Singh tops Garcia in dramatic playoff to win fourth Barclays
PARAMUS, N.J. -- Vijay Singh ended up beating Sergio Garcia on a gopher hole.
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Yes, a gopher. Or maybe a mole.
Singh won The Barclays for a record fourth time Sunday, matching Garcia's long birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff and finishing off his Spanish friend on the second extra hole after Garcia got a lucky break from the furry critter.
After Singh topped Garcia's 27-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole -- the 472-yard 18th -- with a 26-footer, things got a little weird on the 577-yard, par-5 17th.
First, Garcia uncharacteristically hooked his drive into the left rough. Then, with Singh in the fairway, Garcia hit his second shot behind a huge tree in the right rough. Singh then hit a 267-yard approach onto the green, about 20 feet long and right.
"I got stymied behind the tree and I got lucky because I got a drop because of some gopher holes or whatever it was," Garcia said. "It wasn't where my ball was, but like about 5 or 6 feet left. It was actually moving. You could see the grass going up and down. It was actually there and we were trying to find it, but we couldn't."
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| Vijay Singh needs two extra holes to fend off Sergio Garcia and win The Barclays. (Getty Images) |
"I wasn't really concerned about him," Singh said. "I just wanted to know why he got a drop, there was obviously a mole there and he was burrowing at that moment, you could see him popping out. ... I was really focused on what I was doing."
The 45-year-old Fijian closed with a 1-under 70 to match Garcia (70) and Kevin Sutherland (68) at 8-under 276 on the sun-baked Ridgewood Country Club course, the first-time site after 41 seasons at Westchester Country Club.
"It's a great golf course," said Singh, the 1993, 1995 and 2006 winner at Westchester. "Westchester was a good golf course. This tops Westchester. Every single player out there absolutely enjoyed this golf course."
The Bridgestone winner three weeks ago at Firestone, Singh earned 11,000 FedEx Cup points in the playoff opener to take the lead with 109,500 points -- 5,125 ahead of second-place Garcia. Singh also earned $1.26 million for his 33rd PGA Tour victory.
Singh and Garcia, a two-time Westchester champion who won The Players Championship in May in a playoff with Paul Goydos, had the large crowd around the 18th green roaring with the birdie exchange on the first extra hole.
"I think he was surprised to make his," Singh said. "I was surprised to see it go in and he was even more surprised to see mine go in."
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