The Daily Wrap-up, Round 4: SBS Championship
By staff and wire reports
KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Australia's Geoff Ogilvy rallied from a two-shot deficit with 10 holes to play thanks to smart decisions and flawless golf for a 6-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Rory Sabbatini at the season-opening SBS Championship.
A year after winning here by six shots, Ogilvy posted his eighth consecutive round in the 60s on the Plantation Course. He joined fellow Australian Stuart Appleby as the only repeat winners since this tournament moved to Kapalua in 1999, and he became only the seventh player in the 58 years of this winners-only tournament to win in consecutive years.
"We knew what we had to do," said Ogilvy, who moves to the top spot in the FedExCup standings with the victory. "I'd never been in that situation. I'm happy and excited to get it done. I needed to make birdies and I did."
Even though he trailed in the middle of his round, Ogilvy still had plenty of holes in front of him.
He played short of the par-4 14th, a 272-yard hole where most players were hitting driver, and pitched to 4 feet for birdie. And he took the outright lead with a 5-wood into 25 feet for a two-putt birdie on the 15th.
Sabbatini, who started the final round six shots behind, ran off five straight birdies on the back nine to seize the lead and closed with a 63. He couldn't reach the green on the 663-yard 18th in two, however, and missed a 10-foot birdie putt that ultimately cost him.
"I said to my caddie, 'We need to birdie the last two holes to have a chance,'" Sabbatini said. "The situation was you had to keep moving forward to put pressure on him. I had my opportunity, and unfortunately, it didn't pan out."
Ogilvy took two strong lines on the 17th for a par, then laid up on the 18th to take trouble of play on the left and closed with a par. He finished at 22-under 270 and moved back into the top 10 in the world with his seventh career PGA TOUR victory.
It was his first win since the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship last February. The trick now is for Ogilvy to keep this form throughout the year, and he hopes he can learn from mistakes a year ago when he tried too hard and practiced more than usual.
He is taking next week off before playing in Abu Dhabi, then returns home to Arizona where his wife is expecting their third child.
U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover's bid to become the second straight wire-to-wire winner at Kapalua ended early when he hit into the hazard on consecutive holes and lost three shots. He closed with a 76 and was 14th in the 28-man field.
Matt Kuchar lingered without seriously threatening, missing several chances on the middle of the back nine as Ogilvy pulled farther ahead. He closed with a 67 and finished alone in third.
Sean O'Hair made all the right moves to give himself a chance. He was at 20 under, two shots out of the lead with a chance to reach the par-5 18th in two. He was quick with his swing and pulled it into the weeds, leading to double bogey and a 68 to finish fourth.
The Kona wind returned again, which makes Kapalua a tough start and finish, with birdies available in between and trouble on any hole with a poor shot. Sabbatini breezed through with a 32 on the front to get in the mix,
"I was just battling the putter the first three days," Sabbatini said. "I came out today not knowing what to expect, and the flat stick showed up early."
Even so, he got some help from the leaders. Ogilvy was in the lead until he pushed his tee shot badly to the right and into the knee-high native grass for a one-shot penalty. Glover followed him into the hazard, and both made bogey.
From the middle of the next fairway, Glover came out of his shot and shoved it into the high grass again, leading to double bogey. While he bounced back with two birdies, a three-putt on the 10th ended his chances.
Sabbatini, a bundle of South African energy who always looks to be in a hurry, wasted no time seizing the lead.
He attacked a dangerous pin on the par-3 11th with an 8-iron for the first of five consecutive birdies, finishing the streak by driving to the back of the green on the 282-yard 14th and hitting his approach to the par-5 15th to 15 feet for another easy birdie.
Both those holes played with the wind at his back. The challenge was the 552-yard 17th, a par 4 that with a sharp drop in elevation and a panoramic view of the Pacific below. Sabbatini hit 5-iron to just outside 12 feet for one of only two birdies in the final round. That was supposed to be the hard part of his hopes for a birdie-birdie finish. But he slightly missed his tee shot on the 18th, didn't get the roll he needed to get down the slope and had to lay up short of the green.
His 10-foot birdie putt caught the right lip, and it ultimately cost him.
In his only other chance to win at Kapalua, he missed a 3 1/2-foot birdie putt on the 18th in 2002 that would have forced a playoff.
"I swear I'll make a putt one of these years on 18," he said.
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| Sunday's best |
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The par-5 ninth hole was the easiest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.143.
The par-4 first hole was the toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.179.INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent John Maginnes offers these observations from Sunday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Some guys just know how to win. It is a learned process that Geoff Ogilvy has mastered. Seemingly every time he finds himself in contention, he wins the golf tournament. That held true on Sunday at the SBS Championship. It may have looked like a walk in the park for the young Aussie, but in truth it was anything but.
Because Rory Sabbatini went low on Sunday, Ogilvy knew with seven holes left to play that he needed to make birdies to catch and pass Sabbatini. Ogilvy's fortunes turned on a course management decision at the 14th hole that could easily have been second-guessed. On a short par-4 that more than half the field took a shot at driving the green, Ogilvy opted to lay up to 65 yards. He left himself an uphill approach to a tucked pin and wedged his next shot to within 5 feet and made the putt to tie Sabbatini.
Ogilvy went on to birdie the par-5 15th to take a one-shot advantage, then cruised comfortably home to make it two in a row at Kapalua. The great modern philosopher Ric Flair once said, "To be the man, you have to beat the man." Sabbatini threw everything he had at Ogilvy on a beautiful Sunday, but it wasn't enough. Ogilvy is the man on Maui, at least for another year.
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