Mattiace clinches first PGA tour title

The par putt was no more than a foot, still long enough that Len Mattiace gave it his undivided attention.

He had never won in 219 previous tries and seven full years on the PGA Tour. There were times he wondered if he would ever get it done.

``Sometimes it feels like it's a long way away,'' Mattiace said. ``Other times, you feel like you can smell it, touch it.''

Playing with the poise of a winner, Mattiace grabbed it with both hands -- along with the $666,000 first-place prize -- Sunday at Riviera Country Club. He tapped in the par putt to win the Nissan Open, taking advantage of a late collapse by ex-UCLA Bruin and crowd favorite Scott McCarron.

``It's a better feeling that I thought it would be,'' Mattiace said.

McCarron elected to putt out of the shaggy kikuya grass behind the 18th green and left it 6 feet short. He missed the par putt, his third straight miss from that distance coming in.

Still, the Nissan Open was no gift. Mattiace did his part by closing with a 3-under 68 to finish at 269, making only one mistake on the back nine.

``I didn't force anything,'' Mattiace said. ``Some pins were difficult. You either hit a great shot or you make bogey. I didn't want to do that. I just wanted to be right there and see what happens.''

McCarron, who had a three-shot lead with seven holes to play, finally caved in.

``That was my tournament to win,'' he said.

McCarron missed a 6-foot par putt on the 16th after hitting into a bunker, then missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th to fall into a share of the lead.

Mattiace hit safely to the right of the pin. McCarron wanted to end the tournament right there, and his approach sailed just long of the green, leaving him a tough shot that was downhill from only about 20 feet away.

He elected to use his broom putter instead of chipping, and the ball hopped high upon contact, veering to the left.

``If I hit sand wedge, I have no shot at stopping it,'' McCarron said. ``I could have hit 8-iron, but kikuya is so unpredictable with chipping.''

The putt to force a playoff never had a chance.

``I wouldn't wish that on anyone,'' Mattiace said. ``You don't want to see anyone make a mistake like that.''

The 34-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla., had been there himself.

Mattiace had a two-stroke lead at Disney in 1997 going into the final round, but closed with a 74 to finish in a tie for third. His best to win -- and certainly the most memorable -- came at The Players Championship in 1998.

One stroke behind in the final round, Mattiace hit two balls into the water on the island-green 17th and made an 8. His mother, Joyce, was suffering from lung cancer and watched from a wheelchair. It was the last full round she saw him play. She died three months later.

Asked how long it took him to recover, Mattiace smiled and said, ``What year is this?''

``It was really hard for about a month,'' he said. ``Everybody saw that. They saw me with disasters.''

Just look at him now.

Mattiace can finally call himself a winner on the PGA Tour, claiming it on a course that has been good to first-time winners. Two years ago, Kirk Triplett won for the first time in 266 starts.

There was no repeat of last year's six-man playoff, but it was close.

Rory Sabbatini failed to get up-and-down for birdie from left of the 17th and tied for second, one stroke behind after a 68.

The real hard-luck case was Brad Faxon. One of the best putters in golf, he missed birdie putts of 8 and 12 feet down the stretch, then bent over and tugged at his hair as his 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th stopped a half-inch from falling.

He also had a 68 to finish one stroke behind.

Japan's Toru Taniguchi had gone 32 holes without a bogey until they started coming in droves -- three out of four holes that left him as many as four strokes behind. He made only one birdie over the final eight holes and had a 72 to finish at 271.

Mattiace became the sixth player in seven tournaments this week to come from behind on the final day to win. The surprise was that McCarron was a victim. In three previous times he had the 54-hole lead, he went on to win.

Chris DiMarco had a 68 and tied for sixth, becoming the first player to surpass the $1 million mark on tour this year.

Mattiace bogeyed two of his first three holes, but never quit believing.

``I'm very pleased with how I hung in there,'' he said.

He birdied three straight holes to start the back nine, including one on No. 12 when his ball landed in a hole in the bunker. He blasted out, narrowly clearing the steep lip, then took a bow when the gallery erupted as the ball dropped in the hole.

He gave it right back by blasting out of a bunker some 50 feet long andtaking bogey, but that was the last mistake he made at Riviera.

Divots

Fred Couples tied for ninth, his first top-10 on tour since the 2000 British Open at St. Andrews. ... David Duval withdrew after the third hole with a stomach illness so severe that he said he lost 13 pounds. ... After hearing debate the past several years over whether golf should ban long putters, McCarron offered his defense. ``If it was easy to putt with, everyone would be doing it,'' he said. ``It's difficult to use in the wind because you'restanding tall. You use whatever feels like works for you.''

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