Mike Weir must think he gets paid by the hole.
Three weeks ago he won the Bob Hope, which you can do only if you last 90 holes over five days.
Then Sunday at the Nissan Open he came from seven shots down to catch Charles Howell III, forced him into a playoff and won again on the second extra hole.
Overtime, it’s the Weir way. It may be the only method he knows, so you would have to say it’s working out fairly well.
On a cool and cloudy Sunday at Riviera Country Club, Weir worked wonderfully on the greens. He made four crucial putts of between 8 and 30 feet, turned in a 66, then ended it all with an 8-foot birdie putt that dropped cold, hard and fast into the hole, with the sound of a cash register ringing up a sale.
His second victory in 21 days was worth $810,000 to Weir and means he already has cashed checks worth $2.022 million this year.
Weir, a 32-year-old Canadian who had never made the cut in four previous trips to Riviera, also had to come from behind to win at the Hope, where he trailed by four shots when the last round began.
If he were a racehorse, his handlers would want him to break from the gate on the outside. In any event, Weir should have known he was in perfect position Sunday morning, but he didn’t.
He said he showed up at the course thinking he didn’t have a shot. He was wrong. Also shocked.
“Starting today, seven shots back, definitely I’m surprised,” he said. “And shooting 5 under, maybe if I blistered it with a 9 under. But the golf course did play difficult. But, obviously, I’m surprised.”
If Weir was having his own way on the greens, he also helped himself along with his strategy for playing the stylish but deadly 315-yard, par-4 10th. Weir laid up twice Sunday, once in regulation and once in the playoff, and made birdie both times.
Weir can’t reach the green there anyway, so laying up was not just the correct play, it was his only play. The 10th was the second extra hole, after Weir and Howell finished 72 holes deadlocked at 9-under 275.
Weir left his 5-wood about 71 yards from the hole, just short of the bunker to the left.
Howell hit driver, just as he had in regulation, but the ball flew left into a bunker and he faced a difficult second shot.
He pulled it off, though, and managed to stop the ball about 6 feet past the flagstick.
Weir went for the flag and got it between the greenside bunker and the pin, about 8 feet from the hole.
Weir, putting first, sent the ball diving into the hole for birdie. Howell had one chance to answer, but the ball started left, stayed left and also stayed out. It was over, and Weir took a moment to console Howell.
“Things just went my way today,” Weir said. “He’ll have plenty of other chances, as good as he is.”
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods notified everyone that he was still around with a 65 that moved him from a tie for 28th to a tie for fifth with K.J. Choi.
“I feel a lot better now that I went out there and hit the ball better and made a lot of putts,” said Woods, whose 65 matched the low round of the week.
