PGA Tour notebook: Vijay Singh stays positive after playoff loss at Pebble Beach

From WorldGolf.com News Services

Even after a back-nine collapse that cost Vijay Singh a victory Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the veteran golfer tried to maintain a positive attitude about his runner-up finish.

Singh shot a 1-under-par 71 in the final round, including making three consecutive bogeys at Nos. 14-16 to blow a three-stroke lead and open up the door for others at Pebble Beach Golf Links. That included the eventual winner, Steve Lowery, who beat Singh with a birdie on the par-5 18th to end the playoff after one hole.

"I haven't been in this position for a while," Singh told reporters. "This is good, though. It's going to be very positive going into next week.

"Each time you get in a situation like this, you learn more from it. I'm going to learn more from not winning."

On the positive side of the ledger, Singh did come through with a do-or-die birdie at No. 18 to force the playoff. And despite twice finding bunkers on the playoff hole, he still managed to make par and force Lowery to sink a seven-foot birdie putt to win.

Singh's 25th career runner-up finish marked his best showing of the year in five starts. He opened 2008 tied for 12th at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, tied for 45th at the Sony Open, tied for 23rd at the Buick Invitational and missed the cut at the FBR Open.

Putting has been an issue for Singh, who switched back to the short putter and said he plans to keep it in the bag for a while. Despite ranking 24th on tour in greens in regulation percentage (72.8), he is 136th in putting average (1.818).

Still, Singh said he was feeling good and appeared to be cruising to the victory.

"I wasn't playing bad - just one or too bad shots," said Singh, who is ranked No. 10 in the world. "I was in control, but those took a little air out of me. I still should have won the tournament, there's no excuse for that."

Avoiding Tiger Woods

On Sunday Pat Perez was just happy that his 24th-place tie in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was enough to punch his ticket to the Accenture Match Play Championship - even if it meant that as the No. 64 seed he would open play against top-seeded Tiger Woods.

Monday, Perez learned that he will apparently avoid a first-round date with Woods as the PGA Tour announced Brett Wetterich has withdrawn from the 64-player field due to a shoulder injury. Now, Perez is set to play Steve Stricker in the first round, while Anthony Kim gets the task of facing the world No. 1 player.

The event will be played Feb. 20-24 in Tucson, Ariz.

Phil Mickelson's flame out

Not only did Phil Mickelson miss the cut in his title defense at Pebble Beach, but he did it in memorable fashion, making an 11 at the par-5 14th hole Saturday to finish with a 6-over 78. The score included two tee shots that landed in the Pacific Ocean.

PGA Tour officials could only find one other occasion in Mickelson's career when he finished a hole with a double-figure score. That was a 10 on the par-5 sixth hole at the Bay Hill Invitational in 2000, when he hit three balls into the water.

"That was probably the biggest score, but that's not really what cost me the day or cost me the tournament," Mickelson told reporters. "It was missing all those putts."

Mickelson had 16 birdie putts on the day and made just one of them, that coming from a foot and a half.

Briefly

• Las Vegas-based investor and golf course operator Bill Walters and Fredrik Jacobson from Sweden won the pro-am portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Sunday by an event-record 10 shots. Walters, an 11 handicap, and Jacobson finished with a four-round, better-ball total of 250. In September Walters purchased 50 percent ownership of LasVegasGolf.com, a subsidiary site within the WorldGolf.com network.

• Lowery's winning score of 10-under 278 is the highest winning score at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since Johnny Miller won with a total of 7-under 281 in 1994.

• The Lowery-Singh playoff marked the first playoff at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 1992, when Mark O'Meara beat Jeff Sluman on the first playoff hole, earning the fourth of his record five titles.

• Chambers Bay, a golf course built over a former gravel pit along the lower Puget Sound and located southwest of Seattle, was awarded the 2015 U.S. Open on Friday, according to the Associated Press. It will mark the first U.S. Open played in the Pacific Northwest.

• Davis Love III finished tied for 24th at 3-under 285 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in his first event since missing four months due to ankle surgery. Greg Norman, playing in his first PGA Tour event since 2006, missed the cut, shooting 76-70-79.

February 12, 2008