Golfing News

On Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, it wasn’t the ending of a drought in major U.S. events that many thought it would be.

Tim Clark, who didn’t make a bogey over the final 26 holes of the event, claimed his first win in 206 starts on the PGA Tour with a feckless 5-under par 67 in the final round to claim the Tour’s unofficial “Fifth Major” with a 16-under par total of 272.

Australia’s Robert Allenby finished one shot back, and American Lucas Glover was third at 14-under.

Clark began the day three strokes back of England’s Lee Westwood, and began steady with six pars before turning it on in a supernova stretch of six holes. He birdied 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 to storm into the lead while neither Westwood or Allenby, in the final group three holes behind, made a claim for the trophy. Clark sealed the deal with a clutch six-foot putt for par on the treacherous 18th hole.

Allenby and Westwood would have staged quite a two-man battle had Clark not been around. Allenby traded birdies and bogies while Westwood strung a bevy of pars. Trailing by 2, Allenby had an eagle putt on the par-5 16th and a birdie putt on the island green 17th stop agonizingly on the lip. Needing a birdie on 18, something only one player did all day, Allenby flared his approach onto the right fringe and could not hole a 50-foot chip from the fringe.

Trailing by 2, Westwood , the third-round leader and a guy who’s been on the precipice of winning on golf’s grandest stage other the last three years or so, gave up his claim to the crown by rinsing his tee shot on 17.

Phil Mickelson had a chance to pass Tiger Woods for No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking when World Number One withdrawl at noon Sunday with a neck condition — which may be a bulging disc in his spine . But The Masters champion never got out of low gear all day. He had five bogies on the day, shot 74 and finished tied for 17th.

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