Australian David Lutterus, who began the final round two strokes adrift of a job, fired an eight-under par 64 on Monday at PGA Tour qualifying tournament to book his spot on the circuit for next year.
“I was thinking 59 for a while there actually,” Lutterus said of matching the all-time low PGA round. “I enjoyed it out there.”
An emotional six-day, 108-hole battle over two courses to decide next year’s playing rights ended with American Troy Merritt setting the pace at 23-under 410, but everyone in the top 25 or level will achieve the goal of a tour spot next year.
PHOTO: AFP
Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge shared fifth on 415.
Six players from outside the US qualified on Monday, including de Jonge, South Africa’s Brenden Pappas and Andrew McLardy, Canadian rookie Graham Delaet and Australians Lutterus and Matt Jones.
Lutterus birdied four of the first six holes and closed the front nine with another to stake his claim to a tour berth. Birdies at the par-3 11th and 14th around an eagle at the 12th were more than enough to offset a lone bogey at 15.
Lutterus, who finished on 15-under 417, played the final round of the event in 2007 with Yang Yong-eun, last year’s PGA Championship winner, and felt the tension more than this year.
Jones, now set for a third season on the US PGA Tour, finished third on 413 after a final-round 66.
McLardy, born in Zimbabwe to Scottish parents, endured a nerve-wracking finish, but a last-hole bogey got him in on the number, sharing 23rd on 423 with Americans Spencer Levin and Brent Delahoussaye.
“I’ve been trying this for so long. To finally pull it off, I don’t know what to say. I still can’t even believe I made it,” Delahoussaye said.
Eight players were one stroke out of a tour spot, sharing 26th on 424, including Australian Bronson La’Cassie and Canada’s Julien Trudeau, a distant relative of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
■CHEVRON WORLD
AFP, THOUSAND OAKS, California
Jim Furyk rolled in a birdie putt at the final hole on Sunday to win the Chevron World Challenge by one shot from Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.
Furyk, dressed in the red so often sported by tournament host Tiger Woods on Sundays, didn’t get a handshake from the world No. 1, who didn’t attend, citing injuries received in a car crash on Nov. 27.
Furyk fired a final round 67 at Sherwood Country Club for a 13-under total of 275.
However, he said his final-round attire of red shirt and dark trousers weren’t a nod to Woods, known for his red and black Sunday ensembles.
“They’re brown pants,” Furyk said. “I didn’t mean to make a statement.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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