GOLF ST JUDE CLASSIC:ONE BAD swing yesterday ended Rory McIlroy's hopes of going into his US Open title defence with a fourth PGA Tour victory. The 23-year-old world number two was joint leader at the FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis when he hooked into the middle of a lake off the final tee.
Then, by missing a four-foot putt, McIlroy double-bogeyed and dropped all the way to joint seventh place.
The title went instead to American Ryder Cup player Dustin Johnson in only his second event back from a back injury that kept him out of golf for over two months. Johnson birdied two of the last three for a four under par 66 and on nine under a one-stroke victory over compatriot John Merrick, whose chip to force a play-off lipped out.
“I was at home for 10 weeks or something – it was tough,” said Johnson, who now moves back into the world’s top 10.
“Last week I was a little rusty and didn’t finish off my rounds, but this week I finished a lot better.”
Halfway leader McIlroy had resumed one behind Merrick, Davis Love and Nick O’Hern, but after birdies at the second, fourth, seventh and short 11th, where he almost holed-in-one, he found himself two in front.
After three successive missed cuts it was shaping up to be the perfect comeback, but it was not to be on a day when the top of the leaderboard changed 26 times.
The Irishman found water on the next and three-putted the 14th for another bogey before conjuring up a brilliant birdie at the penultimate hole. Finding the left rough forced him to go under a tree with his approach, but he ran the ball up to 20 feet and sank the birdie putt to move alongside Johnson, Chad Campbell and Merrick.
Johnson had holed from 11 feet at the long 16th and as he followed that with an eight-footer both McIlroy and Campbell both dumped their final drives into the drink. Campbell made bogey and ended up joint third with Ryder Cup captain Davis Love, Ryan Palmer and Australian left-hander O’Hern, another to find the water on the last.
England’s Greg Owen closed with a 65 for joint 11th, while Dubliner Pádraig Harrington and Scot Martin Laird shot 69s to be 13th and 24th respectively.
The final round tee-off times had been brought forward because of the threat of bad weather.
LEE WESTWOOD claimed a commanding five-shot victory at the Nordea Masters in Stockholm on Saturday. The Englishman, who led by three overnight, carded a final-round three-under-par 69 to finish on 19 under par for the tournament.
The world number three came under pressure from Sergio Garcia as the Spaniard put together a fine last round, but an eagle on the par-five 12th and a birdie at the 15th saw him home.
Ross Fisher was second on 14 under after a 71, while Garcia, who closed with a 67, finished on 13 under in a tie for third with Finland’s Mikko Ilonen and Sweden’s Peter Hanson.
It was Westwood’s third Nordea Masters title and the perfect preparation for next week’s US Masters and his bid to claim a first major title. Westwood did miss five putts from inside six feet over the first 10 holes of his final round, however.
But only one of them resulted in a bogey, which was a clear indication of how impressive he has been from tee to green this week.
Ireland’s Gareth Maybin finished in a tie for 47th place following a closing 73 for a two-under final tally. Michael Hoey also closed with a 73 and was level par for the tournament.
SCOREBOARD: St Jude Classic
USPGA Tour, FedEx St Jude Classic, TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Final round scores – USA unless stated, par 70
271 Dustin Johnson 70 68 67 66
272 John Merrick 66 69 69 68
273 Chad Campbell 68 67 70 68, Davis Love III 68 68 68 69, Ryan Palmer 74 66 67 66, Nick O’Hern (Aus) 70 67 67 69
274 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 68 65 72 69, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 67 69 72 66, Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 70 67 69, Ken Duke 68 68 73 65
275 Kevin Stadler 69 65 71 70, Greg Owen (Eng) 72 67 71 65
276 Jeff Overton 67 72 68 69, Martin Flores 72 70 69 65, Kevin Kisner 69 66 70 71, William McGirt 71 69 68 68, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 68 68 71 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 66 70 68
277 John Daly 68 69 76 64, J.B. Holmes 70 64 72 71, Luke Guthrie 69 71 67 70, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 67 74 70 66, Woody Austin 72 68 67 70
278 Bryce Molder 69 71 69 69, Duffy Waldorf 71 69 69 69, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 70 67 69
279 Jeff Maggert 66 68 73 72, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 72 65 71 71, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 69 72 66 72, Roberto Castro 73 68 66 72, Boo Weekley 70 67 73 69, J.J Killeen 68 69 74 68, Charles Howell III 69 71 71 68
280 Patrick Sheehan 71 70 71 68, Brendon De Jonge 71 68 71 70, Bob Estes 72 68 71 69, Bill Lunde 71 68 71 70
281 Kent Jones 72 68 73 68, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 67 73 69, George McNeill 72 68 72 69, Shaun Micheel 71 70 68 72
282 Chris Riley 70 71 74 67, Robert Garrigus 74 65 73 70, Sean O’Hair 70 69 71 72, David Hearn (Can) 72 69 70 71, Dustin Morris 71 69 67 75, Gavin Coles (Aus) 70 72 71 69, Tim Clark (Rsa) 69 71 69 73
283 Kyle Stanley 71 70 73 69, Bart Bryant 72 70 70 71, Lee Janzen 68 71 73 71, Gary Christian (Eng) 70 71 71 71, Danny Lee (Nzl) 69 70 71 73, Troy Kelly 68 71 74 70, Troy Matteson 70 72 72 69, Shane Bertsch 71 68 73 71, Tommy Gainey 72 70 71 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 72 68 73 70
284 J J Henry 67 74 72 71, Paul Stankowski 69 69 74 72
285 Cameron Beckman 72 70 68 75, Will Claxton 72 70 74 69, Brett Wetterich 71 71 71 72, Chris Couch 70 70 69 76, John Peterson 72 65 73 75
286 Zack Miller 70 70 77 69, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 68 71 73 74
287 Craig Barlow 72 68 72 75, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 74 66 73 74
288 Omar Uresti 70 72 73 73, Neal Lancaster 72 70 74 72
289 Matt Mcquillan (Can) 71 69 76 73, Billy Horschel 72 69 70 78
292 Robert Gamez 72 69 74 77, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 70 71 73 78
293 Jonathan Fly 78 64 75 76
