European challenge fades away

GOLF/Players Championship: Only one European has ever won the Players Championship and the odds on another taking the 2002 version looked bleak as yesterday's final round got under way.

Only Sergio Garcia and Nick Faldo were within six shots of the surprise overnight leader Carl Paulson, who had a three-round total of 207, nine under par, to lead another unknown, Craig Perks, by one shot.

The young Spaniard, 22, and the veteran Englishman, 44, were on the same mark as Tiger Woods at three under on 213, and with nine players between them and the leaders all three clearly needed exceptional rounds.

Indeed the possibility that he might win had clearly not occurred to Faldo when he was interviewed after his third-round 72. Asked what score might be needed for a victory, Faldo said: "Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean, crikey, probably seven or eight birdies."

That would mean a 64 or 65 and a winning score of 11 under, whereas those who had given the matter some consideration, such as Woods, were thinking that seven or eight under might well be good enough.

Paulson, chasing his first US Tour win and ranked 181st in the world, was three clear after a birdie at the first, but he then bogeyed four in a row from the third and handed over the lead to New Zealander Craig Perks.

Perks, himself 203rd in the rankings and also winless on the US Tour, birdied the fifth to take over at the top, but after a bogey on the next he was only one in front of not only Paulson, but also Trinidad's Stephen Ames, Canadian left-hander Mike Weir and Americans Billy Andrade and Jeff Sluman.

The last time a European triumphed here was in 1987 when Sandy Lyle beat Jeff Sluman in a play-off which is notorious in the history of this event. It had started on the long 16th, which both parred, and moved to the short 17th, with its island green.

Lyle hit an average tee-shot to around 25 feet; Sluman a brilliant one to six feet. Furthermore the American's putt was below the hole and straight: he seemed a certainly to win there and then.

The Scot putted up close enough for his three, but at that moment a drunken idiot, since identified as one Hal Valdes, accepted a bet to jump in the lake that surrounds the green.

Sluman, who was standing over his putt to win, heard not just the splash but the commotion amid the vast crowd that fills the surrounding amphitheatre.

Sluman had to step away, of course, as Valdes was hauled dripping from the lake and led away by security guards. It seemed to take ages before normality was restored and by then, psychologically, he was facing an altogether different and more difficult putt.

He missed it, bogeyed the 18th and Lyle, with an eight-foot putt, parred it for the win. He banked $180,000, Sluman $108,000, and the American has not finished in the top 10 since - though he was lying third here yesterday after three rounds, three behind.

Valdes was traced this week, for the first time since he ruined one man's day, by the Florida Times-Union newspaper. He is, thankfully, ashamed of what he did.

"I was hammered," he said, and added that he was with a bunch of college kids, one of whom offered a $500 bet that Valdes would not dive into the lake. He remembers almost nothing of the actual act now.

"I called my dad the next day," says Valdes, "and he said 'Did you see that jackass who jumped into the water? They ought to put him into a room with Jeff Sluman, give Jeff a one-iron and lock the door.' Looking back on that, I would have to agree with him."

What makes the Valdes incident worse is that he is a golfer.

"I'm down to about a 10-handicap," he says. "So I appreciate even more how hard it is for these guys to do what they do. If anyone moves in my backswing or makes a noise, I don't say a thing. I 'm in no position to complain after what I did."

Faldo, meanwhile, needing to make a good start to yesterday's round if he was to challenge, got the opposite.

A solid drive at the first was followed by a second that cleared the putting surface and ran down into rough. Electing to putt, he hit the ball 40 feet past the pin and holed from eight feet for a bogey.

He drove into the rough at the long second, laid up and then missed the green with a wedged third. A nine-foot putt saved his par, as did an eight-footer at the short third, but the fourth saw a poor drive bunkered and although he found the green, it was on the top tier of the severely sloping green. This time he could not hole the eight-foot par putt.

He missed the green at the fifth but chipped to five feet for his par, but when another shot slipped away at the sixth he was three over for the round, level for the tournament, and out of contention.

Garcia was playing well and within range of the seven-under target his father Victor, watching as ever, had set beforehand. Despite a dropped a shot at the third, the young Spaniard holed from 30 feet at the fifth to remain at three under.

Ireland's only remaining competitor, Padraig Harrington, finished well with a two-under-par 70 that left him on one-over-par for the tournament and in the top 25. He will enter the weeks leading up to the Masters in good heart.