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Cink denies Watson in Open playoff
AP/John Super
Ayrshire, Scotland - Stewart Cink denied Tom Watson's run at history Sunday by winning the 138th British Open Championship in a four-hole playoff.
Cink totaled 14 strokes in the extra session, while Watson needed 20 shots in the same stretch at Turnberry. The playoff was contested over Nos. 5, 6, 17 and 18 and was aggregate score.
For Cink, this was his sixth PGA Tour win and first major championship. He had a chance at getting into a playoff at the 2001 U.S. Open, but missed a short putt on the 72nd hole that cost him that spot.
Watson had been going for his record-tying sixth Open Championship title and was trying to become the oldest major champion.
Cink posted a one-under 69 in regulation, that included a birdie on the 72nd hole to post two-under-par 278.
Watson, led by one on the 18th tee, but knocked his approach over the green at the last and could not save par. Watson shot two-over 72 in the final round to match Cink at minus-two.
Cink never owned a piece of the lead until his birdie putt dropped on the 72nd hole.
In the playoff, both players landed in bunkers with their approach shots to the fifth, the first extra hole. Cink played first and knocked his sand shot to eight feet. Watson, who had a much more difficult shot, blasted out some 50 feet from the hole.
Watson two-putted for bogey, then Cink rolled in his par putt to lead by one. The next hole, the par-three sixth, Cink hit his tee shot to 45 feet and Watson found rough. He got up and down for par as Cink two-putted for par.
Cink sealed the playoff on the par-five 17th. He two-putted for birdie from some 45 feet.
Watson, meanwhile, landed in the left rough off the tee and left his second in the tall grass. He played his third into the fairway, but could only knock his fourth to about 70 feet. He three-putted for double-bogey and gave Cink a four-shot cushion heading to the last.
Cink, like Watson in the Duel in the Sun in 1977, capped the win with a birdie at the last. Cink's second stopped three feet from the hole and he knocked that in for the win as Watson scrambled for a closing bogey.
Cink's biggest win to this point was at the 2004 World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational.
He denied Watson many historical marks, including becoming the oldest major champion and tying for the most British Open wins. Watson would have joined Ben Hogan and Gary Payer with the fourth most major titles and would have been the third player to win this championship in three different decades.
The playoff was the fourth in the last eight years and Cink's win means that Americans have won 11 of the last 15 British Open titles.
Lee Westwood bogeyed three of the last four holes to end one shot out of the playoff at one-under-par 279. He closed with a one-over 71 to tie Chris Wood in third. Wood matched the low round of the day with this three-under 67.
