Cink claims NEC glory (Getty Images).
Click here for all the latest golf scores
Click here for more golf news
Stewart Cink, named as a wild card for America's Ryder Cup team last Monday,
made captain Hal Sutton feel even better about his choice when he won the NEC
world championship in Akron.
Leader since an opening 63 which equalled the lowest round of his career, Cink
held off the chasing pack with a closing level par 70 to collect the 1.2million
dollars (£660,000) first prize by four shots with an 11 under total of 270.
World number one Tiger Woods, despite spraying more drives, and South African
Rory Sabbatini shared second, with Lee Westwood and German Alex Cejka the
leading Europeans in a tie for ninth.
Now Bernhard Langer can only hope that his two selections in Munich next Sunday
become as inspired as Cink did after his call-up.
Who those two are remains to be seen, but Colin Montgomerie and Luke Donald
are keeping their fingers crossed it is them following their failure to gain an
automatic place after the NEC.
For the first time in his career Montgomerie needs a wild card, his chances of
a guaranteed spot disappearing with two closing rounds of 75 at Firestone.
Requiring a ninth-place finish, he managed only 58th - and that after being
down in 70th place at last week's US PGA championship.
Donald had to finish second on his world championship debut to have a hope of
climbing into the top 10 - and he was there after seven holes of his final
round.
But then came four bogeys in the next five holes and following a 72 for a two
under aggregate (good enough only for joint 16th) a wild card is his only way
in.
Both now go to the BMW International Open in Munich trying for one last
impressive display, where David Howell, Ian Poulter and Paul McGinley will be
looking to lock up their positions and join Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia,
Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood and Thomas Levet, who are now
certainties.
Montgomerie said: "I don't think I have to prove anything, but I want to play
well next week. I want to play well every week, so it's no different."
Donald commented: "Now it's out of my hands, but hopefully I've played solid
enough this month (he won in Sweden and was in contention for three days at the
US PGA) to catch Bernhard's attention, which I think I have.
"It's wait and see, though. In an ideal world I'd have liked to have finished
off both the last two weeks better, but there was a lot of good stuff in
there."
Howell and Poulter, eighth and ninth in the standings, were forced to sit out
this week's event after failing to qualify and McGinley, guaranteed over £14,000
just by turning up, inevitably closed the gap on them.
It was not as much as he hoped, however, and with Swede Fredrik Jacobson
finishing only three shots ahead of him after a 74 which included a double bogey
seven on the 16th he remains in the 10th and last automatic spot with only the
BMW International Open to come.
As he said: "It's going to be an exciting week in Germany."
McGinley finished with a two-over-par 72 and six-over-par aggregate of 286. He
was joint 46th.
A first prize of £200,000 is available next week and the gap between Howell
and McGinley is less than £25,000, with France's Jean-Francois Remesy and
Raphael Jacquelin, Swedes Jacobson and Joakim Haeggman, Londoner Brian Davis and
Ulsterman Graeme McDowell in with a chance of making it.
"I just battled as hard as I could," said McGinley, who has not had a week
off since mid-June in his pursuit of a second cap. "I can't complain about my
finishing position because I did well to achieve that.
"I fought as hard as Hell and I'll see how the cards fall now, re-group and
go out again. Somebody could have a hot week and jump me, but I could have a hot
week. The destiny is in my hands - if I win the tournament I'm in the team."
To Montgomerie the sums do not matter any more. He is reliant on Langer's
decision, but weighing heavily in his favour is that he has never been beaten in
cup singles and Europe lack experience.
All Langer would comment on him today was: "It would have been nice to see
Monty contend, but he is not far away."
Cink's advantage was cut down from five to two by Sabbatini. He also birdied the
last, but that followed bogeys on the 15th and 17th and Cink had only to avoid
trouble.
That he most certainly did, reeling off seven pars in a row after his bogey on
the 10th and matching Sabbatini's birdie on the last to put the icing on the
cake.
Woods also made a closing three and second place represented his best finish
since he won the Accenture world match play in February.
He has still not won a stroke play title since last October, however.
Collated final totals (USA unless stated, par 70)
269 Stewart Cink 63 68 68 70 (£651,041)
273 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 68 66 71 68, Tiger Woods 68 66 70 69 (£299,750 each)
274 Davis Love 68 68 72 66, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 69 70 67 68 (£153,266 each)
275 Bob Tway 67 73 67 68, David Toms 69 66 69 71, Chris DiMarco 68 69 67 71
276 Alex Cejka (Ger) 72 67 71 66, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 69 70 69 68, Lee
Westwood (Gbr) 69 69 69 69, Robert Allenby (Aus) 71 67 69 69, Charles Howell 71
67 68 70
277 Darren Clarke (Gbr) 71 70 68 68, Rod Pampling (Aus) 68 67 70 72
278 Paul Casey (Gbr) 72 70 68 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 70 70 70, Luke Donald
(Gbr) 71 70 65 72
279 Jerry Kelly 69 73 64 73, Scott Verplank 69 69 67 74
280 Todd Hamilton 69 67 71 73
281 Zach Johnson 65 73 73 70, Jim Furyk 68 72 71 70, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 69
72 70 70, Stephen Ames (Can) 69 70 69 73, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 73 67 68 73
282 Kenny Perry 72 75 69 66, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 73 69 69, Miguel Angel
Jimenez (Spa) 71 70 72 69, SK Ho (Kor) 70 67 73 72, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 69 68
72 73
283 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 71 76 65, Peter Lonard (Aus) 71 69 76 67, Trevor
Immelman (Rsa) 73 69 72 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 73 67 70, Brad Faxon 72 72 69
70, Joey Sindelar 70 70 71 72, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 73 70 72, Fred Couples 72
68 69 74, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 69 72 68 74
284 Mike Weir (Can) 70 67 73 74, Jay Haas 70 69 71 74
285 John Daly 71 69 74 71, Phil Mickelson 70 75 68 72, Chris Riley 72 69 71
73
286 Paul McGinley (Irl) 73 72 69 72, Nick Price (Zim) 69 73 72 72
287 Steve Flesch 75 70 71 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 70 72 74
288 Tommy Armour 76 72 70 70, Justin Leonard 73 71 72 72, Phillip Price (Gbr)
72 70 74 72, Shaun Micheel 71 72 73 72
289 JL Lewis 73 71 73 72, Barry Lane 67 77 73 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 71 67 75
76
290 Carlos Franco (Par) 69 73 75 73, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 69 71 75 75, KJ
Choi (Kor) 71 73 69 77
292 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 74 69 75 74, Scott Drummond (Gbr) 69 75 73 75, Fred
Funk 69 75 71 77, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 68 70 79
293 Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 77 72 72, Craig Parry (Aus) 79 69 71 74, Mark Hensby
(Aus) 71 70 78 74, Jonathan Kaye 71 75 72 75
294 Kirk Triplett 73 67 79 75, Chad Campbell 74 74 71 75
295 Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 73 83 69 70
296 Peter Senior (Aus) 69 77 74 76, Mark O'Meara 71 72 77 76
297 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 77 74 70 76
298 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 75 70 70
304 Pierre Fulke (Swe) 73 77 78 76
 E-mail Article  Print-Friendly
 Subscribe to RSS Feed
 Post to del.icio.us
 Facebook
Click here to send us your sporting feedback
|
