Woodland putts his way into Masters
Gary Woodland, a pure athlete who only started serious golf competition eight years ago, figured out quickly that hitting the ball from here to the moon was not going to help him win tournaments.
Perhaps it was only fitting that his biggest shot Sunday at the Transitions Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., came with his putter.
The race to the finish at Innisbrook was so wild that Woodland didn’t make a single par on the back nine until the last hole. He made a 10-foot par putt that proved to be the difference in a 1-shot victory over Webb Simpson.
“I can’t come out here and hit the golf ball 900 yards and win,” said Woodland, exaggerating only slightly. “I was very conservative this week, laid back almost all day — all four days — and just tried to get the ball in the fairway, get it on the green and let the putter do the work. That’s what I’m learning.”
The final par — his only par on a back nine that featured 5 birdies and 3 bogeys — gave Woodland a 4-under 67 and his first trip to Augusta National for the Masters.
Simpson also flew long on the 18th green and faced the same scary shot as Woodland in the group ahead. He off the back of the green, chipped 20 feet by the hole and the par putt was the only bad stroke he made all day. The bogey gave him a 69 and a runner-up finish in an otherwise solid performance for his first time in serious contention.
“I just didn’t hit a very good second shot,” Simpson said.
Woodland took only 23 putts in the final round — 10 on the back nine. According to the Shotlink data, he didn’t miss a single putt inside 20 feet in the final round, with four of those 17 putts outside 10 feet.
Woodland, who played college basketball at Washburn until deciding to transfer to Kansas to play golf, became the first player to earn his inaugural PGA Tour title at Innisbrook.
Woodland finished at 15-under 269 and earned $990,000, moving up to No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings.
“One thing that helped me was putting, and today it saved me,” Woodland said. “Luckily, it won me a golf tournament.”
Scott Stallings, a PGA Tour rookie who missed every cut on the West Coast Swing to fall to the bottom of the status ladder, kept his poise and stayed in the game until the 16th, the toughest driving hole on the Copperhead course with trees to the left and water to the right. Stallings went right into the lake and made double bogey.
Even so, he shot a 70 and finished alone in third, which gets him in the Houston Open in two weeks.
“A sponsor exemption changed my year, and I can’t thank Transitions enough,” Stallings said. “Without them giving me an opportunity to play, there’s no way I would have been here. One good tournament completely changed my year.”
Brandt Snedeker finished fourth.
Justin Rose, a two-time winner last year who started the final round with a 1-shot lead, was tied for the lead until making 4 straight bogeys through the 10th hole to fall out of contention. He wound up 5 shots behind.
LPGA Founders Cup:
Karrie Webb rallied to win the LPGA Founders Cup in Phoenix for her second straight victory, shooting a 6-under 66 to beat Brittany Lincicome and Paula Creamer by a stroke.
Sicilian Open delayed:
France’s Raphael Jacquelin held a 1-shot lead over England’s Anthony Wall when final-round play at the inaugural Sicilian Open in Ragusa, Sicily, was suspended because of darkness. A lightning storm before the leaders teed off at the Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa slowed down play. The year’s first European Tour event on European soil will be completed today.