Weir
collapses with final round 80
Mike Weir can
thank his putter for his collapse at the PGA Championship. Or maybe he'd just
like to throw it away.
With an 8-over-par 80 today, Weir went from being tied for the lead with Tiger
Woods to a six-way tie for 10th place. He finished eight strokes behind Woods
at 3-under 285. "Sure,
it's disappointing, but what can I say?" Weir said. "I gave it my best and I didn't
give up. Eighty is the best score I could have shot, obviously. I tried on every
shot. "I'll be back
again." For three
rounds, Weir looked like he might give Woods -- and anyone else, for that matter
-- a challenge. Though he's only 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds, he can drive the ball
like Woods or David Duval. He's straight, too, and an accurate putter.
Not today. He had 35 putts
and hit only 10 greens in regulation. The left-hander had seven bogeys and a double
bogey. He bogeyed five holes on the front nine alone. "There
was a big change in the speed of the greens and I didn't adjust to it well at
all," he said. "I just wasn't sharp all the way around. I didn't have a feel at
all around the green."
Weir, a native of Canada, had no idea when he was warming up that he was in for
such a rocky day. He felt fine at the practice range, and he even thought he hit
the ball well. But once he got on the green, he lost his touch. "I
had every spike mark in the world, it seemed like," he said. "It was just one
of those days when bad luck and a combination of when I did hit a good putt, it
hit a spike mark and went off-line. Whatever could go wrong out there went wrong."
Despite the five bogeys,
Weir was still in contention after nine at 7-under. Then he double-bogeyed the
par-4 11th and any chance of catching Woods ended. "It
really surprised me, especially on the back nine," he said. "I was really in shock.
I was in like la-la land a little bit because I just couldn't believe it."
And while playing with
Woods could rattle anyone's nerves, Weir said that had nothing to do with his
awful day. He played with Woods in the final round of the Western Open last month,
so he knew exactly what to expect. "There
was nothing with the gallery or Tiger," he said. "It was just me." AP
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