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After 204 tries, golfer gets first career win at The Players Championship Sunday.

Clark

Tim Clark of South Africa hits from the 18th fairway during the final round of The Players Championship golf tournament Sunday.

AP PHOTO

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tim Clark couldn’t afford to look at the leaderboard, much less consider what it would mean to end 204 tournaments of frustration and finally win on the PGA Tour.
He was simply trying to survive Sunday at The Players Championship in the most demanding conditions.
Clark played the final 26 holes without a bogey. He set a Stadium Course record with the largest 36-hole comeback. And with an 8-foot par putt on the final hole for a 5-under 67, he no longer had the distinction as the richest player without a PGA Tour victory.
“A part of me is a bit disappointed because now no one is going to talk about me anymore,” Clark said. “At least you had something to write about before. Now I’m just another guy with a win.”
Not quite.
Regarded among the best without a PGA Tour title, Clark shed that label by beating the best field in golf.
He made four birdies around the turn to surge past Lee Westwood and Robert Allenby, steadied himself on the scary island-green 17th for a par then finished off his amazing weekend with a demonstrative fist pump when his par putt fell.
“I did all I could there,” said Clark, a 34-year-old South African. “That’s as good as I could have played.”
He needed every shot on a course with greens that were crisp, firm and pale yellow. The average score was nearly three shots higher than it was for the previous three rounds.
Allenby had the best chance to catch him, but ended up a stroke back. He narrowly missed an 18-foot eagle putt on the 16th hole to tie for the lead. His next chance came on the 17th until a 12-foot birdie putt peaked into the cup and tilted back away. Allenby couldn’t make birdie on the tough 18th, and had to settle for a 70.
“For it to go up to the hole and take a little look over the top and then come back, that was a bit rude,” Allenby said. “But obviously, the golfing gods were with Tim today, and I can accept that. I did everything that I could possibly do to try and win the tournament.”
Tiger Woods managed to create a buzz without even being there most of the day. He withdrew on the seventh hole because of a neck injury that he fears might be from a bulging disk. Woods said his neck has been bothering him since before the Masters.
“I’ve been playing through it,” Woods said. “I can’t play through it anymore.”
Phil Mickelson could have moved to No. 1 in the world with a victory, but the Masters champion never gave himself a good chance. He made bogey on three of his opening six holes, closed with a 74 and tied for 17th.
Clark won for the fourth time worldwide, yet this was his finest performance. The Players Championship not only is the richest tournament in golf with a $9.5 million purse, it features the strongest and deepest field all year.
Clark won with a 66-67 weekend in which he made only one bogey — the 10th hole on Saturday. It was the best weekend on the treacherous Stadium Course since Fred Couples shot 132 to win in 1996. The 36-hole comeback topped the record of six that Woods set when he won in 2001.
Clark finished at 16-under 272 and earned $1.71 million.
U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover shot 31 on the back, including a 50-foot birdie on the 17th, and wound up third at 14-under 274.