PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Mark Wilson drained a pair of long par putts Sunday, the second of which kept him in a playoff, to remain alive at the Honda Classic.
Wilson (71), Jose Coceres (66), Camilo Villegas (66) and Boo Weekley (70) all finished regulation at 5-under-par 275.
Boo Weekley reacts to the missed putt that would have won him The Honda Classic. (WireImage)
The four men all parred the first playoff hole Sunday at PGA National Resort and Spa. The playoff was suspended due to darkness after the first extra hole. The group will return to the 10th tee Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET to complete the playoff.
The four men played No. 18 as the first extra hole. Coceres played first and found the right rough off the tee. Weekley went next and was the lone player to hit the fairway. Wilson’s tee ball stopped on the edge of a hazard, while Villegas found the left rough off the tee.
Coceres, Villegas and Weekley each found the green in three. Meanwhile, Wilson had to pitch sideways out of the hazard, then lay up with his third. Wilson’s fourth stopped 30 feet from the cup.
Weekley found a bunker with his third, then pitched to 3 feet. After Villegas missed his birdie effort, Wilson ran home his long par putt and was the first to notch a par.
Coceres could have won the playoff with his birdie putt from the fringe, but missed left. Coceres, Villegas and Weekley each kicked in their short par putts to stay alive.
‘I guess I’ll have to unpack my car and come back tomorrow,’ Villegas joked afterwards.
Coming down the stretch in regulation, Weekley and Wilson had the best chance to win being that they were in the final group.
Wilson missed the green at 11 and could not get up and down for par. That bogey dropped him to minus-6 and a share of the lead with Robert Allenby. A three-putt bogey by Wilson on 15 left him in a four-way tie atop the leaderboard.
Weekley, who had birdied 12 to move to minus-6, also bogeyed the 15th to slip to 5 under.
Wilson looked to be in trouble on 16 as he found a terrible lie in the left rough off the tee. He pitched his second down the fairway before hitting the putting surface with his third. Wilson drained his par putt, from just inside 50 feet, to remain at 5 under.
Weekley dropped his tee shot within 15 feet of the hole at the 17th. He converted that birdie putt to move out in front at minus-6. Weekley could have clinched his first tour win with a par at the last.
On the 18th, the 33-year-old Weekley was just inside 35 feet for birdie. However, he ran the birdie putt three feet past the cup, then pulled his par putt left of the hole and had to settle himself before making another 3-footer for bogey. He did just that to get into the playoff.
Wilson, after his remarkable par save on 16, two-putted for par on 17 from 25 feet. He nearly missed out on the playoff with a bogey on the final hole, but sank a 10-footer for par to finish at minus-5.
Meanwhile, Coceres and Villegas were biding their time in the clubhouse at minus-5.
Coceres flew out of the gate with five straight birdies to get to minus-6 and within one of the lead. He cooled from there playing the final 13 holes in plus-1 with a birdie and two bogeys.
Villegas made his charge late. He made the turn at minus-3 thanks to three front-nine birdies to go with one bogey. He moved to minus-5 with back-to-back birdies from the 16th.
At the end of the day, information was made public that Wilson had incurred a two-stroke penalty on Friday when his caddie inadvertently gave another player advice. This caused Wilson to change a par to a double-bogey, possibly costing him his first TOUR win.
‘My caddie just had a slip of the mouth on the tee. He told another player what (club) we just hit before he hit, so that’s obviously a violation of the advice rule,’ Wilson explained. ‘He felt horrible about it and still does. What I told him was that it was a mental mistake he made, I make plenty of them out here too, so let’s move on.’
Allenby stumbled to a pair of bogeys down the stretch to fall out of the lead. He closed a 2-under 68 to share fifth place at 4-under-par 276. He was joined there by Tripp Isenhour and Steve Stricker.
Brett Wetterich and Daniel Chopra were one stroke further back at minus-3. J.P. Hayes, Bernhard Langer and Arron Oberholser shared 10th place and were the final players in red figures at 1-under-par 279.
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