The Advil Western Open always has had history in its bag.
It is the third-oldest tournament after the British Open and the U.S. Open, and its previous winners read like a Hall of Fame directory. Hagen. Snead. Hogan. Nicklaus. Palmer. Woods.
Yet for all the Westerns, dating to the first in 1899 when Willie Smith defeated Laurie Auchertonie in a playoff, you would be hard-pressed to beat the display Scott Hoch and Davis Love III put on Sunday at Cog Hill.
The show was so dazzling that Love, the third-round leader by a stroke, shot 66–and lost.
Hoch won the birdie-for-birdie shootout with a 64, beating Love by a shot. He was 21 under for the tournament, and his four-round total of 267 beat the previous Western record of 268 shared by Sam Snead (1949) and Chi Chi Rodriguez (1964).
Hoch’s feat was worthy of Tiger Woods, who would have had to shoot 58 to match him Sunday. As it was, Woods had a lackluster 71 to finish in a tie for 20th.
Hoch and Love, though, thrilled a one-day Western record crowd of 51,322 by turning the tournament into their own version of birdiemania.
The only blip on the day was the ending. Their duel should have finished with the winner dropping a long birdie putt. Instead, Love made bogey on No. 18, allowing Hoch to snatch the title when he got up and down from the sand for par.
“It was just back and forth like a boxing match,” Hoch said. “I chipped in. He topped me. He birdied. I’d birdie on top of him.”
After making birdie on the first two holes, Love seemed ready to blow past Hoch, but the 45-year-old veteran refused to back down. He chipped in for birdie on the second hole, and the match was on.
“He makes a long putt and I would make a long putt after him,” Love said. “I said, `He doesn’t think he can miss.’ I knew I had to birdie every hole.”
Both players set the stage with birdies on 17. The dangerous 18th hole loomed with the match even.
Hoch knocked his drive down the middle of the fairway. Love then did something uncharacteristic: He made a bad swing. He hooked his drive near the corporate boxes.
“I don’t know what happened,” Love said. “I just jumped at it and tried to get a little bit more out of it. That was definitely my worst swing of the day.”
Love tried to make amends, but from 197 yards out he caught a flier out of the rough and landed in the back trap. Hoch didn’t do much better, pushing his approach into the front trap.
Hoch, though, had the easier shot from the sand, leaving himself only 1 1/2 feet for par. Love left himself an uphill 12-footer, but he couldn’t summon one last putt as it died near the hole.
“I just didn’t give it enough speed,” Love said. “I didn’t need the one coming back, but for some reason I didn’t hit it hard enough.”
Hoch then tapped in for the victory. It was the first time he had led in the tournament. “My thought process most of the day was, just stay close to him, just stay close,” Hoch said. “I kind of got caught up in the back-and-forth of what we were doing. It was fun.”
Anybody would have fun playing the kind of golf Hoch did. He took full advantage of the soft greens and light wind to pummel Cog Hill.
Hoch was potent with the driver, hitting 85.7 percent of the fairways during the tournament. And he was even better with the putter, needing only 25 putts during Sunday’s round. He played the back nine in 31 on Saturday and Sunday.
Hoch also had a little luck on his side. He tried to to reach the par-5 15th in two, but his 3-wood from the fairway headed for the trees.
“I thought the tournament was going to be over for me,” Hoch said.
But the ball stopped short. Hoch then chipped on and made an 18-footer to match Love’s birdie.
“That was key,” Hoch said.
Hoch’s stellar play denied Love a victory in his third tournament back after he had missed two months with neck problems. By coming in second, he has lost seven straight when he carries a lead into the last round.
Love, though, wasn’t at all ashamed about the way he played Sunday.
“It won’t bother me a whole lot,” he said.
“I just didn’t play a perfect round like Scott did.”
Hoch is playing the best golf of his 22-year career. He won for the second time in 2001, a first for him, and the $648,000 first prize put his earnings over $2 million, another first.
The title was Hoch’s 10th, which, as he says, “sounds a lot better than nine.” The significance, though, went beyond a number. Hoch is well aware of the Western’s lore. He was proud to add his name to the honor roll.
“This is probably my biggest victory,” Hoch said.
It definitely will be one of the Western’s most memorable.
Over the pond
Fifteen British Open berths were available at the Advil Western Open. Using earnings from The Players Championship and the five most recent events–the St. Jude Classic, the U.S. Open, the Buick Classic, the Greater Hartford Open and the Western–seven finishers at the Western who didn’t already have exemptions and were in the top 25 on the money list qualified:
%% Bob Estes $725,110
Billy Andrade $534,940
Jerry Kelly $516,491
Dudley Hart $284,843
Kevin Sutherland $271,460
J.P. Hayes $253,133
Brandel Chamblee $247,358
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The following players qualified by being the top eight finishers at the Western who were not already exempt:
%% Rory Sabbatini1 2-under 276 (5th)
Mark Wiebe 10-under 278 (10th)
Matt Gogel 10-under 278 (10th)
Carl Paulson 9-under 279 (15th)
Brian Gay 9-under 279 (15th)
David Frost 8-under 280 (20th)
Kenny Perry 8-under 280 (20th)
Joe Ogilvie 8-under 280 (20th)
AT A GLANCE
SUNDAY’S FINAL RESULTS
At Lemont; par-72, 7,073-yard Cog Hill G & CC:
267 (-21) $648,000
Scott Hoch 69-68-66-64
268 (-20) $388,800
Davis Love III 66-67-69-66
275 (-13) $208,800
Mike Weir 71-70-67-67
Brandel Chamblee 69-67-70-69
276 (-12) $136,800
Rory Sabbatini 71-68-70-67
Jerry Kelly 67-73-69-67
277 (-11) $112,200
Kevin Sutherland 70-70-69-68
Dudley Hart 70-70-69-68
Steve Flesch 71-70-67-69
278 (-10) $82,800
Frank Lickliter 70-71-70-67
Steve Stricker 72-70-68-68
Vijay Singh 69-70-70-69
Matt Gogel 69-74-66-69
Mark Wiebe 65-74-67-72
279 (-9) $57,600
Carl Paulson 68-71-72-68
Bob Estes 70-68-71-70
Brian Gay 74-68-67-70
Billy Mayfair 72-70-67-70
Scott Verplank 69-69-70-71
280 (-8) $33,382
David Frost 72-71-70-67
Kenny Perry 68-74-70-68
Joe Ogilvie 71-67-73-69
Justin Leonard 69-72-70-69
Brad Faxon 68-70-72-70
Chris Smith 71-68-71-70
Frank Nobilo 68-69-72-71
Stephen Ames 72-69-68-71
Tiger Woods 73-68-68-71
Bob Tway 68-74-67-71
Cameron Beckman 71-72-66-71
281 (-7) $20,880
Bob May 72-70-74-65
Jonathan Kaye 69-71-75-66
Scott McCarron 69-73-72-67
John Cook 69-72-72-68
Tom Lehman 74-68-70-69
Hal Sutton 70-71-70-70
282 (-6) $16,200
Charles Howell III 72-69-73-68
Joey Gullion 72-69-71-70
Joey Sindelar 72-69-70-71
Briny Baird 70-71-70-71
Robert Damron 70-72-68-72
283 (-5) $11,583
Greg Chalmers 69-74-72-68
David Toms 67-73-73-70
Brandt Jobe 70-70-72-71
Ian Leggatt 69-73-70-71
Larry Mize 70-73-69-71
Bob Burns 71-68-72-72
Shaun Micheel 70-72-67-74
Phil Mickelson 66-74-67-76
284 (-4) $8,964
Glen Hnatiuk 71-69-73-71
Nick Price 72-71-68-73
285 (-3) $8,395
Tim Herron 70-73-72-70
Skip Kendall 71-72-72-70
J.J. Henry 74-69-71-71
Loren Roberts 70-69-73-73
Mark Wilson 71-67-73-74
286 (-2) $8,064
Russ Cochran 72-69-73-72
J.L. Lewis 69-71-74-72
Brent Geiberger 69-73-70-74
287 (-1) $7,848
Rich Beem 70-73-75-69
K.J. Choi 71-71-76-69
Robin Freeman 74-69-69-75
288 (even) $7,596
Kevin Johnson 70-73-76-69
Chris Perry 74-68-74-72
Jim Carter 71-72-74-71
Jeff Maggert 70-71-70-77
289 (+1) $7,416
Ted Tryba 71-72-74-72
290 (+2) $7,308
Gary Nicklaus 71-72-74-73
Craig Kanada 74-69-73-74
294 (+6) $7,164
Shigeki Maruyama 72-71-76-75
Jean Van De Velde 73-70-76-75
COURSE STATISTICS
How Cog Hill played Sunday, with four-round totals in bold
Key: Rk-rank E-eagles; B-birdies; P-pars; BG-bogeys; O-other
NO. YDS PAR AVG. RK E B P BG O
1 420 4 3.986 8 0 8 56 7 0
4.029 10 0 59 324 68 2
2 177 3 2.634 15 0 27 43 1 0
2.916 13 0 81 331 39 2
3 415 4 4.014 6 0 7 59 4 1
4.033 9 0 56 335 55 7
4 416 4 4.070 4 0 8 50 13 0
4.190 4 1 49 275 119 9
5 525 5 4.211 18 1 55 14 1 0
4.404 18 21 239 182 11 0
6 213 3 3.211 3 0 4 50 15 2
3.241 2 0 26 299 121 7
7 410 4 3.887 12 0 17 45 9 0
4.062 7 0 59 316 69 9
8 378 4 3.901 11 0 17 45 8 1
4.026 11 0 85 282 75 11
9 568 5 4.535 17 1 32 37 1 0
4.717 16 2 153 271 25 2
10 372 4 3.887 13 0 18 44 8 1
3.870 14 1 115 283 50 4
11 564 5 4.887 14 0 21 38 11 1
4.766 15 4 144 262 40 3
12 209 3 3.310 1 0 6 45 14 6
3.238 3 0 40 282 116 15
13 446 4 3.915 9 0 15 49 6 1
4.084 6 0 66 301 71 15
14 192 3 3.000 7 0 11 50 9 1
3.113 5 0 46 313 91 3
15 519 5 4.549 16 1 31 38 1 0
4.675 17 3 186 225 33 6
16 409 4 4.070 5 0 9 50 10 2
4.049 8 0 57 323 68 5
17 388 4 3.915 10 0 14 49 8 0
3.932 12 0 88 312 49 4
18 452 4 4.268 2 0 5 45 18 3
4.360 1 0 31 270 117 35
All 70.25 3 305 807 144 19
Total 7073 72 71.70 32 1580 5186 1217 139
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