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05/10/2009 - Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henrik Stenson sucked all of the drama out of an interesting final pairing between Tiger Woods and Alex Cejka on Sunday.
With the final twosome struggling in the final round, Stenson fired a flawless, six-under 66 to become the first Swede to win The Players Championship.
Stenson finished at 12-under 276 and won the title by four strokes over Ian Poulter, who managed a two-under 70, at the Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass.
"It was a nice day's work," said Stenson, who collected his second PGA Tour win after the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. "I played well all week and managed my game really well and myself more than anything. Obviously, it pays off."
Woods never mounted any kind of charge in the final round and bogeyed two of his first four holes to immediately drop out of contention. He netted three birdies and two bogeys the rest of the way.
Woods equaled his worst score when playing in the final pairing on Sunday with a one-over 73. The difference was, in the three previous occasions Woods shot a 73 in the final round, he still won the championship.
Not on Sunday.
Woods took eighth alone at minus-five.
"Just a long, frustrating day," said Woods. "I thought I was doing a pretty good job of getting it around."
Stenson, who was ranked ninth in the world before the start of the tournament, completed an epic turnaround on Sunday.
His five-stroke comeback in the final round matched Justin Leonard's record from 1998 and all totaled, Stenson completed a 13-shot overall difference between himself and the third-round leader.
Cejka took a five-shot advantage into Sunday and fell apart quickly. He finished with a disappointing seven-over 79.
"I think I played a little better than my score showed today," said Cejka. "I was doing my thing. The iron play was a little too aggressive. Maybe a little patient next time."
John Mallinger and Kevin Na both posted two-under 70s on Sunday to share third at seven-under 281. Jim Furyk (69), Brian Davis (71) and Ben Crane (72) tied for fifth at minus-six.
With no one really playing well on Sunday, it left the door open for Stenson.
Cejka struggled immediately. Through his first six holes, the German had three bogeys and a double-bogey and surrendered the lead to Crane, who was two-under thanks to back-to-back birdies at one and two.
Woods was one-over through six and showed he'd be no serious final-round threat.
Stenson sat patiently and waited for his opportunity. He parred his first six holes, then ran home a 16-foot birdie putt from the fringe at the seventh. That birdie got Stenson within one of Crane's lead, but trouble loomed for Crane.
At the eighth, Crane missed the green with his tee ball and ran his second shot five feet past the stick. He missed that par save coming back and fell into a tie for first with Stenson.
The tie didn't last long.
Stenson reached the green in two at the par-five ninth. He lagged his 50- footer inside three feet and tapped in for birdie and the outright lead. That was an advantage Stenson never relinquished the rest of the way.
The Swede recorded his next birdie at the next par five, the 11th. His second fell into a greenside bunker, but he blasted out to six feet and made the birdie try. Stenson was nine-under for the championship and two clear of the field.
Stenson sank a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-three 13th and Crane made bogey. That bogey knocked Crane out of contention, but several players were three back at minus-seven.
Poulter converted a six-footer for birdie at the 15th to close the gap to two. Stenson, in the group behind Poulter, hit a nine-iron approach to two feet and kicked in the short putt to reclaim his three-stroke cushion.
One hole later, Stenson landed on the putting surface in two and rolled his eagle try down to two feet. He holed the birdie putt for a four-shot lead with two to play.
Those two, however, are the island 17th and the demanding 18th with water down the left.
Stenson played safely away from the flag at 17 and two-putted for par. At the last, he hammered a drive down the middle and knocked his second 20 feet shy of the flagstick.
Stenson hit a safe putt to a foot. He tapped in for the par and his second win in the U.S.
"It's an honor to win it," said Stenson. "It feels like a major championship. I'm going to take a lot of good things with me into the majors this year."
Stenson became the first champion to card a bogey-free round on Sunday since Davis Love III in 2003. One other stat to illustrate Stenson's path to victory was that he missed only two fairways on the weekend.
Cejka's 79 dropped him into a tie for ninth at minus-four. The first players out on Sunday, Aaron Baddeley (66), Vijay Singh (67), Tim Clark (69) and David Toms (70) joined Cejka eight off the lead.
Sergio Garcia, the 2008 champion, shot a three-under 69 and tied for 22nd at minus-two.
Phil Mickelson, who won two years ago, finished with a double-bogey and a bogey for a four-over 76. He finished in a group tied for 55th at three-over 291.
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In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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