Amazing chip-ins lift Weekley past Els
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina: Unheralded American Boo Weekley dropped astonishing par chip-ins on the last two holes of a wind-marred final round to win the US PGA Verizon Heritage tournament on Monday.
Weekley fired a final-round 68, three-under par, to capture his first PGA crown, completing 72 holes at 14-under par 270 to defeat South African Ernie Els by one stroke and become the fourth first-time winner on the tour in 2007.
"This is unreal," Weekley said. "It's unreal, back-to-back chip-ins. I don't know how often that's happened out here on the tour for a win, but it was pretty dramatic for me."
What truly tested reality were the closing holes for Weekley and Els in a final round that was halted Sunday by severe winds.
Gusts by the closing seaside holes were only slightly better for Monday's morning restart at the $5.4 million event.
Weekley, who took a bogey at the 16th, botched his first chip at the raised green on the par-three 17th but lofted his second effort perfectly and rolled home an unlikely par.
"I was just trying to land it just barely on the fringe and let the wind push it to the hole," Weekley said. "I just flubbed it a little bit."
Els followed with a tee shot that landed behind a television tower, forcing him to drop and pitch from tall wispy grass into a greenside bunker. He went up and down but the bogey dropped him two strokes off Weekley's pace.
At the 18th, Weekley chipped across the green and the ball stopped in a side-hill patch of grass. Only a matter of inches kept Weekley's ball from rolling down into rocks along the beach shore and a horrid fate.
Weekley needed to manage at least a bogey to avoid falling level with Australian Stephen Leaney, who finished third on 272 after a final-round 68.
Instead, Weekley sank another improbable chip for par, this one from 35 feet, and kept his two-stroke margin over Els, who was walking to the 18th tee. It proved to be the decisive stroke.
"I was just like, 'All right, I ain't even going to worry about it, just get up there and chip it on, two-putt it and make my bogey and give myself another opportunity,'" Weekley said.
Weekley spent the past four years on the developmental tour after a brief PGA stint, but has made the most of his second chance.
His victory clinched a PGA spot for the next two years and a spot at next year's Masters, the first winner to do so under a revived qualifying format announced by Augusta National Golf Club officials earlier this month.
Weekley nearly won his first PGA crown at last month's Honda Classic but a bogey on the 72nd hole because of a short missed putt dropped him into a four-man playoff that he lost.
"It never stopped me from thinking I was going to win because I knew in my heart I was going to win," he said. "That putt, still to this day, that three-footer, they still give me a little bit of a jitter."
AFP
(China Daily 04/18/2007 page24)
