Bryant fends off Tiger attack to seal Tour finale

AMERICAN journeyman Bart Bryant upstaged world number one Tiger Woods by cruising to a six-shot victory in the season-ending Tour Championship on Sunday.

Mon, 07 Nov, 2005 - 00:00

Richard Lewis

The 42-year-old Texan, who began the day with a three-shot cushion, fired a three-under-par 67 at East Lake Golf Club to secure the third US PGA Tour title of his career.

Padraig Harrington shot a one under par 69 final round to finish in the top third of the field, 11 shots off the leader.

Playing in the Tour finale for the first time, Bryant completed a wire-to-wire triumph with a 72-hole total of 17-under 263, with 1999 winner Woods having to settle for a distant second place after carding a 69.

Defending champion Retief Goosen, who went into the final day three strokes off the lead, fell apart with a closing 74 and slipped into a three-way tie for fourth with Vijay Singh (67) and Davis Love III (69) at seven under.

lWorld number one Annika Sorenstam made history when she became the first golfer to win the same tournament five consecutive times by winning the Mizuno Classic yesterday.

Starting the final round one stroke off Kim Young of South Korea, the Swede carded a bogey-free one eagle and six birdies for a 64 to finish top with a three-round total of 21-under-par 195.

Jennifer Rosales of the Philippines sank one eagle and four birdies for a 66 to take second place at 198, while Kim was tied at third place with Japan’s Yuri Fudo and Sophie Gustafson of Sweden on 200.

It was here last year Sorenstam became only the second woman after Laura Davies of Britain, who won the Standard Register PING tournament from 1994-1997, to claim a “four-peat.”

Only Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen and Tiger Woods have won the same tournament four consecutive times on the US PGA Tour.

Sorenstam, who received the winner’s cheque of €150,000, has already tied an LPGA record by winning her fifth world championship last month at Palm Desert, California, following her victories in 1995, 1996, 2002 and 2004.

The one-million-dollar event at the 6,450-yard par-72 Seta golf course is a happy hunting ground for Sorenstam, who also set an LPGA record for lowest score in a 54-hole event when she finished at 24-under in 2003.

She did not have a bogey from the sixth hole of the 2002 third round until the eighth hole of the second round last year.

It was her ninth title of the season, after two majors at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and the LPGA Championship to secure her record eighth Player of the Year award and her eighth record-tying Money List title.

Kim, former South Korea and Japan Golf Association junior champion, once stretched the lead to two strokes with a birdie on the second hole, but it was reduced to one with a bogey on the fourth.

Kim birdied the par-five sixth hole, only to see Sorenstam and Rosales eagle the same hole to be tied. Rosales earlier had a birdie on the second to catch up with Sorenstam.

After Sorenstam took the lead with a birdie on the eighth, Rosales twice tied with a birdie on the 10th and 12th, but Sorenstam regained the sole lead on the 11th and 14th holes and made herself unreachable with three more on the last four holes.

U.S. PGA Tour: The Tour Championship

263 B. Bryant (United States) 62 68 66 67

269 T. Woods (United States) 66 67 67 69

271 S. Verplank (United States) 67 66 69 69

273 V. Singh (Fiji) 69 69 68 67; D. Love III (United States) 68 71 65 69; R. Goosen (South Africa) 64 66 69 74

274 A. Scott (Australia) 73 69 65 67; S. Appleby (Australia) 70 65 71 68; B. Crane (United States) 68 65 72 69; P. Harrington (Ireland) 71 66 68 69

275 M. Calcavecchia (United States) 72 69 68 66

276 S. O’Hair (United States) 73 73 64 66

277 J. Furyk (United States) 70 70 67 70

278 T. Herron (United States) 73 68 71 66; O. Browne (United States) 70 67 71 70; L. Donald (Britain) 70 67 70 71

279 C. Campbell (United States) 72 68 70 69 ; T. Purdy (United States) 71 69 69 70; C. DiMarco (United States) 69 72 67 71

281 K. Perry (United States) 65 73 71 72; S. Garcia (Spain) 66 72 71 72