Winners and Losers from the 2015 Northern Trust Open
Midway through Sunday's final round, CBS Sports' Jim Nantz mentioned that there were 22 players within four shots of the lead. If that sounds like the final round of a major championship, that's because this tournament looked a heck of a lot like a major in general and a U.S. Open in particular.
Seven players held the lead or a share of the lead at some point during the final round. It looked like the mercurial Sergio Garcia would take the tournament after chipping in for birdie at the 12th, but he faltered down the stretch, closing with two bogeys.
Ultimately, it was James Hahn, Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey who performed best on Riviera's test. The winner of that playoff, of course, lands on our list of winners.
Who else joins a snubbed potential Ryder Cup captain among the losers?
Click through to see.
Winner: James Hahn
1 of 8Watch the video above.
Now, be happy that James Hahn is known as more than the guy who did the "Gangnam Style" dance at the Phoenix Open.
Instead, the South Korea-born Hahn is a PGA Tour winner, thanks to a brilliant final round and inspired playoff performance at a nasty, nasty golf course.
After finishing tied at six under with Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey, Hahn averted disaster with a brilliant flop shot at the second playoff hole that led to a birdie on three. He poured in his birdie putt on the third playoff hole to vanquish Johnson and make him the big winner this week.
Loser: Fred Couples
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Fred Couples had a bad week.
First, he was passed over by the PGA of America for Davis Love III as captain of the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Even though the smooth-swinging Couples told Golf Channel (via Bob Harig of ESPN.com), "I'm not bitter or upset or anything like that, because in my opinion, they picked a great guy."
Still, it has to be a major disappointment for Couples, especially as he was the presumptive favorite for the job in a lot of observers' minds.
Then, at his beloved Riviera Country Club, where he's won twice, Couples missed a six-footer for par on the 18th hole of his second round. The miss proved costly as he found himself a stroke outside of the cut line.
Poor Freddy.
Winner: Riviera Country Club
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Golf Channel's Jason Sobel indicated that the powers that be aren't inclined to bring a major to Riviera Country Club for numerous reasons. Sobel wrote:
"The course is just going to go ahead and host its own major this week anyway.
Through two rounds of the Northern Trust Open, conditions are firm enough, scoring is high enough and competitors are muttering to themselves enough to make this look vaguely familiar as one of the big four.
"
The scoring average through three rounds at par-71 Riviera: 72.6. During the final round, the course was a bit more moist and soft, offering players some reprieve from the difficult conditions.
Last season, Bubba Watson blitzed the California course with weekend rounds of 64 en route to a winning score of 15-under. Organizers seemed intent on protecting the pristine venue's pride this year, with dry, tightly mowed fairways and quick, contoured greens with bone-dry fringe.
The strategy worked: This year's winning score (-6) was the highest since 1996.
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Loser: Scott Piercy, 10th Hole
4 of 8Did you see this disaster? Scott Piercy made a double-bogey six at Riviera's famed 10th hole en-route to an opening-round 80. The scorecard, however, doesn't tell the full story of the horror.
The theoretically driveable par-four 10th was playing just over 300 yards. Piercy went for the green, and his tee shot ended up in the greenside bunker.
After that...well, you've just got to watch the video. But be warned, it's not for the faint of heart.
Piercy was last in the field after two rounds. Needless to say, he didn't make the cut.
Winner: Dustin Johnson
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Dustin Johnson's play continues to improve since he returned to competitive golf at the Farmers Insurance Open.
After missing the cut in that event, Johnson fired weekend rounds of 68 and 67 to finish tied for fourth at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
In Pacific Palisades this week, the long-hitting Carolinian again played well. He had a birdie putt from just over 10 feet at the closing hole during his final round. It slithered just outside of the hole, but the performance was good enough to book passage to the three-man playoff.
And while he finished runner-up in the playoff, the step forward makes Johnson a winner this week.
Loser: Ryan Moore, 10th Hole, Saturday
6 of 8Ryan Moore was robbed. You can see the evidence above.
After nearly holing his tee shot on the par-four 10th hole during his third round, the ball continued along the baked-out contours of the double-cut and rolled 10th green and down its tightly mowed fringe. It came to rest 50 feet away from the hole, leaving Moore a difficult pitch with little green to work with.
And while he ended up making par, Moore has to feel like he really lost out at the 10th: Had his tee shot been an inch to the right, he'd have recorded a score three strokes better than the one he pencilled down for the hole.
Winner: The Global Game
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A quick look at the top of leaderboard on PGATour.com, which features the flag of each golfer's home country next to his name, revealed...a lot of different flags.
In this ever-increasingly global game we're used to seeing players from every corner of the globe. Even so, check out the top-10 finishers, who prove for the millionth time the direction of the future of professional golf.
T1: Paul Casey (-6): Great Britain
T1: Dustin Johnson (-6): United States
T1: James Hahn (-6): United States
T4: Hideki Matsuyama (-5): Japan
T4: Keegan Bradley (-5): United States
T4: Jordan Spieth (-5): United States
T4: Sergio Garcia (-5): Spain
T8: Kyle Riefers (-4): United States
T8: Graham DeLaet (-4): Canada
T8: Retief Goosen (-4): South Africa
T8: Sang-Moon Bae (-4): South Korea
Losers: A Pair of Old Guys Who Couldn't Get the Job Done
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The 55-year-old Vijay Singh had a share of the lead late on Sunday. He went bogey, double bogey, bogey through holes 15, 16 and 17 Sunday to sink his hopes of becoming the second-oldest winner in tour history.
Retief Goosen, who led by two entering the final round, made a mess of things all day long. He went five over through a stretch of holes on the back nine.
After his third round, the 46-year-old South African said: "Mentally, I had to work hard to try and stay positive and focused. But I'm still in the lead, so that's a good place to be. Just try and play solid tomorrow and keep the putter warm and see what happens," according to The Associated Press (via ESPN.com).
The putter didn't stay warm. And what happened was this: He didn't win.
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