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Haskins wins on washed out Sunday

Like Roger Maris when he broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, Steve Haskins will get an asterisk next to his name. Not that he cares. Haskins won the rain-soaked, weather-shortened BUY.COM Ozarks Open on Sunday by not playing a single shot.

"I don't even know where my clubs are," he said late Sunday afternoon.

Daily rain and thunderstorms dumped nearly 4 inches of rain in four days, ultimately forcing tournament officials to reduce the 12th annual event to just 36 holes.

Sunday's second round turned out to be the last as early morning storms unleashed another 1.55 inches on an already soaked Highland Springs Country Club course. The original plan was to allow 72 players to complete round two Sunday morning and then make the 36-hole cut, followed by a final 18 holes in the afternoon.

The 42-year old Haskins completed his second round of 7-under-par 65 on Saturday. He then sat and watched as the rest of the field failed to match or beat his 13-under-par total of 131.

The victory is considered unofficial because the tournament didn't reach 54 holes, but the $81,000 first-place check is official. Haskins upped his season total to $128,825 and jumped into the top 15 on the money list.

"That's the most important part," Haskins said of the money. "It's strange to just sit and watch. I was ready to play today, but there's nothing you can do about that."

Haskins, the TOUR's career leader in starts with 272, did all he could do on Saturday, closing out his second round with four birdies on his final five holes. He made a 7-foot birdie putt on the ninth that turned out to be his final shot of the day and the week.

That putt, a downhill, right-to-left breaker that caught the lip, turned out to be the difference between Haskins and runner-up Omar Uresti, who posted his 67 on Saturday as well and finished 12-under 132.

"I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a chance, especially as good as I've been striking the ball the last couple of weeks," said Uresti, who didn't need to even make an appearance at the course Sunday. "There's always next week."

Sunday's finish marked just the third time in TOUR history that a 72-hole event was reduced to 36 holes, the first since Eric Booker won the 1997 Greater Austin Open.

Haskins spent much of the afternoon watching the television to see if anyone would catch him.

Jamie Rogers, an Australian who lives in Bellevue, Neb., was three behind with nine holes to go when play resumed but failed to muster a charge. Rogers could do no better than one birdie on his 17th hole, and ultimately tied for third with Iain Steel, Don Reese and Todd Barranger.

Steel finished off a 68 on Saturday while Reese, one of Rogers' playing partners, birdied his final three holes for his best finish of the year.

"I tried; I tried," said Rogers. "Obviously I didn't give myself much of a chance. I just wasn't hitting it very well today. I knew what I had to do and unfortunately I didn't hit the shots I needed. It's kind of disappointing but you either make birdies or you don't. I didn't."

Barranger was the only other challenger to Haskins during Sunday's abbreviated play.

"There's a lot more sense of urgency when you know what the number is," said the BUY.COM Dayton Open winner who was five behind with 12 holes to go when he resumed play.

After three consecutive pars, including a 3-putt at the par-5 18th, Barranger was still five down. Then he ripped a driver and a 5-wood to within one inch on the par-5 first.

"I had a long walk from 18 to 1 so I did some chewing on myself after the miss," said Barranger.

Two more birdies put him at 12 under with two to go, but the South Carolina resident missed a potential playoff-forcing 4-footer for birdie on No. 8 and then three-putted the final hole to fall out of a share of second.

"Today came down to two 4-foot putts on those last two holes," said Barranger. "I knew what I needed to do and thought I was going to get there."

As it turned out, Haskins was there the whole time, waiting.

"I really felt like I should have been hitting balls or something and not watching," he said. "I really didn't care to watch because there's nothing you can do. This has probably been the hardest week on the players that I can remember. It's been tough mentally, not knowing when you're going to play, all the starting and stopping. Even then you didn't know how many holes you'd get to play."

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