Garcia triumphs at Wyndham to grab rare win on PGA Tour
Source: Agencies |
August 22, 2012, Wednesday
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SERGIO Garcia claimed a two-stroke victory on Monday in the rain-delayed Wyndham Championship to earn his first PGA Tour victory since the 2008 Players Championship.
Garcia finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262 and claim US$936,000 in prize money. Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final tour event before the playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.
Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour. He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA victory.
Garcia began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapped it in for birdie. He added another birdie on No. 15, a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt, and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped closer than 2 feet from the stick.
He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.
It was a bit of redemption for the 32-year-old Spaniard, who in his last appearance in Greensboro in 2009 held a share of the lead after three rounds but let it slip away and finished in fourth place. This time, he finished strong to give a huge boost to his candidacy for a spot on the European Ryder Cup team. The 10 automatic qualifiers will be set following the Johnny Walker Invitational with Jose Maria Olazabal making two captain's picks.
"Obviously I won a couple of times last year in Europe, but it's been a while here (in the United States) and it feels great," Garcia said. "I am proud of the way I played coming in," he said.
In addition to the quests by players for Ryder Cup selections, much of the focus was on the chase to make the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin in a few days at The Barclays. But everything wound up taking a back seat to the weather, as heavy rains dumped 5cm of water on the Sedgefield course on Sunday.
Garcia finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262 and claim US$936,000 in prize money. Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final tour event before the playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.
Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour. He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA victory.
Garcia began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapped it in for birdie. He added another birdie on No. 15, a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt, and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped closer than 2 feet from the stick.
He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.
It was a bit of redemption for the 32-year-old Spaniard, who in his last appearance in Greensboro in 2009 held a share of the lead after three rounds but let it slip away and finished in fourth place. This time, he finished strong to give a huge boost to his candidacy for a spot on the European Ryder Cup team. The 10 automatic qualifiers will be set following the Johnny Walker Invitational with Jose Maria Olazabal making two captain's picks.
"Obviously I won a couple of times last year in Europe, but it's been a while here (in the United States) and it feels great," Garcia said. "I am proud of the way I played coming in," he said.
In addition to the quests by players for Ryder Cup selections, much of the focus was on the chase to make the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin in a few days at The Barclays. But everything wound up taking a back seat to the weather, as heavy rains dumped 5cm of water on the Sedgefield course on Sunday.
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