PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA |
Sergio Garcia has started the PGA Tour
season with some leftover momentum
from two late victories on the European
Tour in Spain last year. Garcia raised
some eyebrows at the Northern Trust
Open on Sunday afternoon with a 6-un-
der 30 on the back nine, his first nine of
the day. He finished with 64, low round
of the tournament, and tied for fourth at
5-under 270 at Riviera Country Club.
He started Sunday at 2-over-par 215
and tied for 49th after 54 holes. He made
a nine-foot putt for an eagle three on the
par- 5 11th and holed a 207-yard 4 iron
for another eagle on the par- 4 15. Birdies at 16 and 18 gave him 30 for the nine.
Two more birdies moved him up to
a brief tie for fourth after 12 holes at a
cumulative 6 under. He finished the day
with 24 putts.
afford to duplicate his style. During
the Northern Trust, he drives from his
home in San Diego County to Carls-
bad airport, some eight miles; flies a
chartered jet to Santa Monica Airport,
maybe 75 miles; is then shuttled to the
course, some five miles. “The whole
trip takes less than an hour-and-a-
half,” said Mickelson, “and I get to
sleep in my own bed.”
Interstate 405, the San Diego
Freeway as it’s known, is the main
north-south thoroughfare in west Los
Angeles. It’s about three miles west
of Riviera. Construction to widen the
freeway has affected traffic on famed
Sunset Boulevard, which passes next to
Riviera, and there were reports of driv-
ers taking two hours to go the distance
from freeway to course.
Pat Perez struggled Sunday after
entering the final round a shot out of
the lead, but for the fourth time in five
tournaments this year he finished in
the top 25. He credits the consistency to
a suggestion – almost a demand – from
friend Tommy Armour III about switching to a belly putter, which Perez finally
did in October.
“He was all over me for a year to
change,” said Perez, “and I didn’t want
to try it. I had tried some before, but
I didn’t really like it. I didn’t get the
right one. We went down to Cabo (Baja
Calif.), and he was down there with it
and all over me on it. It was incredible
how the ball rolled, and how I was just
making everything.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll try it.’ Once I got
comfortable with it, it was great.”
golfers who played 36
holes at the Northern
Trust Open, his 11-over
82 on Friday at Riviera
Country Club combining
with Thursday’s 76 for a 16-over total of
158. He was anything but displeased.
It was his first tournament since
The Players Championship in May,
Clark withdrawing from that because
of the torn tendon in his right elbow he
suffered during the 2011 Sony Open in
Hawaii. He had waited until August to
undergo surgery, after rest and treatment did not prove effective.
“I wasn’t proud of my score,” said
Clark, 36, who won The Players in 2010.
“It got a bit frustrating at times, but I had
to realize it’s been eight months since I
played, and that was to be expected.”
Clark, who conceded he knew he
would “get beat up a little bit,” es-
pecially on the poa annua greens at
Riviera, said, “I felt pretty good, to be
honest. I’m quite surprised with how
my body actually felt. I wasn’t able to
score at all, but in terms of how the
body felt, I was quite encouraged. The
fact I could get through all those holes
without any pain is quite nice.”
His next planned start is the Transi-
tions Championship in March.
Northern Trust after an 11-week break,
shot an 8-over 79 in the second round,
and obviously missed the cut. It was the
end of one tournament and the start of
something big, something fantastic.
Eight days later, Donald, the Englishman with the art degree from (and an
NCAA championship with) Northwestern
University, won the WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship and was on
his way to the unprecedented achievement of finishing first on both the PGA
Tour and European Tour money lists.
Donald came to Riviera, his first U.S.
tournament of 2012, better prepared
this time, having played in Abu Dhabi
several weeks ago, and was at even-par 213 for three rounds.
“I’m not the best ball striker,”
Donald conceded about his game. “I’m
not the best off the tee. But with a good
short game I was able to get to the top
of the world rankings.”
Proof that the eternal phrase “drive
for show, putt for dough” still has
resonance.
Asked, after living in America 15
years, what he missed from England,
The field for the WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship was final-
ized Friday, and only two of the top
64 players in the world rankings will
not participate.
Donald, referring to the traffic circles,
said, “Round-abouts. Too many stoplights
here. Round-abouts is the way forward.”
Patrick Cantlay, the sophomore
from UCLA – which is about five miles
east of Riviera – and the world’s top-ranked amateur, missed the cut, opening with 78 in the gusty winds Thursday
and then shooting 72 on Friday. It was A
