Weir Plays Hole Card Again

Mike Weir must think he gets paid by the hole.

Three weeks ago, he won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which you can do only if you last 90 holes over five days.

Then on Sunday at the Nissan Open, he came from seven shots down to catch Charles Howell III, forced him into a playoff and won again on the second extra hole.

Overtime, it’s the Weir way. It may be the only method he knows, so you would have to say it’s working out fairly well for him.

On a cool and cloudy Sunday at Riviera Country Club, Weir worked wonderfully on the greens. He made four crucial putts of between eight and 30 feet, turned in a 66, then ended it all with an eight-foot birdie putt that dropped cold, hard and fast into the hole, with the sound of a cash register ringing up a sale.

His second victory in 21 days was worth $810,000 to Weir and means he has already cashed checks worth $2,022,000 this year.

Weir, who had never made the cut in four previous trips to Riviera, also had to come from behind to win at the Hope, where he trailed by four shots when the last round began.

If he were a racehorse, his handlers would want him to break from the gate on the outside. In any event, Weir should have known he was in perfect position Sunday morning, but he didn’t.

He said he showed up at the course thinking he didn’t have a shot. He was wrong. Also shocked.

“Starting today, seven shots back, definitely I’m surprised,” he said. “And shooting five under, maybe if I blistered it with a nine under. But the golf course did play difficult. But, obviously, I’m surprised.”

If Weir was having his own way on the greens, he also helped himself along with his strategy for playing the stylish but deadly 315-yard par-four 10th. Weir laid up twice Sunday, once in regulation and once in the playoff, and made birdie both times.

Weir can’t reach the green there anyway, so laying up was not just the correct play, it was his only play. The 10th was the second extra hole, after Weir and Howell finished 72 holes deadlocked at nine-under 275.

Weir left his five-wood about 71 yards from the hole, just short of the bunker to the left.

Howell hit driver, just as he had in regulation, but the ball flew left into a bunker and he faced a difficult second shot.

He pulled it off, though, and managed to stop the ball about six feet past the flagstick.

Weir went for the flag and got it between the greenside bunker and the pin, about eight feet from the hole.

Weir, putting first, sent the ball diving into the hole for birdie. Howell had one chance to answer, but the ball started left, stayed left and also stayed out. It was over and Weir took a minute to console Howell.

“Things just went my way today,” Weir said. “He’ll have plenty of other chances, as good as he is.”

It was not a particularly pleasant outing for Howell, who began the day with a three-shot lead and was still up by three when he made the turn.

But he made crucial errors at the 10th, where he drove into some trees left of the green, punched out and over the green into another bunker and wound up with a bogey. He erred again at the 14th, where he made a bad swing with a seven-iron and three-putted from 68 feet for another bogey.

“Had I played the way I should have, there never would have been a playoff,” said Howell, who shot a 73 Sunday.

He knew he hadn’t done much on the greens and it was true. The longest putt Howell made was a four-footer for par at No. 4.

It wasn’t a total loss for Howell, who made $486,000, but the second playoff defeat in his young career wasn’t something he relished.

“It stinks,” he said.

That was sort of how Nick Price felt about the way he played on his way to a 72, which left him two shots out of the playoff and tied with Fred Funk at seven-under 277.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods notified everyone that he was still around with a 65 that moved him from a tie for 28th to a tie for fifth with K.J. Choi.

“I feel a lot better now that I went out there and hit the ball better and made a lot of putts,” Woods said.

Woods’ 65 matched the low round of the week and also equaled his best at Riviera.

As it turned out, there really was no secret to solving Riviera’s riddles; it was who putted the best. The players who win are those who roll the ball better than anyone else. And this time, that player was Weir.

He made a 10-footer for birdie at No. 6, a 30-footer for birdie at No. 8, a six-footer for birdie at No. 10, an eight-foot downhill slider to save par at No. 13 and then his eight-footer at the end that sent the gallery of 51,036 home.

For Weir, the victory was affirmation that an off-season spent rededicating himself to the game and placing more focus on his motivation had paid off again. Two victories in three weeks to begin the season, after a year in which he had not a single top-10 finish, is proof enough to Weir that he’s traveling the right path.

It also doesn’t hurt to get a few breaks. Weir pointed out that he chipped in three times during a third-round 69 that kept him within shouting distance of the lead.

Last year, Weir wasn’t enjoying himself as he knew he should and that’s one of the factors he worked on during the off-season, to try to put himself in the frame of mind to win.

And now, look what’s happened. Twice. So what if he’s had to play a couple of extra holes?

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Two-Hole Playoff

Charles Howell III and Mike Weir finished regulation tied at nine-under 275.

FIRST PLAYOFF HOLE: NO. 18

* First shot -- Mike Weir: Tee shot lands in fairway; Charles Howell III: Tee shot lands in left rough.

* Second shot -- Howell: Approach shot lands on green; Weir: Approach shot lands on green.

* Third shot -- Howell: Putt just misses; Weir: Putt stops inches from hole.

* Fourth shot -- Howell: Makes putt; Weir: Makes putt.

SECOND PLAYOFF HOLE: NO. 10

* First shot -- Weir: Tee shot lands in fairway; Howell: Tee shot lands in bunker.

* Second shot -- Weir: Approach shot lands on green; Howell: Shot lands on green.

* Third shot -- Weir: Makes birdie putt; Howell: Misses birdie putt. Weir wins tournament.

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The Lowdown

With scores plummeting this year on the PGA Tour, Riviera held its own. A look at the low scores at each event this year:

MERCEDES CHAMPIONSHIP, 63: Rocco Mediate, Jonathan Byrd

SONY OPEN, 63: Stuart Appleby

PHOENIX OPEN, 62: Steve Stricker, Harrison Frazar, Chris DiMarco

BOB HOPE CLASSIC, 61: Jay Haas, Pat Perez, Tim Herron

AT&T; PRO-AM, 66: Tim Herron, Jim Furyk, Kevin Sutherland

BUICK INVITATIONAL, 64: Brad Faxon, Fred Funk

NISSAN OPEN, 65: Fred Funk, Charles Howell III, Angel Cabrera, Tiger Woods