SAN DIEGO — One of the lessons Nick Watney took from playing for his uncle at Fresno State was that winning is never easy. That’s why he didn’t lose hope Sunday in the Buick Invitational when he was three shots behind with five holes to play.
First came a mini-collapse by John Rollins, a combination of bad swings and bad breaks.
Then it was a 40-foot birdie putt across the 16th green by Watney, who remembered the severity of the slope at the back of the green from when he three-putted at the U.S. Open last summer at Torrey Pines.
Watney never took the lead until the final shot of the tournament, a 2 1/2-foot birdie putt to complete a five-shot comeback for his second career win.
“If you’re going to lead for one hole, this is the time to do it,” he said.
Watney, who appeared to be along for the ride for most of the final round, birdied two of his last three holes and didn’t drop a shot over the final 11 holes in closing with a 4-under-par 68 for a one-shot edge.
No shot was more important than his hybrid from 235 yards on the par-5 18th that easily cleared the pond and settled on the top shelf of the green. He calmly rolled his long eagle putt down the slope to just inside 3 feet, and knocked in the winning putt after Rollins failed to get up-and-down from a bunker.
Watney started to deliver a roundhouse fist pump, similar to when Tiger Woods made birdie on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open to force a playoff in June. But that wouldn’t fit his understated personality.
“I’d like to imitate pretty much everything Tiger does,” Watney said. “But that was not planned at all. I just hope the fist pump looked halfway decent.”
Watney finished at 11-under 277, a stroke ahead of Rollins (74). Lucas Glover (68) and Camilo Villegas (72) finished 9-under.
