Ames takes title in style
Just 32 days after being demolished by Tiger Woods, former European Tour member Stephen Ames celebrated the biggest win of his career in Florida.
While Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh, his two closest challengers overnight, fell away horribly, Trinidad-born Ames, runner-up in 2002, lifted his game to new heights and ran away with golf’s richest event – the £5m (€7.2m) Players Championship at Sawgrass.
The 41-year-old, crushed by Woods by a record 9&8 margin at the Accenture Match Play Championship last month, claimed the £862,275 (€1.3m) title by a massive six shots from South African Retief Goosen after a 67, the best round of the day by two.
It was only the second win Ames has had in over 200 events on the US Tour – a circuit he was banned from playing for a while because of visa problems.
Goosen, round in 69, was himself three strokes clear of third-placed quartet Jim Furyk, Pat Perez, Camilo Villegas and Swede Henrik Stenson.
Garcia finished 14th after dropping five shots in the first five holes and coming off eventually with a 78.
The 26-year-old Spaniard missed from under three feet for a three-putt bogey six on the second, failed to get up and down from sand at the next, then went from rough to water for a double bogey six on the fourth and let another shot go at the fifth.
World number two Singh, also without a victory this year, returned a 77 for eighth.
Meanwhile, Greg Owen, like Jean Van de Velde more famous for losing a tournament than winning one, and Ian Poulter saw their dream of playing in this year’s Masters fade away with rounds of 73 and 75 respectively.
At 64th in the world Ames was looking for a trip to Augusta himself and he achieved it in the best possible fashion.
Winner of the Benson and Hedges International at The Oxfordshire during his time in Europe, Ames had been denied this event four years ago by an amazing finish from New Zealander Craig Perks, who chipped in twice in the last three holes.
But Ames, with his brother Robert as his caddie, made sure nobody could do the same to him with the most polished display of his life.
He moved four clear with a superb outward 34 before hitting trouble on the 424-yard 10th.
On the edge of a bunker in two he failed to get out first time and double-bogeyed. It sliced his advantage in half, but the response was superb – a two-putt birdie at the long 11th, then a tee shot to two feet on the 13th, where Fred Couples had earlier made the fourth hole-in-one of the week.
That put him five clear and even when he had to chop out of the rough on the dangerous 14th he made a 15-footer for par and followed that with a nine-foot birdie putt.
The best was still to come, though. He just carried the lake at the long 16th, but from the fringe rolled in a 25-footer for eagle.
His win comes eight months after his wife Jodie – Canadian just as Ames is himself now – had three quarters of one lung removed following the discovery of cancer.
After a third round 77, Owen, left to rue his late collapse at Bay Hill last week even more, was down in 32nd place and in all probability needed to climb to 13th to grab a place at Augusta.
From the moment he putted off the lightning-fast opening green and bogeyed it looked mission impossible, but after battling away for a one over total of 289 he still clung to a slight chance at joint 25th as most of those ahead of him had still to finish.
But in the end all he did was move up to 22nd, which looked to be a couple of strokes shy of where he needed to be.
“The Masters was on my mind all day, but the greens were the quickest I have ever played on – close to being unplayable,” he said. “The only places it seemed they had not watered them were where the holes were.
“There are still demons in there I need to get rid of and missing short putts does not help.”
At Bay Hill he three-putted from three feet on the 17th and bogeyed the last to lose by one. Winning the Bay Hill Invitational would have put him well inside the world’s top 50, but second place meant 53rd – and it is only the top 50 after this week’s event that earn Augusta exemptions.
Poulter required a third place this week, but was 27th with a round to go and never made the move he was hoping for.
The moment it all went horribly wrong for him was the 12th in his third round 75. Poulter could move his ball less than 14 yards from the rough and took hefty whacks at a patch of land he never wants to see again.
His actions, captured on television, could result in a fine.
Tiger Woods, in his last competitive round before a defence of the Masters which inevitably has a question mark over it because of the health of his father, came in with a 75 to be alongside Owen.
Meanwhile, Darren Clarke, whose wife Heather is also battling cancer, got to three under, but bogeyed the 16th and was in the water at the short 17th.
The Ulsterman double-bogeyed there and finished with a 73 for level par that left him 23rd with Londoner Brian Davis (72).
For a while Ames was under challenge from not just one South African, but two. Ernie Els climbed to second place by covering the first 11 holes in five under, but he bogeyed the 14th and 15th and followed Clarke into the lake two holes later.
