For Lowery, it’s about time at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH -- Say what you want about Steve Lowery, but you can count on him. He’s good for a win every, say, couple of hundred tournaments.

In fact, it’s exactly every 200 tournaments. After Lowery came from behind to run down a sagging Vijay Singh to win the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, that’s how long it had been between victories.

An eight-year drought by Lowery, the golf equivalent of global warming, came to an end Sunday when he artfully rolled in a seven-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

And although such a result might not represent a seismic shift on the pro golf scene, Lowery’s comeback for the third victory of his career was significant nonetheless.

That’s because of the way the numbers piled up. You wouldn’t think they’d stack up for Lowery, who closed with a four-under-par 68 and a 72-hole total of 10-under 278 worth the winner’s check of $1.08 million.

There were the two double bogeys in a three-hole span Saturday at pushover Poppy Hills. There were also nine runner-up finishes. But that’s just a start. Besides becoming the tournament’s oldest winner at 47, and regardless of the fact that he hadn’t won in eight years, how does it figure that he would stand up to 31-time winner Singh and come out ahead?

“What I’ve been through with the injury . . . times that I didn’t play well, this is absolutely the most meaningful,” Lowery said.

Lowery’s ranking looks like a misprint -- No. 305. That isn’t a ranking, it’s an area code.

Singh, who finished with a 71, began the day tied for the lead with Dudley Hart and was three shots clear of Lowery, who was tied for fifth.

Lowery may have saved himself when he birdied the ninth from a disastrous position in the fairway bunker, nearly 220 yards from the flagstick.

But Singh was still sailing. It was a shorter trip than he expected, and Singh had a problem figuring it out.

“I let this one slip away,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to lose this. I need to go re-think and see what really went wrong . . . but on the middle of the back nine, I let some go away.”

As Singh stood in the 14th fairway, he was still three shots ahead of Lowery, despite a bogey at the 10th.

And right there, Singh started wobbling. He missed the green at the 14th and made a bogey, missed the green again at the 15th for another bogey and then drove into a bunker at the 16th, from where he landed in a greenside bunker and made bogey there too.

Instead of a runaway, it was a four-way tie at nine under with Singh, Lowery, Corey Pavin and John Mallinger.

Pavin, who had a 66, and Mallinger, who finished with a 65, quickly figured out they could be on their way to a playoff instead of on their way to the airport. They just missed, tying for third at nine-under 279 with Hart, who birdied the last three holes.

Jason Day could have joined them, but he missed his birdie putt at the 18th and was sixth.

Meanwhile, Singh was busy doing a little accounting work. The balance sheet was reading four bogeys in six holes for Singh, an exasperating stretch for the 11th-ranked player.

Lowery took the lead at 10-under when he sank a left-to-right curling 19-footer for birdie on the 17th. Playing in the group ahead of Singh, Lowery drove into the bunker on the right side of the 18th fairway and wound up two-putting from 40 feet to save par.

Singh needed a birdie on the 530-yard par five to catch Lowery and force a playoff and he got off to a shaky start -- his drive collided with the closer of the two trees on the right side of the fairway. Fortunately, it bounced straight left.

Singh hit his second shot to within 45 yards of the pin and his third to two feet. His tap-in birdie meant a playoff.

It didn’t last long. Lowery found the fairway on No. 18 with his drive, sent his third shot right over the flagstick and spun the ball back to within seven feet of the hole. Singh was in all sorts of trouble, driving into a bunker, and then hitting it thin, the ball traveling only 78 yards.

From 200 yards out, Singh’s four-iron plugged in a greenside bunker, although he managed to get it up and down, sinking an eight-footer for par.

That forced Lowery to make his putt to win, which he did. That is definitely not a match for how Lowery’s career has gone. He’s never been ranked in the top 10, and never been anywhere near the top on the money list, but all of his PGA Tour wins have come in playoffs.

“It’s been a challenge, an uphill battle,” he said.

After being out three months last year when he injured his left wrist, Lowery was forced to play this year on a major medical extension. That kind of exempt status curtails your playing schedule in a hurry, and until his victory, Lowery had been contemplating his next couple of tournaments.

The Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico had promise, and so did the event in Puerto Rico. Now, it’s all different. Lowery can start making plans for the Masters.

“I’m overwhelmed,” he said.

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Five players not otherwise exempt into this week’s Northern Trust Open finished inside the top 10 at Pebble Beach -- and should have earned a spot at Riviera -- but Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Nicholas Thompson, Y.E. Yang and Brent Geiberger will be placed on the alternate list because of the strength of the field.

Lowery will play at Riviera, replacing Arron Oberholser, who withdrew because of a right shoulder injury. Day isn’t playing.

The first 10 on the alternate list are Nick Flanagan, Thompson, Johnson, Tag Ridings, Yang, Frank Lickliter II, Roland Thatcher, Brett Rumford, Chris Stroud and Jon Mills.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com