Plaid Tidings

Turning around at Colonial CC without tripping over tradition is difficult. There is the statue of Ben Hogan, forever frozen in his follow-through, outside the clubhouse. The wall of champions reminds those who step onto the first tee of the illustrious list of winners of the PGA Tour event contested since 1946, their names etched in marble. And then there is that danged jacket, something no player would ever buy, but a garment they would all like to win. For the 63rd time, a select field fought to wear that tartan coat, and this year's Crowne Plaza Invitational reminded all who saw it of another tradition that transcends Colonial and hits at the soul of competitive golf: For every person who walks away a winner, a number of hearts—in this case, two—are broken.

Such was the case Sunday when Steve Stricker, a man who knows a thing or two about struggling, made a birdie on the second sudden-death playoff hole to deny Steve Marino and Tim Clark their first tour victory. So draining was the final day that even the winner was stopped short by tears as he remembered how four years earlier he needed a sponsor's exemption to get into a tournament he can now play for life as a past champion. One of the vanquished, Marino, searched for the positives while Clark, who is now 0-for-184 in PGA Tour events, was a man of few words, none of which would do a sport psychologist proud.

Truly, this was Clark's tournament. He started the final round with a two-stroke lead, was still ahead by that margin with five holes to play, then twice missed makable putts to win on the 18th green, first in regulation and then on the first playoff hole. Marino, meanwhile, was the most consistent of the three—he made no bogeys from No. 2 until the second extra hole—and Stricker's round was like his career, an up-and-down ride until it ended in his fifth career victory. When it came time to put things into the proper context, Stricker showed the wisdom and compassion that has sustained him for nearly 20 years as a professional.

"You need breaks to win out here, and that's why I think winning is so special," he said after making a four-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. "It's so hard to do. There are so many ups and downs through the course of the week, the course of the last round, and things happened to turn my way today."

Actually, they turned Stricker's way after first turning against him—missed putts on Nos. 14, 15 and 16, the last one a five-footer—and with considerable help from Clark. An improbable chip-in for birdie on the 71st hole by Stricker and a bogey by Clark on the 72nd created a playoff at 17-under-par 263, one stroke better than Jason Day and two clear of Paul Casey.

"Sometimes we take for granted what Tiger has done or what Phil has done," said Stricker, who went winless from 1996 to 2001 and again from '02 to '07. "They make it look fairly simple at times. But for the average player out here [winning] is a very difficult thing to do. I can remember trying to win my first event, and I can relate to what Tim was trying to do today."

When Clark used his broomstick putter to sweep in a 23-foot birdie on No. 13 to get to 19 under par, two strokes clear of Marino and Stricker, he was in control. But some tentative play down the stretch—especially a complete lack of aggression with short irons—opened the door for Stricker and Marino.

Clark missed the fairway right on No. 14, drew a terrible lie and made bogey. From 138 yards on No. 15 he hit his approach to only 40 feet and then missed the green on the par-3 16th—but both times managed to save par. A solid nine-foot par putt on 17 after missing the green with a 9-iron seemed to right Clark's ship. But he missed the fairway with a 3-wood off the 18th tee, pitched out, played his third shot from 90 yards to 12 feet and left the winning putt dead in the jar but a foot short.

On the first extra hole, No. 18, Marino missed a birdie from 30 feet, burning the right edge, and Stricker did the same from 16 feet, teasing the left edge. Then Clark pulled his seven-footer for the win, sending the match to the second extra hole. "No, I can't take anything positive from today," Clark said. "Obviously, [judging] from the last hole [of regulation] and the playoff, I have a lot of work to do when it comes to closing out golf tournaments."

positive reinforcement: Marino, like Clark still looking for his first win, tried to take away the good from the week, which included a third-round 62.

Stricker played first from the fairway on the second extra hole and knocked an 8-iron to four feet. Clark then caught a bad break when his shot from 148 yards hit the flagstick and kicked 22 feet below the hole. Marino, who drove into the left trees, pitched 90 feet short and, after a chip, two-putted for bogey. Clark's birdie putt curled low. Stricker then rolled in the four-footer for the victory.

"I saw how close Steve hit it, and I knew I had to do something like that as well," Clark said. "Bad break or not, the tournament should have ended on the first playoff hole. I didn't make a confident stroke and pulled it."

Stricker was the unlikeliest of the three to make it into the playoff since he was so up-and-down, but a miracle shot saved him. "The chip-in at 17 was really the deal," Stricker said about his shot after missing the green with an 8-iron. "I was thinking about chipping in, and then a guy in the stands said, 'Chip it in' and that made me really kind of think and focus on trying to do that. The shot just came off perfect. You don't expect to chip a shot like that in, especially on the 71st hole."