Watney rewarded for consistency at WGC

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 WGC Cadillac Championship | Final Round | 14 Mar 2011

Nick Watney has won the WGC Cadillac Championship at the TPC Blue Monster in Miami, catching and passing the third round leader Dustin Johnson to win by two over Johnson and by three over Andres Hansen and Francesco Molinari.

Starting the final round two behind Johnson, Watney put behind him a double bogey at his final hole on Saturday with birdies at his opening two holes today. When he birdied three consecutive holes either side of the turn he had the outright lead and managed to hole key par saving putts at the 13th and 15th holes to maintain a lead or at worst share the top spot.

Johnson started well with a birdie at the par five 1st but was unable to build on that. After falling behind Watney he was able to draw level again when he hit the flagstick at the 14th and holed a three footer for birdie. A bogey at the 16th when he found the fairway and then greenside trap however was an untimely mistake and when Watney hit a beautiful approach to 12 feet at the last and converted Johnson was left with too much to do.

It was Watney’s 8th top ten in nine official PGA Tour events since and including the Tour Championship last September. It also goes some way to overcoming the pain he no doubt felt from a self implosion at last year’s PGA Championship when he took a lead into the final round only to record a round of 81 and finish 18th.

“I mean, it’s nice to finish second in a World Golf event, but at the same time, it’s the worst place to finish when it’s a close tournament like that,” said Watney referring to his near miss in this event two years ago.
“So two years ago came into my head, and also Whistling Straits, just the letdown and disappointment of the way that I performed that day. So I just wanted to, you know, give myself, or allow myself to play well and to execute, and I was able to do that.”

Hansen and Molinari both flew the European flag well while Matt Kuchar continued his great run of consistent form to record yet another top ten on the PGA Tour.

Adam Scott produced one of the great form reversals after missing the cut by many shots last week in West Palm Beach. Scott finished in a share of 6th position this week and his improved putting over the weekend suggest that his brave decision to go with the long putter two weeks ago might pay off in big measure. It already has to a large degree as this was his best finish in a World Golf Championship event since August of 2006.

Tiger Woods finally looked something like the golfer of old with a final round of 66 for a share of 10th position. Given some of the shots he was hitting early in the week it was an impressive comeback.
Robert Allenby was the next best Australian after Scott finishing in 15th position, Aaron Baddeley was 28th, Marcus Fraser and Jason Day 45th, Geoff Ogilvy 49th and Peter Senior 64th.