Steve Stricker squandered a final-round lead right after he took it and gave away another stroke by missing a short par putt down the
stretch Sunday. Stricker stayed at it, though. A chip-in birdie on No. 17 helped him get into a three-man playoff. Then, lucky to be playing a second extra hole, he put his approach just three feet from the cup and made the putt to win the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Fort Worth. However, the real story was how Tim Clark let this tournament slip away. Clark was trying to shed his title as the guy who had won the most money on the PGA Tour without winning an event, but he wasted a two-shot lead with five holes left. He left short a nine-foot putt that would have won the event on the final hole, then pulled a seven-foot putt that would’ve ended the playoff on the first hole. Then his approach on the second extra hole hit the pin and rolled more than 20 feet from the cup. “I can’t take anything positive from today,” Clark said. “I have a lot of work to do when it comes to closing out golf tournaments.” Stricker was ready to win after finishing second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh this year. Now he has five career wins &mdash and the No. 8 spot in the world ranking. “I feel fortunate,” he said. “I’ve been on the other end a couple times this year where you feel you’re going to win and end up losing.”
When he missed a four-foot putt on No. 16, Stricker seemed out of contention. His chances looked even worse when he was in fluffy grass behind the 17th green.