LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bubba Watson wasn’t about to let another chance get away.
Two weeks after Watson made a pair of late bogeys in the Phoenix Open, he delivered the best closing round at Riviera in some three decades. Watson played the final 39 holes without a bogey and shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday to win the Northern Trust Open.
It was his first victory in 22 months and 41 tournaments worldwide dating to the 2012 Masters.
Watson wound up with a two-shot victory over Dustin Johnson, who closed with a 66 for the second straight week and got the same result.
Watson, who also shot 64 on Saturday to start the final round four shots behind William McGirt, made up ground so quickly that he broke out of a four-way tie for the lead with a birdie on the eighth hole and made the turn in 30. Equally critical were a pair of par saves with 7-foot putts on the 12th and 13th holes.
Johnson, who was second at Pebble Beach last week after a final-round 66, made birdie on the 15th hole to get within one shot. He didn’t give himself good birdie chances on the last three holes.
Watson made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th to cap off the best closing round in this tournament since Doug Tewell shot a 63 in 1986. Even sweeter was going up the steps toward the famous clubhouse to see his 2-year-old son, Caleb, whom Watson adopted just before his Masters victory.
Watson finished at 15-under 269.
Watson won for the fifth time in his career. And when it was over, he felt a lot better than he did two weeks ago in Scottsdale, where he missed a short par putt on the last hole to lose by one to Kevin Stadler.
WOMEN’S AUSTRALIAN OPEN
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia’s Karrie Webb won the Women’s Australian Open for the record fifth time, shooting a 4-under 68 to beat South Africa’s Chella Choi by a stroke.
Webb birdied the 18th hole, then watched as Choi, who shot a course-record 62 on Saturday, push her 10-foot putt wide at 18 to miss a chance for a playoff.
The 39-year-old Webb finished at 12-under 276 at Victoria Golf Club for her 40th LPGA Tour title. The Hall of Famer also won the event in 2000, 2002, 2007 and 2008.
She won a week after being disqualified from the Australian Ladies Masters for signing an incorrect scorecard after the second round.
Choi closed with a 74. Sixteen-year-old Lydia Ko had a 73 to tie for third at 10 under with Paula Creamer (68) and Karine Icher (71).
ACE GROUP CLASSIC
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Kirk Triplett won the ACE Group Classic for his third Champions Tour title, holing a 6-foot par putt on the final hole for a one-stroke victory.
The 51-year-old Triplett shot a 6-under 66 to finish at 16-under 200 on TwinEagles’ Talon Course. He won the 50-and-over tour’s Pebble Beach event the last two years after winning three times on the PGA Tour.
Defending champion Bernhard Langer, Duffy Waldorf and Olin Browne tied for second. Playing in the final threesome, Triplett, Langer and Waldorf were tied for the lead with a hole to play.
On the par-4 18th, Waldorf drove into a bunker and wound up with a bogey for a 66. Langer’s second shot sailed left, and his 12-footer for par curled around the cup for bogey and a 67.
Triplett’s second shot from a divot landed about 25 feet from the pin. His birdie putt went past the hole and he made the 6-footer for the victory.
COLOMBIA CHAMPIONSHIP
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Alex Cejka won the Web.com Tour’s season-opening Colombia Championship, breaking the course record with an 8-under 63 in the completion of the third round before rain washed out play.
The 43-year-old Czech-born German played the final 16 holes of the third round Sunday morning at water-logged Bogota Country Club, birdieing four of the last five holes to reach 14-under 199.
Cejka was halfway through the final round when play was suspended and the round wiped out. At the time, he had a one-stroke lead over Andrew Putnam.
Putnam ended up three strokes back after a third-round 68. Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz was third at 10 under after a 67, and Bill Lunde followed at 9 under after a 70.
AFRICA OPEN
EAST LONDON, South Africa (AP) - South Africa’s Thomas Aiken won the Africa Open, beating England’s Oliver Fisher with a 30-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff.
Aiken finished with a 5-under 67 to match Fisher (69) at 24-under 264. Aiken won his third European Tour title and gave South Africa its 36th victory in 58 tour events in the country.
American John Hahn (68) and England’s David Horsey (65) tied for third, a stroke back.
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