Hope Classic Is Won by Force of Nature

They were passing out pain in very large doses Sunday at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which is sort of what golf does when it’s feeling really cranky.

Somehow, Mike Weir missed his turn in line. The 31-year-old, born in Canada, slipped away from the trouble that was crashing all around him, birdied the last three holes and won for the fourth time in five years.

Weir’s final 67 on a brutal closing day was good for a 30-under-par 330 total and a two-shot victory that was worth $810,000.

Weir didn’t just win, he was the last man standing.

Ask Jay Haas and Tim Herron about that.

“I don’t think I could have asked to play any better under these conditions,” Weir said.

Most everyone else left aching.

For the first time all week, the conditions were difficult and that changed all the rules at the Palmer Course at PGA West. No target practice into greens the consistency of pillows. Instead, swirling, gusty winds baked the greens and made them hard, fast and tricky.

The course played nearly four shots tougher than it had all week.

No one would argue with the numbers, or the disposition of the course, which was downright nasty to Herron, who tied for third, and Haas, the runner-up.

It’s possible that neither is going to forget what happened to him for awhile.

“I’ll think about what could have been,” Haas said.

What he will remember is how he knocked his second shot into the lake in front of the 18th green when he was tied for the lead. Weir had a bad downhill lie and was forced to lay up, but Haas went for it with a four-iron.

Haas had 187 yards to the front of the green. Unfortunately, his golf ball traveled only 184 yards. It got wet. He got beat.

“It was a tough day,” he said.

No one had a tougher day than Herron. Here’s a guy who started the day with a four-shot lead. He had two eagles. And he shot a 75.

It may be a long time before the image of Herron peering under a rock in the rugged landscape at the 16th hole, looking for his ball, passes from memory. That was where Herron was on his way to a quadruple-bogey eight, after being tied for the lead.

Herron’s ball visited almost every substance on the planet on one hole. It was like a National Geographic special. Counting his tee shot, his ball found air, sand, rocks and water. If he had found a campfire, he would have just about had it covered.

“What do you want me to say?” Herron said afterward.

The police report and scorecard would say it all: Drive into the bunker, second shot under a rock, third shot penalty, fourth shot over the green into the water, fifth shot penalty, sixth shot on the green, two putts. That’s an eight. Game over.

“That’s golf,” Weir said. “You play this game long enough, unfortunately, these things happen sometimes. And it happened for Tim. I felt sick for him.”

Herron was quite capable of feeling sick all by himself. He smoked even more cigarettes than usual and seemed to be choking back tears. Not even his second eagle of the round, at 18, could make up for the misery he endured two holes earlier.

Haas tried to help, minutes after he had lost his chance because he had just knocked his second shot into the water.

On the 18th green, Haas said he told Herron, “I know I don’t feel any worse than you do, but it happens. We’ve all done it.”

The day began with the wind blowing hard and Herron putting his head down and steering into the wind with a four-shot lead. It was gone after six holes; the key turnaround was an 18-foot eagle putt by Haas at the 562-yard sixth, where all Herron could do was make par. Herron was 11 under on the par-fives through four rounds, but made par at No. 2 and No. 6, both par-fives, on Sunday.

That definitely wasn’t the way to go and by the time they made the turn, Haas had a two-shot lead on Herron.

Chris DiMarco began the day five shots behind Herron and one behind Haas, so when Herron started going the other direction, DiMarco made a move. Haas missed an eight-foot par putt at the 13th and DiMarco was within one shot of the lead.

That changed in a hurry when DiMarco put his second shot on the rocks at the 14th and failed to get up and down from the green-side rough, making double bogey. DiMarco’s round of 70 tied him with Herron at 26-under 334.

Weir found himself only one shot behind Haas when he birdied the 11th, coupled with a bogey by Haas at the 13th.

Meanwhile, Herron went birdie, bogey, bogey, eagle from the 11th through the 14th and caught Haas at 28-under, establishing a three-player race that included Haas and Weir, the last threesome of the day.

After that, the weird stuff began. Haas would finish with a 69, his watery bogey at the end spoiling what was in almost every other regard a week that should have meant victory. He said he had no intention of laying up as Weir did at the last hole.

“I think I would have been second-guessed had I laid up and then [Weir] made four and I made five laying up,” he said. “I don’t think I would have been able to show my face.”

Weir said laying up was his only option because of the lie he had. As it turned out, his wedge third shot left him eight feet from the hole and he rolled in the putt for a birdie. But Weir also said Haas made the correct decision to go for the green.

“It’s a definite go from where he was,” Weir said. “... If I was in his position, I would have been doing the same thing.”