Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008

Singh beats Garcia in playoff to win The Barclays

Despite his opponent getting a lucky break from a rodent, Singh birdies the second playoff hole to win the opening FedEx Cup event.

Associated Press

 PARAMUS, N.J. -- Vijay Singh ended up beating Sergio Garcia on a gopher hole.

Yes, a gopher. Or maybe a mole.

Singh won The Barclays for a record fourth time Sunday, matching Garcia's long birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff and finishing off his Spanish friend on the second extra hole after Garcia got a lucky break from the furry critter.

After Singh topped Garcia's 27-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole -- the 472-yard 18th -- with a 26-footer, things got a little weird on the 577-yard, par-5 17th.

First, Garcia uncharacteristically hooked his drive into the left rough. Then, with Singh in the fairway, Garcia hit his second shot behind a huge tree in the right rough. Singh then hit a 267-yard approach onto the green, about 20 feet long and right.

"I got stymied behind the tree and I got lucky because I got a drop because of some gopher holes or whatever it was," Garcia said. "It wasn't where my ball was, but like about 5 or 6 feet left. It was actually moving. You could see the grass going up and down. It was actually there and we were trying to find it, but we couldn't."

Able to get a clear path to the green, Garcia advanced the ball near the front of the green about 30 feet from the hole and nearly holed his chip. Singh then rolled his 20-foot eagle putt within inches for a tap-in birdie.

The 45-year-old Fijian closed with a 1-under 70 to match Garcia (70) and Kevin Sutherland (68) at 8-under 276 on the sun-baked Ridgewood Country Club course, the first-time site after 41 seasons at Westchester Country Club.

Singh earned 11,000 FedEx Cup points in the playoff opener to take the lead with 109,500 points -- 5,125 ahead of second-place Garcia. Singh also earned $1.26 million for his 33rd PGA Tour victory.

LPGA: Cristie Kerr sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, defeating Helen Alfredsson and Sophie Gustafson to win the Safeway Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, Ore.

Kerr, Alfredsson and Gustafson finished 54 regulation holes at 13-under par 203. Alfredsson and Gustafson missed slightly longer birdie putts during the playoff before Kerr successfully made hers.

It was Kerr's 11th career victory on the LPGA Tour. Kerr rallied from four shots down going into Sunday's final round with a 7-under par 65, the lowest round of the tournament. She opened with a front nine of 32, then after making a bogey at 11, closed her round with birdies on four of the final seven holes.

NATIONWIDE: Scott Piercy shot a 64 and made up a four-stroke deficit to win the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic on the Nationwide Tour, his second victory in three weeks. Piercy, a 29-year old Las Vegas resident, posted his 13-under-par 267 total.

PGA EURO: Darren Clarke claimed his second victory of the season, shooting a 4-under 66 to win the KLM Open by four strokes over Paul McGinley. Clarke, who is chasing a wild-card spot on the European Ryder Cup team, finished at 16-under 264.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA