GOLF ROUNDUP Weir turns away Maruyama to win Nissan Open again

The Canadian lost all of a 7-shot lead, but won it on the final hole.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- Mike Weir went to bed thinking about all the history at Riviera, the venerable course off Sunset Boulevard where Ben Hogan won four times and Arnold Palmer won over the galleries.
The last thing he needed Sunday was history to repeat itself.
A year ago, Weir came from seven shots behind on the final day to win in a playoff.
This time, the Canadian had a seven-shot lead early in the final round, only to see it vanish with a couple of bogeys and a furious rally by Shigeki Maruyama.
"I wasn't playing that bad," Weir said. "He was just going all out."
Weir didn't let it get away without a fight.
From the side of a grassy hill above the 18th green, Weir saved par by nearly holing the 45-foot chip, giving him a one-shot victory over Maruyama and making him the first back-to-back winner at the Nissan Open since Corey Pavin in 1994-95.
Played it in rain
The 475-yard 18th, one of golf's great closing holes with the clubhouse perched high in the background, was playing even more difficult because of a hard, steady rain that greeted the final group right when Maruyama tied for the lead with a birdie on the 16th hole.
Maruyama, no fan of the rain, tried to hammer a driver and sent it into the right rough, leaving him no chance to reach the green. A fairway metal came up short, and his 50-yard chip went 12 feet by the hole.
Weir split the middle, but his approach from 205 yards sailed into the hill.
The rain might have helped on this difficult chip, because the green was soft enough that Weir could land the ball on the putting surface without it racing by the hole. He picked a dark patch of grass 4 feet beyond the fringe, and couldn't believe it when the ball rippled over the right edge.
He settled for a tap-in par, closing with an even-par 71 for his seventh career victory. Weir finished at 17-under 267 and earned $864,000.
Maruyama's comeback was stunning, particularly the 3-iron from 211 yards that stopped 20 inches from the hole on No. 15 for a birdie that cut his deficit to one. And the 6-iron into 10 feet on No. 16 that followed.
He made his only bogey in a round of 67 when he could least afford it, on the final hole. His 12-footer for par slid by the right side of the cup.
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