It’s Mattiace’s Moment

Some things just are what they are and you cannot change them. There is no alteration policy.

For instance, there are 12 Days of Christmas, Three Stooges, 101 Dalmatians and 18 holes in golf.

You can’t just stop after 17 holes and say, well, that’s enough, and then take it to the house. You have to play all 18 before it’s over, which was one too many for the third week in a row.

Three weeks ago at Pebble Beach, Pat Perez hit one ball out of bounds and another into the ocean and lost at the 18th hole.

Last week at Torrey Pines, J.L. Lewis three-putted for a bogey at the 18th and lost.

And at the 18th hole Sunday at Riviera Country Club, Scott McCarron reluctantly joined the group, tossing his own three-putt bogey into the unwelcome mix, handing the Nissan Open to Len Mattiace.

“That was my tournament to win,” McCarron said. “I lost that tournament.”

Maybe, but that’s sort of a harsh way to look at it. McCarron’s closing round of 71 dropped him into a three-way tie for second with Rory Sabbatini and Brad Faxon, who both shot 68. Faxon, in fact, watched his long birdie putt stop an inch short at the 18th, or he could have forced a playoff.

Another way to look at it is that it was finally Mattiace’s turn to win. After seven years, the 34-year-old from Jacksonville had his first PGA Tour victory in his 220th tournament. “Feels like it, too,” said Mattiace, who shot a final-round 68 for a 72-hole total of 15-under 269.

McCarron bogeyed two of the last three holes and failed to make birdie at the other, the very agreeable par-five 17th. Even so, he was still even with Mattiace when they reached the 18th.

But while Mattiace put his second shot on the green, McCarron’s ball got caught up in the second cut of kikuyu rough at the back left of the green, about 24 feet from the hole.

McCarron’s dilemma was how to play it. Would he chip it down a fast slippery slope and hope he could get the ball to stop close?

Or would he putt it out of the rough, hope the grass didn’t catch the ball and be able to roll it near the hole?

He decided to use his putter, the long-handled version McCarron has used for a year, the one that looks like some sort of garden tool.

He should have used a weed whacker because as soon as he struck the ball, it hopped up in the air and lost speed, stopping about seven feet short of the hole. McCarron needed to make the putt from that distance for his par, but he didn’t.

A simple two-putt par by Mattiace later and it was over.

“You don’t ever want to see anyone make a mistake like that,” said Mattiace, who was sure that McCarron would make his par putt. “Strange things happen on 18 in tournaments,” he said.

Strange things can also happen on other holes in other tournaments and often cause lasting after-effects. For Mattiace, his was four years ago at the 1998 Players Championship, when he was one shot off the lead with two holes to go. He knocked his tee shot into the water at the 17th and made an eight. Instead of his breakthrough victory, he tied for fifth. Mattiace said he was badly bothered by the experience for a month, and it’s a hard memory to quiet. “It never leaves,” he said. “It’s still hard. It’s still there.”

For that month, Mattiace said people sort of avoided him. “They saw me with disaster, in a sense,” he said.

It turned out to be the last full tournament his mother saw. She died three months later because of cancer. Now that he has his victory, Mattiace says he can admit he had doubts he would ever win.

“We live this every day,” he said. “It seemed like it was a long way away. Other times, you could touch it, smell it.”

He wasn’t close enough to do either one of those after playing the first five holes in one over, including three-putt bogeys at No. 2 and No. 5.

In fact, McCarron had a three-shot lead after his third birdie in a row, at the 11th.

He would not make another.

There was a two-shot swing at the 12th. McCarron made a bogey and Mattiace holed a bunker shot from 30 feet. Mattiace caught up at the 17th. From 50 feet, his eagle putt hit the hole and popped out, but he tapped in for birdie.

While Mattiace aimed for a safe spot on the 18th green, about 30 feet to the right of the flag, McCarron went for the pin and paid for it.

Putting out of the rough was clearly the correct call for him, McCarron insisted.

“That’s the only play out of the kikuyu,” he said.

Toro Taniguchi’s 71 left him alone in fifth place at 13-under 271, one shot ahead of Charles Howell III, Per-Ulrik Johansson and Chris DiMarco. Johansson had a 66, DiMarco a 67 and Howell a 69.

McCarron played the last seven holes in three over, including a critical bogey at the par-three 16th when he hit a six-iron into a bunker. It got worse. His ball stopped in a hole in the bunker that wasn’t raked.

His next chance came at the 576-yard 17th when he pulled his drive left and left his second shot 15 yards short of the green.

All he could do was save par while Mattiace was nearly making eagle. Afterward, McCarron said it probably just wasn’t his turn.

“There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “I played some really good golf and should have won, but I didn’t.”

All Mattiace could think about was how proud he was. He had just played in the last group, shot three-under on the back nine at Riviera, holed a bunker shot at the 12th and won his first tournament. This winning thing might take a while to get used to, but he plans on doing more of it, as soon as possible.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

No Repeat

The tournament has not had a repeat winner since Corey Pavin won in 1994 and 1995. A look at the last nine champions.

(text of infobox not included)

*

Scorecard

Final scores at the $3.7-million Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club:

269 (-15)--$666,000

Len Mattiace...69-65-67-68

270 (-14)--$276,266.67

Rory Sabbatini...69-68-65-68

Brad Faxon...67-67-68-68

Scott McCarron...69-65-65-71

*

Breaking Through

For the second time in three seasons, the Nissan Open was the first career victory for its winner. In 2000, Kirk Triplett won his first tournament after 265 career PGA Tour events. Sunday, Len Mattiace won his first tournament in his 220th PGA Tour start.

Complete scores...D4