Monday, June 11, 2007
His final round 62 was the best in 50 years at the
tournament.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Woody Austin turned around a miserable year with the perfect round at the right time.
Adam Scott, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia came in hoping to tune up for the U.S. Open with a victory, only to watch Austin run away with the warmup act.
Trailing by four strokes at the start of Sunday’s play, Austin shot the best closing round on tour this year in winning the Stanford St. Jude Championship by five strokes for his first PGA Tour victory since 2004 and third overall.
His 8-under 62 was the best final round of his career and best in the 50 years of this event. It also was the tour’s lowest closing round since Brad Faxon’s 61 at the 2006 Buick Championship.
“That was a true round of golf and was one of those surprises that we all get every once in a while,” Austin said as he waited for the final group to finish. “I’m just happy it happened to me on a Sunday when it really mattered.”
Austin had never finished better than a tie for 44th in his previous trips to the TPC Southwind course. He has struggled this year, missing five cuts with his only top-25 showing coming with a tie for 18th in New Orleans in April.
Dream round
“I played one of those dream rounds of golf,” Austin said.
He took home the $1.08 million winner’s check, his first since the 2004 Buick Championship, with the best round this week. Austin also won the 1995 Buick Open.
Austin finished the final 49 holes bogey-free and carded an eagle and six birdies Sunday for a 13-under 267 total on a course where he had missed five cuts.
This tournament featured its strongest field in years with six of the top 12 players in the world. They all came wanting to prep for the Open under tournament pressure.
But Garcia finished before the leaders teed off, Singh wasn’t far behind, and Scott — the world’s fourth-ranked player — blew a three-stroke lead and missed the chance to be the first wire-to-wire winner on tour this year.
Scott shot a 75 and finished seventh at 276.
“I’m going to be hard on myself. I really should be,” said Scott, who would have moved up a notch to No. 3 with a victory.
Brian Davis (66) was second with a 272, followed by two-time Memphis winner David Toms (69-273), Brian Gay (70-274) and Brandt Snedeker and Dean Wilson, who tied with 68s for 275.