Westwood, Owen go caddie-free
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – Lee Westwood and Greg Owen didn’t need caddies Monday.
When the threat of severe weather late Sunday afternoon forced PGA Championship officials to suspend play for the day, Westwood was on the 18th green waiting to take a 10-foot putt for birdie.
He waited a long time. Just over 15 1/2 hours. More than an hour per foot.
“I suppose it is nice that I came back for one shot, not two,” he said Monday after making the birdie 4 that closed a 5-over 75 that gave him a 2-over 282 total, six shots behind champion Phil Mickelson.
“My clubs are already on the way to Akron, I just came back with a putter, a ball, a hat and some shoes,” Westwood said, referring to this week’s tournament, the WGC-NEC Invitational in Ohio.
He did get a scare when he arrived at Baltusrol Golf Club on Monday.
“My putter was missing when I got to the locker because they had tidied out my locker, but I found it — they had tidied it away for safekeeping.”
Paired with Westwood, Owen came back to face an 8-foot birdie putt on the closing hole. He couldn’t follow Westwood’s lead, however.
“I think to come back and horseshoe out for a birdie summed up my week really,” said Owen, who closed with a 10-over 80 and finished at 287. “I don’t know whether it was the heat or the long week, but I had just no good feelings at all. I couldn’t get anything going, but hopefully I can learn from it.”
Missing club
Phil Mickelson was asked what club he hit on the 230-yard 16th, a hole he bogeyed to drop into a three-way tie for the lead at 3-under.
“Four-iron,” he said. “That was all I had.”
It wasn’t that Mickelson’s caddie lost any clubs or there was a low-iron thief on the loose. He took it out of the bag before Sunday’s final round started because of the wind.
“I have a 3-iron and a sand wedge that I have in my bag, and yesterday I took out the 3-iron based on the wind, mainly because of No. 16,” he said. “And today, the wind did a 180. It was straight into the wind and I didn’t have my 3-iron, which I desperately needed. So I knew I was going to struggle with that particular hole, and you’ve just got to fight it out.
“I hit a good shot, the ball plugged in the bunker. Hit a decent shot out to about 18 feet and missed that. Sometimes things don’t always go your way and you just have to gut it out.”
Last out wins
Steve Elkington was trying to end a 10-year run in which the PGA champion came from the last group in the final round.
Elkington, who finished one shot behind champion Phil Mickelson, was in the third-to-last twosome this year.
The last player to win the PGA and not play in the final pairing was Elkington in 1995.
Top tens
Vijay Singh was the tournament’s defending champion and the two-time PGA winner had a final-round 74 that left him at even par for the 72 holes, six strokes behind winner Phil Mickelson and tied for 10th.
However, it did mean he and Tiger Woods were the only players to finish in the top 10 of all four majors this year.