Green caps bizarre week with surprising win at Glen Abbey

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This article was published 28/07/2009 (6216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OAKVILLE, Ont. — A week full of surprises at the RBC Canadian Open managed to deliver one more with its conclusion as Nathan Green outlasted Retief Goosen in a two-hole playoff.

It was the first PGA Tour win for the 34-year-old Australian, who entered the week 27 worldwide victories and 269 places in the world rankings behind Goosen.

Green clinched the title on the 17th hole after making a par and watching Goosen fail to get up-and-down from behind the green. He wore a look of disbelief when Goosen’s eight-foot putt to extend the playoff missed wide.

“It’s a huge surprise to finally win,” said Green.

Rain battered Glen Abbey for four days before giving way to sunshine on Monday morning, allowing golfers to complete what was left of their third round and all of the fourth round.

Fittingly, it began to rain again as the former Canadian Tour winner talked about his victory in the media tent.

“It’s been a bizarre week, a long week,” said Green. “To get my first win in Canada, where I spent a lot of years playing on the Canadian Tour, is a great way to have a first one.”

Green finished a third-round 69 on Monday morning before posting a bogey-free 68 in the afternoon. An eagle at the 72nd hole gave Goosen a 69 that was good enough to get him in a playoff at 18-under 270.

Anthony Kim (73) and Jason Dufner (73) finished four shots back while Lee Janzen (67), Brandt Snedeker (68) and Jerry Kelly (71) were another stroke off.

Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., shot a splendid final-round 66 to match Calgary’s Stephen Ames (67) as the low Canadian. They tied for eighth.

“Being (tied for) low Canadian is a huge achievement for me, absolutely,” said Baryla, a regular on the Nationwide Tour. “It’s the difference between thinking that I have the ability and validation, and it’s nice to have that validation.”

Green got some validation of his own after spending three full seasons on the PGA Tour without registering a victory.

He moved to the top of the leaderboard on Monday afternoon as Goosen and Kim — two of the top-ranked players in the field — each made mistakes on the final nine.

While Green didn’t end up making a bogey over his final 21 holes, he did fail to birdie the easy par-5 18th twice within an hour — first, failing to wrap up the tournament in regulation before “dodging a bullet” on the first playoff hole when Goosen missed a six-footer for birdie that would have beaten him.

Fortune seemed to be on his side.

“This is pretty much the last thing I was expecting to do,” said Green.

— The Canadian Press