Watney deserved Doral, Ames and Hearn scores "best" of the year..

First congrats to Stephen Ames T3,  David Hearn T14 and Brad Fritsche who T6 in Columbia in a European Challenge Tour event.

As I often do on Monday, I look back through the stats/scores from the weekend and they often reflect the reasons behind the results...

*For example Nick Watney was a good pick to win yesterday when you consider he was a turn of the his titleist short of forcing a playoff with Phil Mickelson here 2 years ago, so he plays the course well..

*He was 1st in birdies with 22, T3 in eagles, T12 in Driving Accuracy, none more crucial than the 300+ yarder striped down the middle on the 72nd, T9 in putts per round, T12 in GIR and 7th in sand saves... They all add up to yesterday's 67, and a 2 shot  win over Dustin Johnson and over $1.4 in his local RBC. It was his 3rd win..

*Stephen Ames was T1 in birdies, T5 in GIR and importantly T6 in putts per round, so he was hitting greens and his putter was hot...

* David Hearn T45 in putts per round but he had a good week because he was 4th in driving accuracy and T11 in GIR...

*It has been a nice WGC so far for Luke Donald, 1st in the World Matchplay, T6 at Doral..

*Speaking of WGC events, FMolinari won the last one of the 2010 season in China, and he finished T3 (69) with Anders Hansen (67) who is bidding to get into the Masters ( now 50th in the world)

*Rory McIlroy will be a little disappointed with his 74 yesterday, he donated his drive to the Blue Monster water god on 18 and made bogey, otherwise 68 69 69 was a great week

*Tiger's 66 on Sunday will give him and every TV sports executive hope for next time out and that will be at Arnie's which he has won 6 times, but as I mentioned yesterday he and Mickelson are mediocre right now

*Mickelson slumped to a 76, T55 yesterday and he promptly announced he isn't playing enough so has added Arnie's Bay Hill and the Houston Open to his schedule as he prepares to defend at Augusta..

*Earlier last week I mentioned it could be a great week at Doral for South Africa.. well all 6 of them made the cut.. Ernie T15 -7, Oosthuizen T18 -6, Schwartzel T24 -4, Sabbatini T28 -3, Goosen T31 -2, Aiken T35 -1

WGC at Doral

1 1 2 Nick Watney -16 F -5 color info 67 70 68 67 272
2 1 12 Dustin Johnson -14 F -1 color info 69 69 65 71 274
T3 8 -- Anders Hansen -13 F -5 color info 71 69 68 67 275
T3 2 -- Francesco Molinari -13 F -3 color info 68 68 70 69 275
5 3 9 Matt Kuchar -12 F -1 color info 68 69 68 71 276
T6 1 65 Adam Scott -11 F -1 color info 68 70 68 71 277
T6 4 7 Luke Donald -11 F E color info 67 72 66 72 277
8 13 34 Rickie Fowler -10 F -6 color info 71 73 68 66 278
9 4 11 Hunter Mahan -9 F 1 color info 64 71 71 73 279
T10 20 93 Tiger Woods -8 F -6 color info 70 74 70 66 280
T10 11 10 Jonathan Byrd -8 F -4 color info 70 74 68 68 280
T10 1 101 Padraig Harrington -8 F 1 color info 68 71 68 73 280
T10 1 24 Martin Laird -8 F 1 color info 67 70 70 73 280
T10 5 -- Rory McIlroy -8 F 2 color info 68 69 69 74 280

Puerto Rico Open

Micheal Bradley beat Troy Matteson on the first hole of a playoff with a par 5. He has won twice here in 3 years.

1 2 29 Michael Bradley -16 F -4 color info 68 68 68 68 272
2 1 40 Troy Matteson -16 F E color info 67 67 66 72 272
T3 10 72 Stephen Ames -14 F -6 color info 69 66 73 66 274
T3 1 45 Hunter Haas -14 F -1 color info 67 68 68 71 274
5 1 137 George McNeill -13 F -3 color info 69 66 71 69 275
6 3 107 Bobby Gates -12 F -3 color info 70 69 68 69 276
T7 2 144 Fabian Gomez -11 F -2 color info 67 70 70 70 277
T7 3 170 Chris Tidland -11 F -1 color info 71 63 72 71 277
T7 3 67 Brandt Jobe -11 F -1 color info 68 71 67 71 277
T7 3 145 Angel Cabrera -11 F -1 color info 66 71 69 71 277
T11 15 124 Bio Kim -10 F -4 color info 73 68 69 68 278
T11 2 93 John Merrick -10 F -2 color info 68 70 70 70 278
T11 2 85 Chris DiMarco -10 F -1 color info 68 69 70 71 278
T14 27 164 David Hearn -9 F -5 color info 68 70 74 67 279


CHAMPIONS Tour

Nick Price won the Toshiba Classic really on the strength of his fantastic opening round of 60, because Wiebe was 4 shots better than him on the weekend. Rube writes about him at GolfCanada.ca today and his theory is that Nick did the right thing playing at the Honda on the PGA tour last week, where he struck the ball beautifully in all that wind, in fact he played all 4 rounds, and that really had him sharp out in Newport Beach...

Canuck Rod Spittle 67,70 69 T28

1 1 Nick Price SC P -3 F -17 60 68 68 196
2 2 Mark Wiebe SC P -4 F -16 65 65 67 197
T3 T5 Michael Allen SC P -5 F -14 69 64 66 199
T3 T3 Joe Ozaki SC P -4 F -14 68 64 67 199
T5 T12 Brad Bryant SC P -6 F -13 65 70 65 200
T5 T5 Fred Couples SC P -4 F -13 66 67 67 200
T5 T8 Robert Thompson SC P -5 F -13 68 66 66 200
T8 T8 Jeff Sluman SC P -4 F -12 68 66 67 201
T8 T8 Olin Browne SC P -4 F -12 68 66 67 201
T8 T3 Mark O'Meara SC P -2 F -12 65 67 69 201
T8 T5 Tom Pernice, Jr. SC P -3 F -12 68 65 68 201

I will post the new world rankings as soon as they come out this morning..

Bryan Angus