“For some reason, Arizona has always been good to me,” said Kevin Sutherland, who got some help putting on his trophy Sunday.

 Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

While the final group stood on the sixth green at Omni Tucson National Resort, the wind that had been blowing all day began to whip and swirl. Dust blew toward the players from the left side of the fairway, and leaves danced in the breeze.

“It feels like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” said Kevin Sutherland, who was playing in that group.

Moments later, Sutherland stepped up to a 30-foot putt. He jarred it for birdie.

“There’s no place like home,” Sutherland quipped.

Sutherland is from Sacramento, California, but he has made Arizona is home away from home. Sutherland rallied to win the Cologuard Classic on Sunday for his fifth victory on the PGA Tour Champions – his third in the state of Arizona. Sutherland twice has won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club.

“For some reason, Arizona has always been good to me,” said Sutherland, who shot a 4-under 69 for a 15-under total. “I don’t know what it is about the air here, but I seem to enjoy it.”

Kevin Sutherland waits on 18 take his putt, holding one stroke lead over Mike Weir on the final day of the Cologuard Classic at the Omni Tucson National Resort, Tucson, Ariz., February 28, 2021.

Sutherland’s second win of the 2021 season came at the expense of Mike Weir, who was leading after each of the first two rounds and held a two-shot advantage over Sutherland as the final group approached the 16th hole.

Sutherland’s tee shot landed short and right. Weir flew his long and left into the back bunker.

Sutherland then chipped in for birdie – the only birdie of the day on No. 16. Weir couldn’t get up and down.

Just like that, they were tied. Sutherland would birdie 17 to take a one-shot lead. Needing a miraculous birdie on the difficult 18th hole to possibly force a playoff, Weir three-putted for bogey.

“Kevin made a great chip,” Weir said. “That’s golf. You can’t play defense.”

Weir, a PGA Tour Champions rookie making his Cologuard Classic debut, finished second for the second time this season. On both occasions, he entered the final round with the lead.

Weir was seeking his first professional victory since 2007. He struggled to put his runner-up finish in perspective.

“I’ve got to think about it,” said Weir, who shot an even-par 73 to finish at 13 under. “I need time to refresh and digest it and think about the little adjustments I probably need to make.

“But there wasn’t a lot to do different out there. I clearly didn’t strike it quite as good as the first two days, but I didn’t strike it poorly either. I just didn’t really get much out of it. The front nine I did, but the back nine I didn’t get much out of it at all.”

Entering Sunday, Weir had played the back nine in 10 under par. He made seven birdies Saturday en route to a 6-under 67.

Weir didn’t make a single birdie on the back nine Sunday. Sutherland made four.

“Totally different conditions,” Weir said. “I rolled a lot of nice putts, I thought, and nothing went in for me the last 12 holes or so. That was disappointing.”

Weir dubbed the conditions “as tough as it gets out there.” The wind gusted in excess of 20 mph and spurred Weir’s demise.

Weir had birdied Nos. 7 and 8 to expand his lead to four shots. He even pitched in, as Sutherland would later, on the par-3 seventh hole.

Weir hit a good drive to the left side of the fairway on the 436-yard, dogleg-right, par-4 ninth hole. His ball landed in an area that was under repair, resulting in a thin lie, but he elected to play his approach from that spot. The shot — directly into the wind — came up just short, landing in the front bunker. Weir couldn’t get up and down. Sutherland parred, and the gap between them shrunk to three shots.

“I didn’t quite catch it,” Weir said. “I hit a pretty good shot. (If it) carried a yard, I’m on the green. It’s a game of inches sometimes.”

Sutherland then birdied No. 10 and remained within two shots heading to the 16th tee.

“I wasn’t really doing much until the chip-in on 16, and it just kind of flipped it for me a little bit,” he said.

Sutherland took an aggressive line with a driver over the left-side hazard on the 511-yard, par-5 17th. As often happens on that hole, the ball skipped through the fairway. Sutherland had a clean look, though, and he landed a 9-iron on the back fringe. That set up a relatively simple two-putt birdie.

Weir had to navigate through three trees on his approach to 17. He cut the ball between them, playing to the front bunker. An up-and-down would have given Weir a matching birdie, but his sand shot flew long and he missed the putt.

Sutherland again took an aggressive line off the 18th tee, hitting driver over the right hazard.

“Honestly, the shot on 18 was by far the best shot I hit all week,” he said. “Just said I’d hit it hard, keep it down. For some reason, I was resistant to try to hit that shot all week. Not sure why I was, but I picked a good time to change my tune.”

Sutherland’s 6-iron approach left him with a routine two-putt for par.

Weir also hit the fairway. But birdies were almost impossible to come by on No. 18 this week. The hole yielded just 11. The average score was .631 strokes over par.

Weir’s approach came to rest in the back-left portion of the green, 50 feet from the hole. His putt came up short, impacted in part by the wind, which switched directions as the ball rolled toward the cup.

Although he now has five wins and regularly finishes in the top 10, Sutherland knows how hard it is to win for the first time. He didn’t win his first PGA Tour Champions event until his fourth season. He knows what Weir is going through.

“I know Mike’s going to do it,” Sutherland said. “He played terrific golf. I just happened to do some good things at the right time, and it worked out for me.”

Chip shots

  • Several players and caddies wore red shirts or sweaters to honor Tiger Woods. They included Phil Mickelson, who played at Arizona State and doesn’t own anything in red. “I had to buy a red shirt, and of course every red shirt here has a big ‘A’ on it,” Mickelson said. “I’m not going to flash it, but it’s under here.”
  • Mickelson, seeking to become the first player to win his first three Champions Tour starts, never made a move after shooting an opening 3-under 70. Mickelson posted weekend rounds of 72 and 73 to finish in a tie for 20th at 4 under par. He had one score worse than bogey (one double, two triples) in each round.
  • Former University of Arizona standout Jim Furyk, making his Cologuard Classic debut, shot an even-par 73 Sunday to finish in a tie for 17th at 5 under.
  • Steve Stricker tied for the best round of the day with a 5-under 68 and finished in a tie for third with Scott Parel at 12 under. Stricker has finished no worse than a tie for sixth in five starts at the Cologuard Classic.
  • Cologuard ambassador Jerry Kelly shot a 3-under 70 for the third straight day to finish in a tie for sixth at 9 under. It was his second-best finish in the event (tie for second in 2018).
  • How tough was the wind Sunday? The field’s average score was 74.325 — 1.693 strokes higher than the average over the first two rounds. The ninth hole didn’t yield a single birdie.

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