Johnson fends off Scott at Sony
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Sony Open in Hawaii | Round Four | 19 Jan 2009
Third round leader Zach Johnson held off strong final round challenges from Adam Scott and David Toms to win the Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu and in doing so secured his 4th PGA Tour title.
After a slow start in his opening rounds at Kapalua last week Johnson has played his last six rounds in 30 under. “Yeah, first two rounds of the year – I went skiing the week before. If there’s anything wrong, that would probably be it. I had new irons in the bag, new Titleist irons I was getting comfortable with. Certainly didn’t take me long. That was part of it.”
Just knowing that what I did in the off-season and how we more or less sat down and put a direction down for 2009 and seeing it pay off this week, it’s pretty awesome. If anything, I should just — I’ve got to put this behind me and focus on my next tee shot, whenever that week is."
Johnson struggled through the opening seven holes of his round but a birdie at the 8th after all but holing his approach seemed to set him back on track. He missed a birdie opportunity at the 9th but birdied the 10th and 11th holes to open up a one shot lead over Toms, Scott and Charles Howell.
Another birdie at the 14th after another fine approach moved him two ahead and although Scott birdied the last and Toms the 15th to get within one, Johnson had enough in reserve to eventually win by two following a two putt birdie at the final hole.
Howell who had also moved to 13 under with one hole to play surprisingly bogeyed the par five last to miss out on an opportunity to apply the most pressure after three putting from 18 feet and finished 4th. It was a costly slip by Howell who had made a similar slip two years ago when runner up to Paul Goydos.
Scott was impressive in his final round of 64 but missed a great opportunity at the par three 17th to create a wining opportunity. His tee shot finished ten feet left of the hole and a birdie there and another at the last might have been enough to alter the outcome, especially given he was playing four groups ahead of the final pair. He missed and although he birdied the last he finished two back.
Despite not capitalising fully on the chance he had created for himself, Scott was happy with the week. “Yeah, it was a good week, solid week for me – a solid last three days. Today was really good for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the hunt in anything. It was nice to get on the back nine and have a chance and get the competitive nerves going again.”
“So I really enjoyed that and I enjoyed the challenge, and you know, there are a couple things – I wish I could have made the putt on 17, to have a bit of a chance on the last, but all in all, I’m pretty happy with how my game is shaping up early on.”
“My goal was to come out and get off to a bit of a start State-side for the FedEx Cup, because I’m going to take a month off after Qatar next week to get my knee back to 100 percent. I’m really motivated and I feel like the drive is back. It had certainly gone a little off-track there affidavit year, so I’m feeling good about things.”
The next best Australian after Scott came via a fine PGA Tour debut by Marc Leishman, whose last round of 65 signalled that he will be a player to be reckoned with on the PGA Tour before long, and Nathan Green, who struggled on the final day with a round of 72. The pair finished in a share of 12th.
Leishman, who last October won a Nationwide Tour event in Texas by a massive 11 shots creating a Nationwide Tour record in the process, put together a fine final nine holes of 31, his five under par round moving him from 41st to 12th and a cheque for US$87,971 to open his PGA Tour account.
Green led the event early and was in a share of second going into the final day but struggled early, missing six of the first seven greens and dropping three shots in the process. He managed to scramble his way to a round of 72 and overall a solid start to the season.
Geoff Ogilvy slipped from 10th to 31st on the final day perhaps the heroics of last week finally catching up. Tim Wilkinson was 51st and Jarrod Lyle 65th.
The PGA Tour now moves back to the mainland to the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Desert in California.
