Finally a winner again, Aaron Baddeley raised his arms when his last putt dropped Sunday in the Northern Trust Open as his wife and two young daughters shared the moment.
They might have been among the few cheering him on at Riviera in Los Angeles.
Baddeley could hear chants of “Freddie!” at every turn, and it got even louder when Fred Couples birdied the opening three holes to take the lead. Unfazed, Baddeley cared only about a victory that was just as meaningful to him.
“I thought Freddie was going to be tough today because winning is a skill, and Freddie has been winning quite often recently,” Baddeley said.
In a battle of generations, the 29-year-old Australian closed with a 2-under 69 to hold off Vijay Singh and Couples, winning for the first time in four years.
Baddeley beat, who turns 48 on Tuesday, by two shots. Singh closed with a 69 for his best finish in more than two years. Couples, 51, bogeyed two of the last three holes and shot 73 to tie for seventh in his bid to become the PGA Tour’s oldest winner in more than 35 years.
“I’m a golfer, so I’m disappointed,” Couples said.
The Seattle native, with his tender back, stumbled on the seventh hole. Tied for the lead on the tee, he pushed his shot to the right into grass so thick he had trouble finding it. Couples wound up making double bogey, a three-shot swing when Baddeley holed a 20-footer for birdie.
“I just didn’t feel the same after that,” Couples said.
It was the third career PGA Tour win for Baddeley, whose game had slipped so much that he had plunged to No. 224 in the world. Now, he’ll return to the Masters.
ELSEWHERE
Women’s No. 1 Yani Tseng shot a 6-under 66 for a five-shot victory in the LPGA Thailand, the season-opening event on the LPGA Tour. Michelle Wie (70) finished second. … Bernhard Langer shot a 6-under 66 to set a tournament record with a 20-under 196 total, winning the Champions Tour’s ACE Group Classic by four shots over Fred Funk in Naples, Fla. … India’s Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia shot a 5-under 67 to beat Robert Coles of England by one shot in the European PGA Tour’s Avantha Masters in New Delhi.
Tracking locals on the PGA tour
This week: Northern Trust Open, Riviera Country Club, Los Angeles.
In the field: Puyallup’s Ryan Moore, Tacoma’s Michael Putnam.
Moore’s fourth-round score: 2-under-par 69.
Putnam’s fourth-round score: Even-par 71.
P0sition: Moore (8-under 276) tied for fourth and earned $268,667. Putnam (even-par 284) tied for 45th, winning $18, 590.
ReCAP: Moore, who had his first top-five finish on the tour since a tie for third at the BMW Championship in September, did something nobody else in the top 10 did Sunday – he played a bogey-free round (two birdies). … Two of Putnam’s three birdies came on the most difficult holes – chip-ins on the par-3 fourth and the par-4 13th.
Next: Moore is in the field for the WGC-Accenture Match Play event starting Wednesday near Tucson, Ariz. Putnam, as well as Olympia’s Andres Gonzales and Gig Harbor’s Kyle Stanley, will play in the Mayakoba Golf Classic starting Thursday in Mexico.
Todd Milles, staff writer
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