Columnist Ron Kantowski: All the missed predictions and dumb moves that led to disasters on the final day of golf’s Michelin Championship in Summerlin

Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 | 7:45 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Tiger Woods wasn't playing. At least not golf, although he has been known to frequent Las Vegas during Michelin Championship at Las Vegas week to play high-stakes blackjack with his pals.

Ben Hogan, as tournament director Charlie Baron is fond of saying anytime somebody asks about Mr. Woods' whereabouts during PGA week at the TPC at Summerlin, wasn't playing, either.

Neither were Danny Noonan, Al Czervik, Judge Smails, Happy Gilmore or Shooter McGavin, although the presence of any of those golfing protagonists and antagonists from the movies certainly would have made Sunday's final round a little more compelling.

Moreover, it didn't rain as was predicted. The wind didn't blow as was predicted. And it never got cold as was predicted. So mark the weatherman for a triple bogey.

That left the last group to tee off, three guys named Ted Purdy, Steve Lowery and Charles Howell III -- no relation to Thurston and Lovie -- to muck around the golf course on a near-perfect day, trying not so much to win the tournament as much as trying not to do something dumb to lose it.

As was predicted, too, at least by the wise guys in the press room.

So we were grateful that Jim Furyk stopped by to reintroduce himself.

Furyk, the guy with the unorthodox swing that only a mother could love -- it kind of looks like a broken pretzel on the bottom of the bag -- won this tournament three times but not since 1999. So when he charged from a seventh-place tie at the start of the day to second place at the turn, just one shot off the lead, at least the gallery noticed.

The lanky Furyk was still a shot behind Purdy when his approach to the Par-5 16th sailed about five yards beyond the rear of the green. Reading the big left-to-right break perfectly, his chip coming back plopped onto the edge of the green and curled into the bottom of the tin cup.

Eagle.

Furyk clenched his fist as the crowd roared. Then he clenched his fist again and did a little bunny-hop.

When Purdy self destructed on 17 like one of those reel-to-reel Mission Impossible tapes -- he hit into the water, flubbed a chip and took a triple-bogey six -- Furyk's leaping leaner should have been more than enough to carry him to an unprecedented fourth win here.

Then he had to go and muck it up, too.

Furyk hit his tee shot on 18 into the short rough and missed a short par putt. So when unheralded Wes Short, playing in the group after him, closed with a birdie, they had to go back and play 18 again. Seventeen, too.

Then Furyk made a Purdy shot. Purdy, not pretty. He hit his tee shot on the 196-yard par 3 17th into the middle of the lake flanking the green on the left while Short made par.

So instead of becoming only the fourth tour player to win a tour event four times (joining Mark O'Meara, Davis Love III and the indomitable Mr. Woods, who has done it four times) Furyk simply added his name to those who lost the Michelin Championship on Sunday by doing something dumb.

Actually, two things dumb.

"I make three bogeys all week, and one's on the 72nd hole of the tournament," he sniffed.

Then came the 74th hole.

"I was over the top of the swing," said Furyk, fourth on this year's money list with winnings of $4,096,769 . "It never had a chance. You can't make that mistake left."

Furyk and Short, who came out of nowhere -- or at least the alternate field, which is pretty much the same thing -- to earn his first tour victory, finished at 21-under for the tournament, which once again turned into golf limbo -- how low can you go?

"I'm not going to pull your leg and say this is the greatest course we play," said Furyk, who with any luck, could have won this tournament five times by now. "You're gonna make a lot of birdies ... but there also are a lot of disasters waiting to happen."

Sometimes, they don't wait quite long enough.