Ogilvy wins Mercedes title by 6 shots

January 12, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

He needed four straight birdies on the back nine to pull away from the field.

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Geoff Ogilvy finished the final round the way he started Sunday, six shots clear of a winners-only field at the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

It was the part in the middle he could have done without.

Ogilvy was on the verge of an unseemly collapse, his six-shot lead down to one as he stood in the ninth fairway, when he drilled his approach onto the green and holed a 30-foot eagle putt to steady his nerves and send him on his way to victory at Kapalua.

With four straight birdies on the back nine to restore the margin, he sailed home to a 5-under 68 to join Ernie Els and Vijay Singh as the only wire-to-wire winners since the season-opening PGA Tour event moved to Kapalua in 1999.

Anthony Kim nearly made double eagle on the last hole for a 67 to tie for second with Davis Love III, who also had a 67.

It was the fifth PGA Tour victory for Ogilvy, adding to his U.S. Open title in 2006 and a pair of World Golf Championships.

He finished at 24-under 268, earned $1.12 million and moved up to No. 6 in the world.

Ogilvy had made only one bogey in the first three rounds, but doubled that count after this first two holes Sunday.

With the Plantation course soft from overnight rain that lasted into the morning, Ogilvy missed the fairway to the right on the opening hole and couldn’t reach the green, missing an 18-foot par putt. He found a bunker with his tee shot on the second hole, blasted out to about 6 feet and missed that putt.

Just like that, his lead was down to three shots over Kim, who birdied two of the opening three holes.

And even after Ogilvy appeared to steady himself with an up-and-down birdie on the par-5 fifth, followed by another good pitch to 5 feet for birdie on the sixth, he was grinding.

He hit the wrong club on the seventh, came up short and took bogey.

Then he missed his target some 20 yards to the right on the par-3 eighth and took another bogey.

“I’ve never had a six-shot lead before. It’s a pretty uncomfortable feeling, to be honest with you,” Ogilvy said.