Second win takes Weir to top of money list at Nissan Open
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2003 Nissan Open | Wrap | 24 Feb 2003
It was one of those playoffs where you didn’t mind who won. Charles Howell III and Mike Weir are class acts both on and off the golf course and although Howell had led for so long during the week, if Weir had lost then our sympathies may have gone his way.
Howell, looking for his second win on tour to follow his Michelob Championship win last year, took the lead early in the second round and when he had completed 36 holes he led by one from Nick Price. He extended his lead to three strokes heading into round four, although an opening birdie on day four was bettered by Price’s eagle and the difference closed to just two. Both players made mistakes late in the front nine and at the halfway mark, Howell had again extended his lead to three shots over Price, K.J. Choi and a charging Mike Weir, who had moved to eight under to join those chasing Howell.
When Howell bogeyed the 10th to slip to ten under it became clear that this was now anyone’s tournament to win and with Price, Choi and Weir in hot pursuit, Howell was feeling the pinch. Weir’s birdie at the par five 17th saw him grab a share of the lead courtesy of Howell’s bogeys at the 12th and 14th. Howell was likely to birdie the 17th it would seem, especially when his driving average for the week was 300 yards, but he was not able to do so and was forced to par the potentially dangerous final hole to force a playoff.
Price and Choi dropped away over the final few holes and so Weir and Howell returned to the eighteenth for the first of what were to be two playoff holes. They both made regulation pars and on the second, Riviera’s short par four tenth, Weir played first and placed it perfectly in the fairway some seventy yards short of the hole. Howell stuck to his game plan of the week, and played his driver, only to find the bunker some thirty yards right of the green. He hit the most remarkable bunker shot, which had to carry the greenside bunker and came to rest some eight feet from the hole. Weir on the other hand had hit his approach to ten feet, and when he holed his putt, the task was clear for Howell, hole his birdie putt or his chance at the claiming the title this week was over. Unfortuneately, he missed and indeed his time at the top of the leaderboard was over.
Canadian Mike Weir has now won his second event of the year, following on from his win at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and now heads the money list for 2003 with $US2,022,000 and is $US210,000 ahead of Els.
Fred Funk and Nick Price tied for third with Tiger Woods’ final round 65 leaving him in a tie for 5th with Korea’s K.J. Choi.
The leading Australasian was Steve Elkington, who rallied with two late birdies after a horror start to his final round. He finished in 17th place with a cheque for nearly $US60,000. Aaron Baddely was 28th, Phil Tataurangi and Craig Parry 37th, Robert Allenby and Peter Lonard 42nd and Greg Chalmers 65th.
The top 64 in the world ranking, or at least those available, head for Carlsbad, California for the Accenture Match Play Championship, while those not eligible for that event get a chance at the Tuscon Open.
