LA QUINTA, California - Joe Ogilvie entered the day on
the verge of his first PGA Tour victory. Instead, Justin
Leonard won for the first time in nearly two years.
Leonard, who last won at the 2003 Honda Classic, posted a
5-under-par 67 on Sunday to win the $4.7 million Bob Hope
Chrysler Classic with a score of 28-under-par 332.
Entering Sunday's action three shots off the pace, Leonard - who
had not won in a span of 43 events - started strong and
finished steady to post a three-shot victory over Ogilvie and
Tim Clark.
Leonard birdied three of the first four holes and started the
back nine with a pair of birdies to take command. Ogilvie's
round quickly fell apart with bogeys on two of his first three
holes, and after a double-bogey on 10, he could not recover.
"It was a lot of fun to get off to the start that I did, being
3-under through four holes." Leonard said. "Obviously I was
hoping to catch Joe at some point. I didn't think I'd be able to
make up the ground as fast as I did."
"The rain dance didn't work last night. I was trying for a
rainout but it didn't happen," Ogilvie said. "I'm pretty happy.
I certainly didn't play the way I would have liked today, but I
got a pretty good front row seat for a great round of golf."
With Leonard playing well from the start and Ogilvie trying to
go wire-to-wire for his first PGA victory, the pressure became a
factor.
"Justin played well, and I think it certainly put Peter (Lonard)
and I under the gun a little bit," Ogilvie admitted. "We just
weren't up to the challenge."
Defending champion Phil Mickelson carded a 71 and finished tied
for 12th at 21-under. He birdied all five of the Par-5's but was
undone by two bogeys and a double-bogey on the back nine.
"I ended up birdying five par 5's but it was the other holes
that I wasn't able to make birdies and I made some mistakes,"
Mickelson said. "I really thought that the scores, that some of
the guys were going to come back, and they did, except Justin
just took off and played some tremendous golf."
Looking for that elusive first victory, the 30-year-old Ogilvie
set the 54-hole mark at 26-under 262 following Friday's round
and played mistake-free golf Saturday. That was not the case
Sunday.
Ogilvie had not posted more than one bogey in each of the first
four rounds but he allowed Leonard to take control early and was
unable to come up with enough birdies to come back.
The 32-year-old Leonard put himself into contention with a round
of 8-under-par 64 on Saturday. His win here is the earliest he
has ever posted a victory in a PGA season and earned him
$846,000.
Leonard was steady once he gained the lead, finishing with seven
consecutive pars to post his ninth career victory.
"You know, a 62 or 63 really wasn't possible today. I think 66
was the lowest round and there was just one of those," Leonard
said. "On the back nine I was able to aim more for the center of
the greens and just try to avoid that canal and avoid the rocks
and cruise a little bit, which was nice."