Australia’s Adam Scott rolled home a three-footer on the first play-off hole to defeat Chad Campbell Monday at the PGA Tour’s rain-shortened Los Angeles event.
At 24, Scott has already claimed three victories on the United States tour, but Monday’s win won’t add to that cache. Because inclement weather forced organisers to shorten the event to 36 holes, it won’t count as an official victory, although Scott did earn the full first prize of $864 000.
”I don’t feel like I played much golf this week,” Scott said. ”I don’t feel tired and drained like you normally do when you’ve been battling.”
Officials had hoped to complete a third round on Monday, but more heavy rain overnight left parts of the Riviera Country Club course unplayable.
They reverted to the 36-hole scores, which saw Scott and Campbell tied at nine-under 133.
In the sudden-death play-off at 18, both players had three-foot putts for par, but Campbell’s lipped out and Scott’s fell.
”The putt was outside left, and I just hit it a little bit firm,” said Campbell, who had finished his second round on Friday and hadn’t hit a ball since until warming up for the play-off.
Scott didn’t join him atop the leaderboard until Sunday. He was among those who couldn’t finish the second round on Friday, all of whom were left hanging when play was washed out completely on Saturday.
The last time a PGA event went only 36 holes was the 1996 Buick Challenge, which was won by Michael Bradley in a five-way playoff.
The decision on Monday morning not to try for a full third round ended the hopes of northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and England’s Brian Davis, who shared third on 134 after two rounds.
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie finished a further stroke back on 135, alongside American JL Lewis.
Despite the difficulties of the week, Montgomerie had the satisfaction of posting his best round score to date on US soil — a second-round 64. But Montgomerie didn’t make as much headway as he might have hoped in improving his world ranking, since only 75% of the normal world ranking points are awarded for a 36-hole event.
The rain also helped derail Tiger Woods’s bid to regain the world number-one ranking from Vijay Singh. Woods started the week with a chance to recapture the top spot, but finished tied for 13th. — Sapa-AFP