera finished at 15 under after shooting a final-round 65.
"I hit a bad tee shot and really didn't have a chance to go for the green with where the ball ended up," Cabrera said. "I hit a pitching wedge, sand wedge, then had a good look at the putt. ... I thought it was going to break a little, and it just went straight, the putt."
Cabrera didn't make the cut at The Barclays last week, but thanks to his finish at TPC Boston, he's projected inside the top 30 going into next week's BMW Championship.
"I'm very happy with where I am," Cabrera said. "I'm real happy with my swing, and I'm real happy with my game right now." -- Mike McAllister
LEISHMAN MOVING ON (5:45 p.m.): Marc Leishman has never met Brett Quigley. When he does, though, the Aussie will probably say, "Sorry, mate."
When Leishman rolled in an 8-footer for eagle on the 18th hole Monday, he moved into the top 70 in the FedExCup and dropped Quigley, who grew up here in Massachusetts, down to No. 71.
Leishman, a PGA TOUR rookie, had come to TPC Boston ranked 93rd in the standings after dropping 14 spots when he missed the cut at The Barclays. He knew he likely needed a top-20 finish to advance to the BMW Championship.
A second-round 62 made that more than a pipe dream but when Leishman followed with a 72, the pressure was on Monday. And it came down to the final hole where the 25-year-old hit a brilliant 4-iron from 223 yards to set up the eagle opportunity.
"I thought birdie might have been good enough, but I was thinking I probably needed to make eagle," said Leishman, who finished 11 under and tied for 14th. "I was actually right between 3- and 4-iron in the fairway, so I went with 4 thinking I needed to make a 3. So it turned out all right for me."
Geoff Ogilvy, who played with his fellow Aussie, also made eagle at the 18th hole -- rolling in a 2-footer after another pin-point approach. He was more than happy to let his friend have the spotlight.
"It's more impressive to see Leish make it at the last to get in next week to be honest with you," Ogilvy, who closed with a 66, said. "Every time you'd come to a leaderboard, it's projected, and for a while he was 68 and then 72 and then 68 and then 72. I think he was (No.) 73 over the last four or five holes.
"Birdie might have got him there, but eagle definitely gets him into next week. That's pretty cool."
Leishman, who moved to No. 62 in the standings thanks to that putt, admitted that he originally had been more worried about making enough money to keep his TOUR card than advancing in the Playoffs.
"But to get through to the BMW (Championship) next week is awesome," he said. "I'm looking forward to it." -- Helen Ross
ONE TO GO (5:40 p.m.): After coming up short on a 10-foot putt on the last hole to force a playoff at The Barclays last week, Steve Stricker left no doubt on the 17th hole here at TPC Boston. He just rolled in a 14-foot, 11-inch birdie putt to get to 16 under and a share of the lead with the par-5 18th left to play. Yesterday, Stricker had a tap-in eagle on the 18th. All he needs is a birdie today on what was the easiest finishing hole on the PGA TOUR in 2008 and is easily the easiest hole here this week. That would give him his third win of the year and vault him to the top of the FedExCup standings. -- Brian Wacker
PLAYOFF POSSIBILITY (5:35 p.m.): With Steve Stricker needing to play his final two holes in 2 under to avoid a playoff and win the tournament, extra holes certainly is possible. Should we go to a playoff, it would start on No. 18 then go to 17, if necessary, then back to 18, if necessary. -- Brian Wacker
VERPLANK PULLS EVEN (5:25 p.m.): Scott Verplank is now in the clubhouse at 16 under, joining Jason Dufner atop the leaderboard. Verplank had an eagle putt on the 18th hole that slid just by, but he closed out his final round with an impressive four straight birdies. His playing partner, Padraig Harrington, managed to play himself back into it, too, but his eagle putt ran by on the high side, meaning that he's in at 15 under and out of the mix for any potential playoff.
With the final round winding down, here's where we stand: Dufner and Verplank lead at 16 under. The only player who can catch them now is Steve Stricker. He's one shot back with two holes to play. He slid a birdie attempt by the hole on the 16th, but will have a chance on two holes, for the most part, that he's played well. Stricker bogeyed No. 17 yesterday, but bounced back with an eagle on No. 18. He parred both holes in Round 2 and birdied the 18th in the first round. -- Brian Wacker
CHASING JASON (5:05 p.m.): Jason Dufner made just one birdie over his final nine holes at TPC Boston today, but right now that's good enough. It's good enough because he shot a front-nine 31 that featured six birdies and just one bogey. It's also good enough to give Dufner the clubhouse lead at 16 under after a final-round 65 as he tries to make his first career PGA TOUR victory a win in a PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup event.
Dufner, who hit 10 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation today, has shown flashes of brilliance at times this year, but he's been a non-factor the last month. He entered the week 57th in the FedExCup standings and has missed four of his last five cuts with a tie for third in Canada sandwiched in between.
"Sometimes it's good to miss the cut," Dufner told NBC after his round. "You can step back and refresh and get a grasp of what's going on with your game."
That's exactly what Dufner, who has five top-10s this season, has done this week. Not only could he win, but he could move as high as third in the FedExCup standings, which would assure him a trip to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and get the fifth-year pro into a host of other events next year. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Dufner's scorecard from today:
DOWN THE STRETCH (5 p.m.): Angel Cabrera and Dustin Johnson are now the men to beat. They're each in the clubhouse at 15 under, though it would be a surprise if that held up. Jason Dufner is also 15 under and on the par-5 18th, while Steve Stricker, also at 15 under, still has five holes to play. Even Padraig Harrington, who made a costly double bogey earlier, isn't out of it yet at 13 under with four holes to play. Ditto Sean O'Hair and Scott Verplank. Stay tuned. This is far from over. -- Brian Wacker
DOUBLE TROUBLE (4:40 p.m.): Perhaps Padraig Harrington was just due for a bad hole like the double bogey that he suffered at the par-4 12th that might have derailed his chances to win the Deutsche Bank Championship.
For Harrington, this is the 12th consecutive tournament on the PGA TOUR in which he has suffered at least one double bogey or worse. You have to go back to the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard in late March to find the last time he has gone an entire tournament without recording anything worse than a bogey. -- Mike McAllister
| Harrington: Double bogeys (or worse) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TIGER TIDBITS (4:27 p.m.): Tiger Woods didn't do anything differently on Monday during the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. But the putts that veered away from the hole earlier in the week suddenly started dropping.
Woods, who tied the course record of 30 on the front side, took just 25 putts as he made eight birdies, one eagle and just two bogeys. His 63 tied for his lowest career final round, which he'd shot five times previously.
"Ball striking wise it was the same," said Woods, who finished 12 under for the tournament. "I just made a few more putts today. That's the difference. If you look at the way I've played the last two weeks, I've hit the ball really well, just haven't got anything out of my rounds.
"Today I got something out of my round."
Woods has always liked TPC Boston, where he fired another final-round 63 to win in 2006 and has two other runner-up finishes. The course was in optimal condition again this year, and birdies were there for the taking.
"Every putt, you hit it on line with the correct speed, it's automatically in,'" Woods said. "It's not going to deviate. And not a lot of double breaking putts here like last week from 10, 12 feet. Here they're pretty simple. I kept hitting them in good spots today and had a lot of looks." -- Helen Ross
HARRINGTON HAS A HICCUP (4:10 p.m.): The final round has been Padraig Harrington's undoing a couple of times this season and it may be again this week.
With a share of the lead when he reached the par-4 12th at TPC, Harrington inexplicably pulled his tee shot into the tree line. Harrington re-teed for a lost ball, but because he found his original and took an unplayable, he headed back to the tee to hit his third shot. Harrington's fourth shot found the green, but he two-putted from 18 feet for a costly double bogey that dropped him two shots back.
At the PGA Championship, of course, Harrington had a quintuple-bogey 8 in the final round and the week before that at Firestone he made a triple-bogey 8 on the 16th hole. -- Brian Wacker
AT THE TURN (3:50 p.m.): With the leaders now having reached the back nine, here's how their back-nine scoring averages stack up for this week, and for the season. -- Mike McAllister
| Back-nine scoring averages this week at TPC Boston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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THREE TIED AT THE TOP (3:40 p.m.): Padraig Harrington was on a tear Monday with four birdies in his first eight holes to seize sole possession of the lead. He just gave a stroke back, though, with his first bogey in 39 holes when he pulled his tee shot left and was forced to take an unplayable on No. 10. -- Helen Ross
GARCIA MARCHING ON (3:25 p.m.): This has been a less-than-stellar year for Sergio Garcia -- on and off the course -- but he's played just well enough of late to continue on in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
Garcia came into this week ranked 71st in the FedExCup standings -- one spot out of advancing to next week's BMW Championship. After shooting 68-67 on the weekend here, though, Garcia is projected to finish 55th.
"I knew I was 71st at the beginning of the week," Garcia told NBC after finishing his round today. "I knew I needed to play pretty decent. Yesterday was a good round because the morning was cold and quite windy."
Not that Garcia wouldn't mind some time off after a season in which he's had just two top-10s.
"I get to play another week," Garcia said. "But six in a row, man I feel like I'm gonna die." -- Brian Wacker
| Sip of Maginnes | |
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HARRINGTON GRABS THE LEAD (2:55 p.m.): Padraig Harrington has risen to the top of the leaderboard in what's quickly turning into a wild final round here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Harrington has four birdies in the first seven holes and has missed just one green in regulation so far.
There are six players within three shots of Harrington's lead right now, but clearly his confidence -- and his swing -- are all the way back. Entering today, Harrington has five straight rounds of 67, dating back to the third round of The Barclays, where he picked up his second runner-up in the last month. If he shoots another 67 today he might do better than a runner-up. -- Brian Wacker
DUFNER HOLDING HIS OWN (2:35 p.m.): Here's what Jason Dufner said Sunday after his third round in terms of his chances of winning the Deutsche Bank Championship: "The scores will be out there. Maybe if I can post a number and finish while the other guys are still playing, that will give me a chance."
Here's what Dufner has done in his first seven holes: five birdies, including two putts longer than 11 feet, to join the leaders at 14 under.
Dufner has just seven top-10 finishes in his first 102 TOUR starts, but he's in great shape for No. 8 if he can maintain the momentum. -- Mike McAllister
MICKELSON SHOOTS 66 (2:25 p.m.): Monday afternoon's flight home to San Diego will be a little more pleasant for Phil Mickelson after he closed out the Deutsche Bank Championship by making birdie on five of his last seven holes at TPC Boston, including the final three straight.
Mickelson's 66 was his low round of the week -- and his lowest score since he matched that total in the second round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, which was his second win of 2009. He ended up 7 under for the tournament.
Mickelson rolled in birdie putts of 36, 15, 13 and 34 feet, then two-putted from 26 feet on the 18th hole.
"I shot 5 under. I'll gladly take that," Mickelson said. "I didn't get the ball in the hole the front nine, and then I putted the best I've putted -- I haven't made that many putts in months, on the back nine. It was fun to see a couple of putts roll in, and I ended up making some birdies." -- Helen Ross
WOODS MATCHES BEST FINAL ROUND (2:15 p.m.): All Tiger Woods can do is sit and wait. After matching his career-low for a final round with a 63 today, Woods is in the clubhouse at 12 under, which leaves him two shots off the lead now held by four players.
For Woods, it's the 20th time in his career that he has shot 63 and though it likely won't be enough to win, it's the lowest round of the week here and certainly an improvement on yesterday's 72.
For the day, Woods hit 10 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation, but the difference was his putting. He took just 25 putts -- his fewest all week -- and he missed just one putt inside of 10 feet. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Woods' scorecard from today:
LEADERBOARD CHECK (2:10 p.m.): The first few holes at TPC Boston continue to yield one birdie after another. Case in point: Jason Dufner, who now has a share of the lead with Steve Stricker at 14 under after playing his first five holes in 2 under.
Stricker, meanwhile, birdied the par-5 second for his first birdie of the day. His playing partner, Retief Goosen, remains even so far. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER UPDATE (1:55 p.m.): Tiger Woods has a couple of holes left in his final round here and is currently one shot off the lead after playing his first 16 holes in 8 under.
If Woods can make another birdie and finish with a 63, it would match his lowest career score in this event, which he shot in the final round on his way to winning in 2006. -- Brian Wacker
| Lowest rounds of Tiger Woods' PGA TOUR career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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WHAT WILL IT TAKE? (1:40 p.m.): Here are the mindsets the three co-leaders will take as they prepare to tee off for Monday's final round:
STEVE STRICKER: "This tournament, this leaderboard here, is what's on my mind. All that other stuff (FedExCup rankings) will take care of itself if you can just focus on the task at hand here, play well here, do as well as I can here and hopefully move up (in FedExCup points)... You can't worry about the other one unless you're doing well in something like this or making points in an event like this."
RETIEF GOOSEN: "Somebody is going to have to shoot like 6 under or 7 under probably to win. Obviously the pins will be in the toughest positions out there, so scoring will be a little bit harder than it was (Sunday). But if there's no wind ... then you're going to need to shoot a low one to have a chance to win."
SEAN O'HAIR: "You get a guy like Stricker who's playing really well, and he's going to be tough to beat. I think if I go out there and focus on me and get comfortable on the first tee and not take four or five holes to get going, I should be right there at the end." -- Mike McAllister
MORE ON TIGER'S FAST START (1:15 p.m.): The buzz circulating through the galleries about Tiger Woods' hot start most often started with, "He shot what?"
As Woods strode down the 10th fairway, fresh off his front-nine 30 that tied the course record for the opening nine at TPC Boston, members of the gallery began to comprehend the huge move Woods made Monday morning.
"He's 10 under? That means he's 6 under today. Wow," said one.
Noted another, "Did you expect anything else?"
After Woods' terrific approach shot on the 10th left him just 8 feet, 7 inches for birdie, the crowd roared. And then it roared even louder when he drilled the putt to go to 7 under on his round.
But the atmosphere deflated just a bit when his tee shot on the par-3 11th landed in the bunker protecting the front of the green. The shot was dead online, just short. And it left Woods with a tough bunker shot, an uphill lie that left him little chance of getting it close.
Woods eventually had to settle for bogey, but his fans remained hopeful. After all, there were seven holes still left. -- Mike McAllister
HOFFMAN HOT (12:48 p.m.): Tiger Woods wasn't the only one to play well on the front nine here. Charley Hoffman is 4 under through his first six holes with birdies on four of his last five holes.
Hoffman began the day well back at 5 under, and he came into the week ranked 30th in FedExCup points, but if he continues to play this well is projected to finish this week 25th in FedExCup points, which would put him in pretty good shape for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in a few weeks. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER TURNS IN 30 (12:25 p.m.): Tiger Woods did exactly what he needed to do this morning to get back into the golf tournament. Woods just made the turn in 6-under 30, matching a course record for TPC Boston.
Woods shot a front-nine 30 here in the final round when he won in 2006. Adam Scott also shot a front-nine 30 (in 2003) as did Mike Weir (in 2008).
In case you were wondering, the back-nine record here is 29, shot by four different players -- Jonathan Kaye in 2003; Marcel Siem in 2005; Tom Pernice Jr. in 2007 and Marc Leishman earlier this week.
Below is a look at Woods' scorecard so far:
TIGER ON FIRE (12:05 p.m.): As bad as Tiger Woods has been at times this week, that's how good his round is this morning. Actually, it's better. Woods is 6 under through his first seven holes with four birdies and an eagle. As a result, he's moved inside the top 10 (for now) and is just three strokes off the lead.
The eagle for Woods came on the par-4 sixth, where he holed out from 131 yards. Woods has also missed just one green in regulation so far and taken only eight putts (click here to follow Woods' round live with Shot Tracker).
Even though Woods is only three back, you have to figure he still has a long way to go to catch the leaders by the end of the day, but you never know. Right now, he's on pace to tie the front-nine record of 6-under 30 at TPC Boston, which has been shot by three players, including Woods, who shot 30 in the fourth round here in 2006. -- Brian Wacker
A LOOK AT THE LEADERS (12 p.m.): When Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen tee off in the day's final pairing later this afternoon, they'll do so having held or shared the 54-hole lead seven previous times. Sean O'Hair, who is tied with Stricker and Goosen at 13 under, has only been in that position four times.
Of that group, Goosen has the best closing percentage, having gone on to win four times with the most recent victory coming at the Transitions Championship earlier this year. Stricker, meanwhile, has only sealed the deal twice, the last of which came two years ago at The Barclays. O'Hair? He's never won when entering the final round with at least a share of the lead (see below for more). -- Brian Wacker
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