Farmers Insurance Open, Round 4
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
CRANE CAPTURES FARMERS TITLE (6:43 p.m.): Needing to make something happen on the par-5 18th hole, Michael Sim instead did the same thing Ben Crane did: lay up. The only difference was that Crane was leading by one.
Sim did have more than 240 yards to a pin over the water, but laying up took winning out of the equation. It also didn't put much pressure on Crane. It did, however, put pressure on Sim, who spun a wedge nearly into the hole only to see it go off the green.
Crane? His wedge almost spun off the green, too, but it hardly mattered. Two putts later he had a par and his first win since 2005 in Milwaukee, a span of nearly 5,000 holes. It's also the third and best victory of his career, coming at a difficult venue (his other win was at the 2003 BellSouth Classic).
As for Sim, the rookie will learn. He wasn't the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year last year for nothing. Get used to seeing his name high on the leaderboard. -- Brian Wacker
ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO (6:25 p.m.): Not so fast. A bogey by Ben Crane on No. 17 means his lead is down to one with one hole to play. Michael Sim trails by only a shot and now Brandt Snedeker does, too. For the second-straight week, a tournament may be decided by a par-5 finishing hole. -- Brian Wacker
MICKELSON SHOOTS 73 (6:20 p.m.): If someone told you one player would shoot 7 under and the other would shoot 1 over, how many people would have guessed the latter would be Phil Mickelson and the former would be Michael Allen.
That's what happened, though, as Mickelson never got it going. He bogeyed each of his first three holes and never recovered, making three birdies and one bogey the rest of the way. In the end, Mickelson never threatened and shot 73 in his first tournament of the year. The biggest thing he might need to work on: Consistency, especially with the driver. When Mickelson is at his best it's because he's keeping it in play off the tee.
"It happens," Mickelson told CBS afterward. "The good thing is I have some direction and know where I want to go with my game. It didn't feel as bad as the score indicated." -- Brian Wacker
ALLENBY IN (6:03 p.m.): Robert Allenby's chances of victory went by the wayside after his tee shot found the hazard at No. 17. That led to a triple-bogey, but Allenby recovered nicely on the par-5 18th, making an eagle after hitting his approach from 242 yards to 6 feet. Obviously it wasn't the finish Allenby ultimately wanted, but, well, it was still a pretty nice finish. And the confidence in that putting stroke is growing. -- Brian Wacker
WAITING GAME (5:55 p.m.): Looks like Alex Prugh will have to wait another week to see his fiancée. He's currently tied for fifth and a top-10 finish will get him in the field for this week's Northern Trust Open at historic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
"I was talking to my fianceé, and she was like, I really hope to see you tomorrow, but at the same time I hope not to," Prugh said. "That was her roundabout way of saying play well tomorrow. Unfortunately I'll have to delay seeing her at least one more week, but definitely planning on going and playing L.A."
Prugh, who is a rookie on the PGA TOUR, fired a 66 in Sunday's final round to clock in at 11 under. This would be his second straight top-10. -- Helen Ross
CRANE BY TWO (5:45 p.m.): After a costly bogey by Michael Sim on the par-4 15th, Ben Crane now leads by two as the final round starts to wind down. That's going to put an awful lot of pressure on Sim and Rickie Fowler, both of whom are now two back. Marc Leishman is now just two back as well, but unless someone makes an eagle on the last hole, Crane will likely get the win. -- Brian Wacker
DOWN THE STRETCH (5:23 p.m.): With eight players tied at 11 under -- and two of them already in the clubhouse -- the winner will likely be one of three players: Ben Crane, Michael Sim or Rickie Fowler.
Two of those players -- Sim and Fowler -- have yet to win on the PGA TOUR. It's been nearly 20 years (Jay Don Blake in 1991) since someone got their first career victory here, but that certainly could change. Crane, on the other hand, has won and today he's made a couple of long putts. Unfortunately for Crane, he three-putted from 14 feet to bogey the par-5 13th. Crane is still in the lead, but Sim is just one back and Fowler two back. -- Brian Wacker
BIG WEEK FOR FOWLER (5 p.m.): Rickie Fowler seems to have gotten things back in gear this week after missing his first two cuts as a TOUR member.
The phenom didn't break 70 in Hawaii or Palm Springs, but he's working on his second round in the 60s this week. He opened with a 67 at Torrey Pines and is 3 under through 14 holes on Sunday.
More importantly, Fowler is tied for third with Ryuji Imada at 12 under. Imada, who started the day in the lead, is 1 over through 13 holes. -- Helen Ross
NICE FINISH FOR PRUGH (4:45 p.m.): Remember the name. Alex Prugh is playing in just his third PGA TOUR event as a member, and the rookie appears to have just posted his second top-10. The 25-year-old from Spokane, Wash., birdied the 12th and 16th holes and made an eagle at No. 13 Sunday to shoot 32 on the back nine and close with a 66 that left him at 11 under.
Prugh was tied for fifth when he finished his round. A week ago at the Bob Hope Classic, Prugh led after the third round and held a share of the lead after the fourth before ending up fifth. He closed with a 67 in the desert and finished two strokes behind Bill Haas. -- Helen Ross
CRANE STILL AT THE POINT (4:30 p.m.): You get the feeling this might be Ben Crane's week. Crane just bombed in another long putt, this one from 47 feet on the 11th hole for a birdie. -- Brian Wacker
ALLEN IN WITH 65 (4:10 p.m.): Unless something bizarre happens, Michael Allen isn't going to win. Still, that was an impressive round of 65 he just turned in. The just-turned 51-year-old had nearly as many birdies as he did pars -- 8 to 9 -- with just one bogey and one missed green in regulation.
Allen threatened at the Sony Open in Hawaii, too, but came up short in the final round, ultimately finishing in a tie for 25th after a Sunday 72. He'll finish much higher than that this week and seems pretty determined and confident that he can win out here, which is why he'll play most of his golf on the PGA TOUR this year as opposed to the Champions Tour. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Allen's scorecard. Click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker.
ALLENBY MOVING UP (3:30 p.m.): Robert Allenby is one of the game's best ball-strikers and it's showing today. He hasn't missed a green in regulation and just made the turn in 32 with four birdies and no bogeys. That has him within two of Ben Crane's lead and in a three-way tie for second with Lucas Glover and Michael Sim. More importantly, he's taken 14 putts. It's becoming more and more evident that Allenby's re-vamped putting stroke is paying off. Will it hold up in the clutch? We just might find out. -- Brian Wacker
LEADERBOARD UPDATE (3:10 p.m.): We're nearly halfway through the final round and here's what we know: Ben Crane is in the lead, but who knows if he will be by the end of the day. There are seven players within four shots of him and only Michael Allen is deep into his round. Of that group, only Ryuji Imada, who led at the start of the round, is over par -- he's 1 over through six holes. -- Brian Wacker
MICKELSON UPDATE (2:48 p.m.): Finally, Phil Mickelson has a birdie. After bogeys on his first three holes, Mickelson just birdied the par-5 sixth, where he rolled in a 35-footer.
If Mickelson is going to have to keep making 35-footers for birdie, it's going to be a long, long afternoon. Then again, you get the feeling it's been a long week for Lefty, on and off the course. -- Brian Wacker
CRANE TAKES THE LEAD (2:35 p.m.): Ben Crane has been very good off the tee and into the green this week and that hasn't changed much today. Crane now has the lead at 13 under after two early birdies. The first one came on the par-4 second, where he stuffed his approach shot to 3 feet. One hole later, he bombed in a 46-foot birdie putt on the par-3 third. -- Brian Wacker
MORE ON ALLEN (2:25 p.m.): Michael Allen will finish roughly nine holes before the leaders. But should he end up taking the title, Allen would join Craig Stadler and Fred Funk as the players to have won on the PGA TOUR after also winning a Champions Tour event.
Stadler actually won on the Champions Tour and PGA TOUR in consecutive weeks in 2003. He captured the Ford Senior Players Championship and earned his final PGA TOUR title at the the B.C. Open seven days later.
Funk picked up his first Champions Tour title at the Turtle Bay Championship in 2003. He played in two more PGA TOUR events and then won the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun in his third start with the young guns. The veteran's performance Sunday shouldn't surprise us, though. Allen played in last week's Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Champions Tour and finished third. The 50-year-old Allen fired three 66s at Hualalai last week to finish four strokes behind the equally ageless Tom Watson. -- Helen Ross
IMPRESSIVE ROOKIES (2:20 p.m.): Michael Sim and Rickie Fowler are just even par and 1 under, respectively, in the early part of their rounds, but both look like they're headed toward their rookie seasons.
Prior to this week, Fowler had yet to make a cut -- or break 70 -- in two starts this season. Sim, meanwhile, tied for 63 in the Bob Hope Classic. Currently, Sim is in third, while Fowler is tied for fourth. -- Brian Wacker
ALLEN ON THE MOVE (2:10 p.m.): Michael Allen, who, as mentioned, won in his first career start on the Champions Tour at last year's Senior PGA Championship, is still looking for his his first career win on the PGA TOUR. He's doing a pretty good job of trying to get it right now with birdies on six of his last seven holes. That has moved Allen up the leaderboard more than 30 spots and he's now just three shots back.
The one problem for Allen, who hasn't missed a green and has just 16 putts through 11 holes, is that he's obviously running out of time. There are three players ahead of him on the leaderboard, but they're only through the first few holes. -- Brian Wacker
BAD START (2 p.m.): Phil Mickelson entered the final round just four shots off the lead, but he started his round with three bogeys to fall seven back.
Mickelson has been battling with a lack of accuracy all week with his driver, and he missed both of his first two fairways. -- Ryan Smithson
ALLEN REELS OFF FIVE BIRDIES IN A ROW (1:33 p.m.): Michael Allen who turns 51 today, just reeled off five birdies to close his front nine in 31.
Allen, who moved to 9 under, is trying to become the first player in history to win his first PGA TOUR event after winning on the Champions Tour. He won his Champions Tour debut last spring at the Senior PGA Championship. -- Ryan Smithson
WHAT WILL PHIL DO? (1 p.m.): Phil Mickelson, who just teed off, is going for his fourth career win at Torrey Pines today and if he's going to get it, he'll have to come from behind.
It's been a somewhat wild week for Mickelson so far -- he has 14 birdies, one eagle, five bogeys, one double bogey and one ball stuck in a tree. Not surprisingly, though, he's made the most hay on the par-5s at Torrey Pines. Entering the week, no one has played the par-5s on both the North and South courses better than Mickelson (since 1992). He's a combined 124 under on the 260 par-5s he's played and this week hasn't been any different -- Mickelson is a field-best 11 under on the par-5s entering today's final round. Now he'll just need to play a little better on the par-3s and par-4s. -- Brian Wacker
| Lowest Score (RTP) on the Par-5s - Since 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||
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INSIDE THE NUMBERS (12:40 p.m.): Fairways and greens in regulation, among others, are important statistics. But one of the most important stats is proximity to the hole. Case in point: Ben Crane. He's 13th in fairways hit and leads the field in GIR at 87 percent, but the real key for him this week is his approach shot average of 29 feet. Anytime you're under 30 feet, it's a good number and it's a big reason why Crane, a very good putter, comes into the final round just two shots back. -- Brian Wacker
STAT OF THE WEEK (12:30 p.m.): Two interesting stats on Ryuji Imada this week: He's hit only 48 percent of his fairways (61st in the field), but has still managed to hit the green 80 percent of the time (fourth). The other and more important stat is that he has just one bogey, which came on the par-4 fourth hole during the third round when he a missed a 9-foot putt.
That bogey ended Imada's 44-hole bogey-free streak at this event, dating back to -- what else -- the fourth hole in last year's final round. Lastly, while Imada missed seven greens in the third round -- after missing just four through the first two rounds -- he managed to get up-and-down six of seven times. -- Brian Wacker
| Ryuji Imada - This week vs. The Field | |||||||||||||||||||||
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RYUJI IN THE LEAD (12:15 p.m.): When Ryuji Imada tees off later today, it'll be only the second time he's taken a lead or share of the lead into the final round. The last time he was in this position was at the 2007 AT&T Classic. He lost to Zach Johnson in a playoff there. Imada continues to have a strong record here, however. Imada has never missed the cut and has three top-25s, including a runer-up in 2008, in five previous appearances. -- Brian Wacker
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