Highlights from the final round of Crowne Plaza Invitational – Part3
Martin Laird, Paul Goydos, Hunter Mahan, Rod Pampling, Kris Blanks and Kevin Streelman took a shared tenth spot on the leader board.
The winner of Arnold Palmer Invitational, Laird stepped into the final round with a 66, but could not produce a similar number. He teed-off from the front and birdied two holes against an equal number of bogeys, which left him standing at par at the end
of the day.
The problem faced by the Scott was his driving accuracy. He failed in finding the fairways 9 out of 18 times and missed 10 greens while hitting regulations.
Meanwhile, Mahan remained consistent in the four-day session. The American produced 69 in two rounds and 70 in the final to climb seven spots from where he started off the day.
A traffic jam was seen on the 16th spot on the leader board, which included most of the top guns. Included in the list was the winner of the 2011 Honda Classic Rory Sabbatini, 2010 winner of Greenbrier Classic Stuart Appleby, Arjun Atwal, Matt
Kuchar, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Stewart Cink, Brandt Snedeker and Sean O’Hair.
2009 Open Championship winner, Cink could not make a high finish in the tournament, but his stats proved the immense amount of improvement he had brought in his game. The American finished ninth in driving distance with an average of 307. In addition to
that, he finished second in putts per round with an average of 26.8.
Despite the windy conditions, the American veteran picked five birdies against four bogeys and sealed the day at 1-under par 69.
On the other hand, the winner of 2011 Heritage, Snedeker finished at par after reeling one birdie against a bogey on Sunday. The player could not cope with the conditions of the course, which made putting and driving extremely difficult.
The 2010 Rookie of the Year, Fowler once again missed the chance to take advantage of the course; he had been practicing on and carded 1-over par 71 on the final day. The 22-year-old teed-off from the front and picked three birdies against one bogey. The
start was impressive, but the end was vague. The rookie dropped four shots at the back and finished tied in the 16th spot.
When asked to comment on his finish, Fowler said, “Today, I got off to a nice start. I had things going on through the first 10 or 11 holes. I made a few bad swings. I started going the wrong direction. Obviously, not the way I wanted to finish the tournament.
I was looking to put together a good round today and move myself up the leader board but unfortunately wasn't able to do that.”
Article continued in Part 4…
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