Million Things on Longshots’ Minds

There’s nothing like a million dollars to capture the hearts and minds of pro golfers, not to mention their attention. With a $1-million paycheck going to the winner of today’s 36-hole final of the $5.5-million Accenture Match Play Championship, even the players have to admit there is a lot on the line at La Costa Resort and Spa.

The main events usually involve herbal wraps and mud baths around here, but by the end of the day either Scott McCarron or Kevin Sutherland is certain to feel delightfully refreshed, not to mention quite a bit more wealthy. So it comes down to the No. 45-seeded player (McCarron) and the No. 62-seeded player (Sutherland), and if anyone says they saw that one coming, they’re clairvoyant.

Anyway, in this day of big-money tournaments, is a million dollars still a lot? “What do you think?” McCarron joked. “Hey, for 36 holes, I won’t be thinking about the money ... at least I hope not.”

Dead even on the 18th green in Saturday’s semifinal match with Paul Azinger, what McCarron was thinking about was that his curling 39-foot putt was going to hit the bottom of the hole. He just hoped the ball had enough speed, which it did, but just barely, disappearing into the cup and ending its long journey to the hole. Azinger, whose ball was in the deep rough off the back left of the green, could only watch it drop. Azinger’s only hope was to chip in and he gave it a good swing, but he left his ball about 10 feet short, and McCarron posted a 1-up victory.

If McCarron’s putt looked as though it was good all the way, Brad Faxon’s three-foot putt at the 18th had a much different destination in mind. Faxon, who needed to make the putt to keep his match going with Sutherland, pulled it just to the left. Sutherland had missed the green with his second shot, chipped to 12 feet and pulled his birdie putt, then watched Faxon putt for his birdie that would even the match. Sutherland was already thinking about extra holes.

“Brad doesn’t miss putts like that at 18,” Sutherland said. “I was shocked. If he’s not the best putter in the world, he’s top two or three. But strange things happen.”

Faxon did miss. So Sutherland got another chance and rolled in a two-footer to finish off a 1-up victory and put himself in position for his first PGA Tour victory.

For Faxon, it was an ignoble end for one of the tour’s premier putters, to three-putt from 15 feet on the last hole. He was far from happy. After he congratulated Sutherland, Faxon angrily tossed his golf ball and it accidentally struck Sutherland in his left shoulder, which was covered by a towel. Sutherland wasn’t hurt, just tired, and said he was ready for a nap. McCarron said he was ready to play right away.

It will be an all-Sacramento final between players who have known each other and played against each other since their junior days. In fact, in the 1982 Sac-Joaquin junior at Butte Creek near Chico, Sutherland defeated McCarron in the final. “I tell you what, I don’t know if a lot of the people in the country are going to be watching, but everyone in Sacramento is going to be watching,” McCarron said.

Sutherland says when he turned pro in 1996, McCarron sent him a photo taken from that day. “It’s amazing,” Sutherland said of playing McCarron. “If there was one person who would be better than that, it would be my brother.”

Jose Maria Olazabal’s exit in the morning round meant that no international players were left. But at least he accomplished something no one else had been able to do--force Faxon to play the 18th hole. Olazabal’s five-foot birdie putt at the 18th squared the match, but Faxon saved par with a four-foot putt on the 19th hole, then won it when he made a 20-foot putt for birdie on the second playoff hole, No. 11. Olazabal, who was 3-up after three, said there wasn’t much he could do to stop Faxon as the match wore on.

“If you putt the way I did and you putt the way he did, then he will win,” Olazabal said. The losing quarterfinalists did not go away empty-handed, not with a consolation prize of $342,000.

McCarron won the last six holes--four of them with birdies--to come from behind and beat Tom Lehman, 4 and 3. That should have given him momentum in his semifinal against Azinger, but Azinger probably had some of his own going, after closing out Bob Estes, 2 and 1, with a birdie on the 17th hole. Estes had his chance at the end, with a 10-footer, which he missed. Azinger’s ball was eight feet away.

“I hit kind of a big, right-to-left [putt] with about a foot break,” Azinger said. “And it went in.”

As for Sutherland, the lowest-seeded player in the field, defeated the sixth-seeded David Toms with ease, 3 and 2. Sutherland never trailed and the match was even only once, after the first hole.

Afterward, Sutherland thought he had a good chance against Faxon. “I think I can win,” he said. “Everyone I beat, it’s a huge upset, but I’m playing really well.”

No one can say Sutherland did not earn his way to the final. In his first-round match against No. 3 David Duval, Sutherland was two holes down at the 17th tee and went 20 holes to win. He also defeated Paul McGinley, 14th-seeded Jim Furyk, Toms and then Faxon. “The finals, my expectations were never near that, to be honest,” he said.

McCarron’s path was equally bumpy. It actually began a week ago when he bogeyed two of the last three holes at Riviera and lost to Len Mattiace on the last day of the Nissan Open. McCarron started off here by defeating Colin Montgomerie, then Mike Weir, then No. 4 Sergio Garcia, leading up to Saturday’s victories over Lehman and Azinger.

“I would have loved to win last week, but this would be the best revenge,” McCarron said.

The runner-up wins $550,000. Faxon and Azinger play an 18-hole consolation match worth $450,000 to the winner and $360,000 to the loser.

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Longshots Come In

Results of the Accenture Match Play Championship at Carlsbad:

SEMIFINALS

No. 45 Scott McCarron def.

No. 25 Paul Azinger 1-up

No. 62 Kevin Sutherland def.

No. 47 Brad Faxon 1-up

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FINAL

McCarron vs. Sutherland

Today, 11 a.m., Channel 7