watney wins at doral
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Nick Watney claimed the biggest win of his career after taking the WGC-Cadillac Championship by two shots on Sunday.
The American carded a final round five-under 67 at Doral to end the weekend on 16-under-par, two better than third round leader Dustin Johnson.
The crucial birdie came at the 12th as Watney bounced back from dropping a shot at his previous hole. He then saved one the last as well to make sure of the $1.4 million crown, just 24 hours after double bogeying at the same hole.
Earlier, Watney twice sank back-to-back birdies, first at the opening two holes and then at eight and nine. In fact, having already suffered one bogey, he made it three birdies in a row right after the turn, only for his momentum to take a hit at 11. But he hit right back to exorcise his Blue Monster ghost, having failed with a putt for a playoff with Phil Mickelson two years previously.
Johnson had led by two ahead of the world championship event’s final round in Florida, but he could only manage a one-under 71 on the last day. He started in the best possible fashion, with an opening birdie, but the next 12 holes were all parred before a second birdie left him just one off of what would be the winning score.
However, he dropped a shot at the 16th to drop back to -14 and, in the end, found himself in that familiar position of being just behind the big winner.
A flawless five-under 67 helped Denmark’s Anders Hansen up the leaderbpoard and into a share of third, alongside Italy’s Francesco Molinari who had a mixed 69. Matt Kuchar was all on his own in fifth on 12-under after a round of 71.
Luke Donald was chasing back-to-back WGC wins, and had been one of the chasers as play began on Sunday. However, the high-ranked Englishman could only card an even 72 as he dropped to a share of sixth with Australia’s Adam Scott on -11.
Tiger Woods played the round of the day to hush some of his critics, the former world number one carding a six-under 66 to finish on eight-under, alongside the falling Rory McIlroy (74) and Padraig Harrington (73) and two clear of Lee Westwood (68), with whom he started the day level.
