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(04/14/03 5:56am)
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A Maple Leaf grows among the towering pines of Augusta National.\nMike Weir became the first Canadian to win the Masters, making two clutch pars to force a playoff with Len Mattiace, and winning on the first extra hole with a simple tap-in for bogey.\nThe Green Jacket that Tiger Woods had hoped to slip on for a record third straight year is going north of the border.\nWeir, who only five years ago had to toil through PGA Tour qualifying school, closed with a bogey-free 68 on a dramatic Sunday at Augusta National, then let Mattiace make all the mistakes in the first Masters playoff in 13 years.\nWeir had to sweat over a 5-foot par putt on the 17th and a 6-footer on the 18th, as Mattiace waited on the practice green among chairs that already were set up for the fabled Green Jacket ceremony.\nMinutes later, Weir leaned over to tap in for his only bogey of the day, then raised his arms and embraced his longtime friend and caddie, Brennan Little.\nWhat a breakthrough -- not only was he the first Canadian to win a major championship, he became the first left-hander to win a major since Bob Charles in the 1963 British Open.\nMattiace watched a brilliant day at Augusta National crumble quickly.\nHe chipped in for birdie, holed a 60-foot putt on No. 10, and charged through the back nine on a mission to build a two-stroke lead. But Mattiace bogeyed the 18th for a 65, and he never had a chance in the playoff.\nFrom the middle of the 10th fairway, he hooked his approach wildly to the left and then chipped some 30 feet by the hole. His par putt nearly went off the green, and Mattiace wound up with a double bogey.\nBoth finished at 7-under 281, the highest winning score at the Masters since 1989.\nWeir won for the first time this year, and all six of his PGA Tour victories have been comebacks -- none more special than this.\nUntil Sunday, the most nervous he has ever felt was watching Canada win the gold medal in hockey at the Salt Lake City Olympics.\n"This was definitely nerve-racking," Weir said. "I tried to gather myself on each putt. Every putt on this golf course is tough."\nAll of them mattered until the end, when Mattiace chopped up the 10th hole and was struggling to hold back tears when he realized how close he had come.\nAll of them mattered in a nervous pursuit of the Green Jacket.\nWoods, who stumbled to a 75, slipped the coveted prize over his shoulders.\n"Thanks, Tig," Weir told him. "It feels good"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- One by one, the best golfers in the world stepped aside.\nIt was Sunday at the Masters and Tiger Woods was in the lead.\n"After the front nine, I knew it was all over for me," U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen said.\nHe wasn't alone.\nWoods won his third green jacket by proving he was far more daunting than a toughened up, redesigned Augusta National. He seized control with an early burst of birdies and watched his rivals crash in a desperate and reckless attempt to catch him.\nThe result was another march into history, with Woods becoming only the third player to win back-to-back titles.\n"I think we're going to wear this jacket out putting it on you before your career is over," Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said as he slipped the size 42 long over Woods' shoulders.\nIt was Johnson who ordered the biggest renovation in club history.\nIt was the 26-year-old Woods who wore everyone out.\nPhil Mickelson muttered through clenched teeth when his par putt slipped below the hole on No. 7. Ernie Els took a lonely walk through the trees left of the 13th fairway, shoulders slumped and head down. Vijay Singh covered his head with his hands when his ball bounded into a creek on the same hole.\nWoods had the look of a champion all day.\nHe closed with a 1-under 71 to claim a three-stroke victory over Goosen, who started the final round tied with Woods and spent most of the day playing for second.\n"You just know Tiger is not going to make any big mistakes," Goosen said.\nWoods walked up the 18th fairway in a victory parade, tugging on the brim of his cap to acknowledge the applause. When he tapped in for par a score of 12-under 276, he hugged his parents, both decked out in red shirts -- the color he wears for every final round.\n"It's awfully special," Woods said. "For some reason, this seemed a little bit harder. Maybe cause we played 26 holes yesterday. I'm getting just a little bit older."\nSo is this story line.\n"We've been over this before," Thomas Bjorn said when asked if anyone could catch Woods. "This being the Masters, and him being up there, it obviously puts you under a bit of pressure."\nWoods became the first player to repeat as Masters champion since Nick Faldo in 1990. Jack Nicklaus was the only other, in 1965-66, and Woods' victory put him halfway to Nicklaus' mark of six Masters.\n"Give him a couple of more years, and I think Tiger will be greater than even Jack Nicklaus," Goosen said.\nLast year, Woods battled Mickelson and David Duval down the stretch to win the Masters and become the first player to sweep the four professional majors.\nAnother tight finish loomed, with six of the top seven players in the world all poised to win the Masters. By the end of the day, they were scratching their heads, trying to figure out what they could do -- if anything -- to tame Tiger.\n"We were all trying to make something happen to catch Tiger, because we knew he wasn't going to falter," said Mickelson, who closed with a 71 to finish third, his 39th major and still regarded as the best to never win one.\nEls tried to make a charge, and wound up with an 8 by hitting into the trees and into the creek on the par-5 13th.\nSingh, the former Masters and PGA champion, got as close as two strokes before he hit into a creek, into the crowd, into the trees. That was before he reached No. 15, where it really got ugly. Singh hit two wedges into the water and made nine.\n"That was the end of that," he said.\nIt was over long before.\n"I was kind of surprised, no doubt about it," Woods said about no one making a run. "But that doesn't deter me from my concentration."\nWoods won his seventh professional major, joining a list that includes Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer, who made this Masters his 48th and last.\nHe became only the third player since the Masters began in 1934 to win a major four years in a row. Nicklaus (1970-73) and Tom Watson (1980-83) also did it.\nMore than anything, Woods reminded people how tough he is in the final round. He is 23-2 when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.\nWoods earned $1,008,000 for his 31st career victory, and he became the first two-time winner on the PGA Tour this year.\nGoosen didn't make a birdie until the 15th hole, but moved into second when everyone else fell apart. The South African closed with a 74 and finished at 279.\n"I was asking one of the officials, do I get the green pants for finishing second?" Goosen said.\nTwo-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal started five strokes back and was never in the hunt. He felt no pressure and made no big mistakes, finishing with a 71 to take fourth place at 281.\nIt was only the second time this year that Woods failed to break 70 in the final round, but Augusta National finally showed some bite. Shigeki Maruyama of Japan had a 67 and was the only player to break 70.\nMickelson, playing in the group in front of Woods, made an early statement by hitting a 9-iron out of the fairway bunker into 14 inches on the first hole for birdie, then making another birdie on No. 2. Just like that, he was only two strokes behind.\nEls also birdied the first two holes, poised to make a charge.\nThen, poof!\nWoods made them all disappear.\nHe pitched up the slope to six feet on No. 2 and made birdie, then spun back his approach to 10 feet on No. 3 and made that for another birdie.\nAfter a bogey on No. 5, only his second in 44 holes, Woods was staring at another when he went over the green on the par-3 sixth.\nWould he buckle? No chance. Woods' chip from 20 feet went straight into the cup, and he raised his wedge in mild celebration. There was no fist pump, no smiles, just another methodical day of work at the Masters.\nAll the emotion came from everyone else. Even the best of the rest realized that Woods wins most of his tournaments by letting everyone else fall apart.\n"I tried," Els said. "We all tried."\nAgainst Woods, especially at Augusta, that isn't enough.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
GULLANE, Scotland -- Phil Mickelson put a new spin Wednesday on his chances of winning a British Open, the one major championship where he has never contended.\nLefty finally thinks he has the right game.\n"If I can win the British Open, it would be the greatest satisfaction to achieve a victory here given the amount of alterations that I've had to go through," he said.\nNever mind that it would be his first major championship after 41 tries.\nIt doesn't matter if he's the guy who stops Tiger Woods from a shot at the Grand Slam.\nHe's not interested in shutting up past major champions who have ripped into him, Ernie Els, David Duval and others for not giving Woods enough competition.\nMickelson, a regular contender at the other three majors, has never finished higher than 11th in the British Open and usually gets early tee times on the weekend.\n"I wanted to change that," he said.\nAbout 18 months ago, Mickelson said he began working on his swing to reduce some of the spin and give himself a better chance at handling the quirky nature of links golf.\nIt's not that he didn't think he could win on talent alone.\n"I feel like I've been ready. I've gotten here and prepared properly and I'm ready to go," he said. "But I've not gone here with the type of shots that I feel I have now."\nThe problem? Too much spin, which generates plenty of excitement on lush greens often found at regular PGA Tour stops, but did him little good on the brittle links of Britain.\nMickelson offered an easy explanation for his poor record at the British Open, although it sounds a little complicated.\n"When I would keep the ball low, it would be low with a lot of spin," he said. "The ball would land short of the green like I would be playing it, but the spin would make it grab and not release back to the hole like I'm expecting."\nHe tinkered with his swing. He worked on his ball flight. With the British Open in mind, Mickelson also found that it helped him on the PGA Tour.\n "Shot that I had in mind originally for the British Open has helped me play on the U.S. tour as far as getting to back pins," he said. "I wanted to compete more consistently under all conditions."\n No one can argue with his results.\nMickelson not only has won eight times in the last three years, he has established himself as the clear-cut No. 2 player in the world and chief rival to Woods.\nNow comes the hard part.\nMickelson has shown he can compete in the majors -- four finishes in the top three in the last six majors played. Getting to hold the trophy at the end of the day is another matter.\n"It doesn't make me more despondent," he said of his close calls, including a runner-up to Woods at the U.S. Open and a third-place finish at Augusta. "I've found it's much easier to deal with finishing second or third than it is dealing with 25th or 30th and not having a chance to win."\n"I've become more determined to do well because I can taste it. And when I do finally get a taste of victory, I anticipate that it would be something I would want even more and would work harder even still."\nMickelson hasn't played since winning the Greater Hartford Open three weeks ago. He arrived at Muirfield over the weekend and played 54 holes, then got away from the activity surrounding major championships by sneaking over to St. Andrews on Monday.\nHe tees off Thursday afternoon with Hal Sutton and Nick Faldo, who won the last two times the British Open was played at Muirfield, a course Mickelson already calls his favorite among those in the rotation.\nHe thinks the state of his game is better than ever, too.\n"I'm more prepared than I have been for this event," he said. "This is by far my best chance, and it is by far the best golf course for my game"
(04/03/02 5:19am)
Jack Nicklaus, the most dominant player at Augusta National with six green jackets won over 23 years, withdrew Tuesday from the Masters because of lingering back problems.\nIt will be only the second time since 1959 that Nicklaus has missed the Masters. He also skipped in 1999 when he was recovering from hip replacement surgery.\nWhile the 62-year-old Golden Bear has expressed concerns about competing against players half his age on an Augusta National course that has added nearly 300 yards, it was a back injury that has plagued him for nearly a year that forced him to withdraw.\nNicklaus also withdrew from this week's Legends of Golf on the Senior PGA Tour.\n"I have tried over the last couple of months to get my body and my golf game in shape to play at the Legends and possibly the Masters," Nicklaus said. "And while encouraged, I made a decision today that neither is at the point I hoped they'd be at this stage.\n"I do not think my golf game is suitable right now for the competition."\nNicklaus has not played an official tournament since July 29 last year, when he tied for third in the Senior British Open.\n"We are disappointed that due to his health, Jack will not be competing in this year's Masters," Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said. "Jack has made numerous contributions to this tournament, and we hope physically he is able to play golf again soon."\nNicklaus said he will continue a fitness program designed to help his back. He hopes to play in The Tradition, the first major on the senior tour to be played the last week in April in Arizona on a course he designed.\n"My back is better, and hopefully it will come around to the point where it will allow me to play golf in the not-so-distant future," he said. "I really miss competitive golf. It's in my blood, and I very much look forward to playing again soon."\nHe first suggested he might skip the Masters in January, when his lower back caused problems swinging the club.\nNicklaus joined Augusta National last year and played in a members' tournament in November. He said he couldn't reach the fairway bunker on No. 1 from the members' tees and routinely hit his drives only about 210 yards.\nGolf World magazine recently checked the scores Nicklaus was posting at his home course, The Bear's Club in Jupiter, Fla., and found his handicap index was 2.
(09/12/01 5:03am)
ST. LOUIS -- Tiger Woods teed off at dawn, when the world was at peace.\nFirst reports of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and then the Pentagon were relayed to him by Joe Corless, a retired FBI agent who heads security for the PGA Tour and walked the practice round with him at Bellerive Country Club.\nOnly later did Woods understand the magnitude.\n"This is a sad, sad day in America," he said quietly.\nCorless came by with two more reports after Woods finished his round -- a plane down near Pittsburgh, another one presumably hijacked, location unknown. Air traffic suspended across the country. Countless lives lost. An uncertain future.\nWith one foot on a bench in front of his locker, his head bowed, Woods looked down at his right arm and found it covered with hundreds of tiny dimples.\n"Look at this, I've got goosebumps," he said, rubbing his left hand over them.\nHis caddie, Steve Williams, sat on a folding chair on the practice range waiting for Woods to show up and hit balls. An hour later, Woods appeared in dress shoes and motioned to the caddie that it was time to go home.\nNot many others felt like hitting a golf ball, either.\n"We're all in shock," said Adam Scott of Australia. "Golf is the last priority."\nWoods is part of an elite field gathered for the American Express Championship, a World Golf Championship event for the top 50 players in the world ranking and top money leaders from six tours around the globe.\nOnly 46 of the 67 players made it to St. Louis. The others were stranded across the country.\nPhil Mickelson was on his way to Houston to talk about his victory in the 2000 Tour Championship; he made it as far as Austin, Texas. Jesper Parnevik was in New York. PGA champion David Toms couldn't get out of Louisiana. Davis Love III was still in Atlanta.\nWoods arrived Monday to conduct a clinic for American Express, the title sponsor with which he has a five-year endorsement contract.\n"A lot of their executives left last night to go back to New York," he said, his voice trailing off.\nAmerican Express headquarters are located near the bottom of the Twin Towers.\nAs of Tuesday afternoon, the tournament still was on. The PGA Tour said it would begin Friday with 36 holes, followed by 18 holes on Saturday and Sunday.\nThat could change.\n"I'm not sure whether we should even play this tournament," Justin Leonard said.\nBellerive Country Club has not seen the world's best players since 1992, the year Nick Price won the PGA Championship. His mind back on golf, but only momentarily, Woods' eyes lit up at the mention of the course he had just played: thick rough, tree-lined fairways and greens that were as fast as a major championship.\n"The course is awesome," he said.\nThe gallery bustled with excitement when the gates opened at 7 a.m. By mid-morning, lively chatter had been replaced by murmurs.\n"I just don't feel like talking right now," Stewart Cink said.\n"Please, not now," Colin Montgomerie said, waving away two reporters.\nChris DiMarco was going through the motions on the range. He wanted to go home to Florida to be with his family. He was stuck in St. Louis.\n"I came out here just to take my mind off it," DiMarco said.\nHe paused.\n"I'm not even sure what I'm saying, because I'm in shock from it all," he added.\nErnie Els lingered outside the clubhouse as he talked to South African PGA commissioner Louis Martin, his caddie, tour officials and friends. His wife and daughter are in London, preparing to fly home to South Africa on Wednesday.\n"I don't understand how these guys can even hit balls," he said, pointing toward the range. Two hours later, Els had joined them. What else was there to do?\nPadraig Harrington of Ireland got in his rental car and tried to find a decent radio station. He heard the same, shocking news every time he pushed a button. He is sensitive to terrorism because of the numerous attacks in Northern Ireland.\n"There is a feeling in the air of tragedy," Harrington said.\nThere was a greater feeling of uncertainty.\nNot many players expect the tournament to be played this week. Woods is supposed to leave Monday for Paris to play in the Lancome Trophy.\n"I wonder if I can even go," he said.\nThe following week is the Ryder Cup, one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year. That, too, was in doubt.\n"We're supposed to leave in 13 days," Jim Furyk said. "It's an important event. It's the Olympics for us. But there are more important things in life"