MEN’S PRO
Playoff In Paradise
Byrd is word when Garrigus misses short putt
KAPALUA, HAWAII | Jonathan
Byrd always was one of those
players with a stylish swing –
Hogan-like, some said – that
made people always ask the
question: Why doesn’t he win
more?
well as I thought I would.”
Perhaps that conversation
will change after Byrd won the
Hyundai Tournament of Cham-
pions at the Kapalua Resort,
beating Robert Garrigus in a
two-hole playoff. It was Byrd’s
fifth PGA Tour victory and his
second in a row. He famously
won the Justin Timberlake
Shriners Hospitals for Children
Open in Las Vegas in his previ-
ous start with a hole-in-one
in the gloaming on the third
playoff hole.
Both players were involved
in a three-way tie for the lead
after 54 holes and each shot
6-under 67 on the par-73
Plantation Course at Kapalua to finish four rounds at
24-under 268.
Garrigus reached the
green of the 663-yard, par- 5
18th in two during regulation
play for the second consecutive day. On Saturday, he holed
a 50-foot putt for eagle, but on
Sunday he missed his eagle
chance from less than 13 feet
for a final birdie to get him to
24 under.
McDowell started the day
six shots back of a trio of
leaders, Byrd, Garrigus and
Steve Stricker. The worldwide
player of the year started with
a birdie at the first and then
ran off four in a row beginning
at the third on his way to a
6-under 30 on the front nine.
This victory was a little less
glorious as Garrigus three-putted the par- 4 first hole, the
second playoff hole, missing
a three-footer for par. Byrd
already had two-putted from
about 50 feet for par.
Byrd two-putted for par
from 90 feet on the par- 4 17th
and left an 18-foot birdie putt
inches short on the 18th to
ensure the playoff.
The biggest threat to Byrd
and Garrigus came from
Graeme McDowell, the cur-
rent U.S. Open champion, who
smoked the Plantation Course
for 11 birdies and a final-round
After a birdie at the 10th,
McDowell began another
four-in-a-row birdie string at
the 13th. He finally shared the
lead with a birdie at the par- 4
14th after nearly driving the
green and held onto a tie with
a birdie at the par- 5 15th and
another with a nine-footer for
birdie at the par- 4 16th.
“It was a long day,” said
Byrd, who turns 33 later this
month and got his PGA Tour
card in 2002 after two years
on the Nationwide Tour. “I just
played solid all day. I was a
little anxious and nervous and
didn’t play the last holes as
62. That put the Northern Irishman one shot short at 23 under
after he missed a nine-foot
birdie putt on the par- 5 18th.
“The boys played fantastic
today,” McDowell said. “I was
just glad to have a little sniff.”
Stricker, after an 8-under
65 in Saturday’s third round put
him into the three-way tie for
the lead, would have been one
of the favorites to win. But he
fell back early with a bogey at
the first and never threatened
the rest of the day. He finished
with a 2-under 71 and tied for
fourth with Carl Pettersson at
20-under 272.
