Sunday, September 9, 2001
Verplank emerges from pack
to take Canadian Open lead
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
MONTREAL (AP) — The scenario is familiar
to Scott Verplank. Now all he has to do is rewrite the ending.
Despite not hitting the ball as crisply
as he wanted, Verplank emerged from a pack of players who battled
hot, swirling winds and posted a 4-under 66 on Saturday to take
a one-stroke lead in the Canadian Open.
Trailing him is Dicky Pride and Australian
rookie Paul Gow, followed by 10 others who were within five strokes
of the lead. Verplank was in the same position at the Byron Nelson
Classic in May, only with three times as many guys trying to track
him down.
He wound up losing on the fourth hole of
a playoff to Robert Damron.
“If I play my game and I'm doing well,
I'm not going to worry about what the other guys are doing,”
Verplank said. “Hopefully, I won't have to look at a leaderboard
until the last hole. There's a lot of people close, but you can
only take what the golf course gives you.”
Verplank, the first rookie to make a Ryder
Cup team as a captain's pick, was at 11-under 199. It was the
lowest 54-hole score ever at Royal Montreal.
Pride bounced his approach off the bleachers
on the 18th and made bogey for a 69. He was one stroke behind
along with Gow (66), trying to become the first Australian to
win at Royal Montreal since Jim Ferrier in 1950.
Ferrier was also the last man to repeat
as Canadian Open champion, something Tiger Woods can't do anything
about.
Woods stumbled at the start and never got
on track. He finished with a 69 and was eight strokes out of the
lead.
Bob Estes had his seventh straight round
in the 60s, a 3-under 67, and was at 201. Another stroke back
was Sergio Garcia and Sam Randolph, the 1985 U.S. Amateur champion
who got in as the 22nd alternate.
Among those within five strokes of the lead
was John Daly, who had a 64 and had an outside chance to win for
the second week in a row after a six-year drought.
Verplank hasn't won since the Reno-Tahoe
Open last year. He was a surprise pick for the Ryder Cup, especially
since he has never played in the matches and U.S. captain Curtis
Strange selected him over three others who finished ahead of him
in the standings — including Tom Lehman.
Verplank isn't worried what others think
about his selection, nor does he feel that he has to win to justify
being a captain's pick.
Still, a victory in the third-oldest national
golf championship would be nice.
“Any time you win, it's always good,”
Verplank said. “I'm not worried about The Belfry right now.
I'm just trying to play as well as I can.”
Gow, a PGA Tour rookie, will be in the final
pairing for the second time this year. He was tied with Jeff Sluman
at the B.C. Open and held his own on Sunday until losing on the
second playoff hole when his drive hit a tree and went back 100
yards into a creek.
“It's another day to prove how good
of a player who are,” Gow said.
He gave himself 10-1 odds of winning, which
seem high for a man only one stroke back.
“I'm a betting man,” he said.
“I like big odds.”
Garcia likes his chances, too.
Despite a three-putt from the fringe for
bogey on No. 4 that left him muttering in Spanish, he drove the
ball well and took advantage of numerous birdie opportunities
for a 65 and was only three strokes out of the lead.
Asked if he felt he was due this week, the
21-year-old Spaniard said, “I feel like I've been ready to
break out the entire year.”
He already has, winning at Colonial and
the Buick Classic, both traditional, tree-lined courses that put
a premium on driving it straight. Royal Montreal requires no less,
an indication of how well Garcia is playing.
Still, he's got some work left.
“I'm going to try to make a lot of
birdies,” he said. “If I'm able to do that, I should
be able to have a good chance.”
Woods was out of the picture, despite opening
with a 65 on Thursday that gave him a share of the lead. He chopped
up the second hole again, this time without losing a ball in the
tree, and struggled throughout the day with his tee shots.
“I'm surprised after starting the way
I did to end up the way I am now,” Woods said. “That's
just part of playing. Unfortunately, yesterday I got one bad break
that really hurt my chances.”
Divots:
David Morland had two double bogeys on his way to a 73. He was
six strokes out of the lead in his bid to become the first Canadian
to win his national open in 47 years. ... Randolph, who was changing
the oil in his car when he learned he got in the tournament, used
a frequent flyer ticket to get to Montreal just 10 hours before
his tee time Thursday morning. He hasn't had a top 10 since the
1991 Nissan Open. ... What's the best way to learn how to count
to 14 in French? Listen to a Montreal gallery tick off the number
of waggles Garcia takes before he hits the ball. The young Spaniard
was annoyed when asked whether he was aware of all the talk about
his pre-shot routine. “There was a guy — a sir —
who played a lot of great golf whose name was Jack Nicklaus,”
Garcia said. “He used to take a lot of time over the ball.
And no one said anything about it. If he used to take a lot of
time, it's not such a bad thing. So, think about that.”
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