Sergio Garcia (The Associated Press)
Garcia claimed a two-stroke win Monday in the water-logged Wyndham Championship for his first victory on tour since the 2008 Players Championship.
He finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262, claim $936,000 in prize money and maybe seal a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.
“I think there were a lot of things going on. It shows a lot to me,” Garcia said. “Hopefully, this will secure my spot on the Ryder Cup team, and winning is always nice.”
Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final tour event before the playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.
Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour.
He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA victory.
Garcia began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapping it in for birdie.
He added another birdie on No. 15 — a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt — and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped closer than 2 feet from the stick. He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.
It was a bit of redemption for the 32-year-old Spaniard, who in his last appearance in Greensboro in 2009 held a share of the lead after three rounds and was up by three strokes midway through the round, but let it slip away. He finished in fourth place.
Yet he didn’t necessarily come back thinking Donald Ross’ course at Sedgefield Country Club owed him one.
“That year, I was pretty much in control and I lost it myself,” Garcia said. “The course didn’t do anything wrong to me.”
This time, he finished strong to give a huge boost to his Ryder Cup candidacy. The 10 automatic qualifiers will be set following the Johnny Walker Invitational with Jose Maria Olazabal making two captain’s picks.
“We’ll see when the team comes out, but I think my chances are a little better now,” Garcia said.
Nicolas Colsaerts — whose 66 left him at 13 under — wants a spot, too.
“When you play rounds like these and you commit to tournaments and you get yourself in position like this and make the most of it, it just shows how much you want it,” Colsaerts said.
In addition to the quests by players on both sides for Ryder Cup selections, much of the focus — as it always is at the tour’s annual late-season stop in central North Carolina — was on the chase to make the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin in a few days at The Barclays.
But everything wound up taking a back seat to the weather, as heavy rains dumped more than 2 inches of water on the Sedgefield course on Sunday.
The final round was halted at roughly 3 p.m. with 38 players still on the course and seven players within three shots of Garcia. The decision came 2½ hours later to hold off until Monday morning — the first Monday finish in Greensboro since 1983.
Clark, a South African and local favorite who played college golf at North Carolina State, matched Garcia at 15 under with a birdie on his third hole of the day, the par-4 No. 8. Garcia moved to 16 under with a birdie on the par-4 No. 11, but he gave that stroke back with a bogey on the next hole after missing a 10-foot putt for par.
Moments later, Chad Campbell joined them atop the leaderboard after his third consecutive birdie came on the 17th. Then Garcia made his big move.
“It was going to be tough to catch (Garcia), the way he finished,” said Clark, who moved to 54th on the points list after not even being in the playoff picture a few weeks ago. This was his fourth top-15 finish since late June.
Among the playoff hopefuls, Heath Slocum was the only one to start outside the top 125 but play his way into The Barclays. His final-round 71 left him at 7 under for the tournament and pushed him to No. 124.
“Every little point helps, every little dollar helps,” Slocum said.
Jason Dufner could have taken over the top spot on the points list with a victory, but he finished five strokes back and wound up leapfrogging Rory McIlroy for No. 2 behind Tiger Woods. He came in at No. 3, the highest-ranked player in the field.
WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP SCORES:
Monday
Final
(FedExCup points in parentheses)
Sergio Garcia (500), $936,000 67-63-66-66—262
Tim Clark (300), $561,600 63-67-67-67—264
Bud Cauley (190), $353,600 66-65-66-68—265
Chad Campbell (115), $214,933 71-64-65-66—266
Carl Pettersson (115), $214,933 62-68-68-68—266
Jimmy Walker (115), $214,933 66-62-71-67—266
Nicolas Colsaerts, $162,067 67-65-69-66—267
Bill Haas (85), $162,067 68-65-67-67—267
Jason Dufner (85), $162,067 68-67-63-69—267
Harris English (68), $124,800 66-64-68-70—268
Davis Love III (68), $124,800 67-66-66-69—268
Troy Matteson (68), $124,800 64-68-68-68—268
John Merrick (68), $124,800 66-69-67-66—268
Brendon de Jonge (55), $88,400 68-68-67-66—269
Matt Every (55), $88,400 65-66-68-70—269
Richard H. Lee (55), $88,400 66-69-65-69—269
Charl Schwartzel (55), $88,400 67-68-66-68—269
Scott Stallings (55), $88,400 64-70-67-68—269
Bobby Gates (51), $67,600 69-67-65-69—270
John Huh (51), $67,600 69-65-69-67—270
Justin Leonard (51), $67,600 68-68-64-70—270
Angel Cabrera (47), $48,273 67-71-66-67—271
Chris Kirk (47), $48,273 66-69-69-67—271
Graham DeLaet (47), $48,273 69-67-67-68—271
Trevor Immelman (47), $48,273 67-68-68-68—271
Rocco Mediate (47), $48,273 70-65-68-68—271
Webb Simpson (47), $48,273 66-63-71-71—271
Tim Herron (42), $36,920 76-61-67-68—272
Rod Pampling (42), $36,920 68-66-70-68—272
Brandt Snedeker (42), $36,920 67-67-68-70—272
Patrick Cantlay, $30,160 70-68-66-69—273
Will Claxton (38), $30,160 69-66-65-73—273
Charles Howell III (38), $30,160 67-69-71-66—273
Heath Slocum (38), $30,160 68-67-67-71—273
Kyle Thompson (38), $30,160 69-67-68-69—273
Nick Watney (38), $30,160 66-69-70-68—273
Gary Christian (30), $21,320 67-70-67-70—274
Russell Knox (30), $21,320 68-68-69-69—274
Ryan Moore (30), $21,320 71-68-68-67—274
Jeff Overton (30), $21,320 69-69-67-69—274
D.A. Points (30), $21,320 68-68-67-71—274
Kyle Reifers (30), $21,320 67-72-66-69—274
Kevin Streelman (30), $21,320 68-66-68-72—274
Josh Teater (30), $21,320 67-71-69-67—274
Y.E. Yang (30), $21,320 67-69-69-69—274
Billy Horschel (24), $14,742 69-67-66-73—275
Kevin Kisner (24), $14,742 68-71-70-66—275
Nick O’Hern (24), $14,742 68-71-67-69—275
Kevin Stadler (24), $14,742 73-65-68-69—275
Jamie Donaldson, $12,542 68-66-71-71—276
Tommy Gainey (19), $12,542 66-67-68-75—276
Jerry Kelly (19), $12,542 72-67-69-68—276
Dicky Pride (19), $12,542 69-68-67-72—276
Alexandre Rocha (19), $12,542 68-68-69-71—276
Jonas Blixt (15), $11,856 72-67-67-71—277
Derek Lamely (15), $11,856 69-68-70-70—277
David Mathis (15), $11,856 63-71-73-70—277
Blake Adams (11), $11,440 67-71-67-73—278
Scott Dunlap (11), $11,440 70-69-67-72—278
Ryuji Imada (11), $11,440 67-70-70-71—278
Chez Reavie (11), $11,440 67-69-71-71—278
Charlie Wi (11), $11,440 72-67-70-69—278
Troy Kelly (8), $11,128 71-68-69-71—279
Billy Mayfair (7), $11,024 69-70-74-67—280
Jeff Maggert (6), $10,920 68-71-74-68—281
Arjun Atwal (4), $10,660 66-69-75-72—282
Cameron Beckman (4), $10,660 73-66-69-74—282
Tom Pernice Jr. (4), $10,660 70-68-74-70—282
Brendan Steele (4), $10,660 72-65-71-74—282
Stuart Appleby (1), $10,296 67-71-69-76—283
Ben Kohles, $10,296 72-67-70-74—283
Camilo Villegas (1), $10,296 72-67-70-74—283
Jason Kokrak (1), $10,036 66-69-77-73—285
Chris Stroud (1), $10,036 68-70-72-75—285
Paul Casey (1), $9,880 68-70-77-75—290
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