A chip-in birdie on No. 17 helped Steve Stricker get into a three-man playoff. Then, lucky to be playing a second extra hole, he put his approach just 3 feet from the cup and knocked it right in to win the Crowne Plaza Invitational. The victory moved him to second in the FedExCup standings. Tim Clark wasted a two-shot lead with five holes left. He left short a 9-foot putt that would’ve won it on the final hole, then pulled a 7-footer that would’ve ended the playoff on the first hole. The final kick in the gut came when his approach on the second extra hole hit the pin and rolled more than 20 feet from the cup. The third man in the playoff, Steve Marino, narrowly missed a long birdie putt on the first extra hole, then took himself out of contention with a wild tee shot on the second extra hole. Elsewhere, Jason Day finished a shot further back on -16 while Paul Casey continued his superb season finishing on -15. Woody Austin and Vijay Singh tied for 6th with Ian Poulter a further 2 shots back on -12.
Christian Cevaer of France won the European Open by a stroke Sunday, more than five years after his only previous victory. Cevaer, ranked 449th in the world at the beginning of the week, made only one birdie in a round of 74 after three bogeys on the front nine, but was solid again on the tough closing stretch of the 7,257-yard London Golf Club course. He birdied the 15th and parred the other four holes of the treacherous last five, getting on the final green with a rescue club before two-putting from the fringe for his victory. His four round total was 281, good for his first win since the 2004 Spanish Open. Steve Webster and Gary Orr with rounds of 71, shared second place with Alvaro Quiros (72). Stephen Dodd who drove home to Wales on Friday thinking he had missed the cut, carded a 68 and tied for fifth with Chris Wood (73) and Jeev Milka Singh (76). Former British Open champion Ben Curtis also shot 68 and finished in a four-way tie for eighth, with Rory McIlroy alone in 12th spot after a 75.
Mark McNulty, playing under the Irish flag these days, won the Principal Charity Classic for his seventh Champions Tour victory, beating Fred Funk with a 30ft left-to-right birdie putt to end a thrilling four-hole playoff. The 55-year-old McNulty closed with a 5-under 66 to match Funk (66) and second-round leader Nick Price (68) at 10-under 203 on the Glen Oaks Country Club course. McNulty and Funk birdied the second extra hole to eliminate Price. It was the Champions Tour’s longest playoff since Bernhard Langer beat Jay Hass in seven holes in the 2008 Toshiba Classic. Mark Weibe (69) finished fourth at 8 under, and David Eger 68) was fifth at 7 under. John Cook (64) topped a six-player group at 6 under.
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