Sergio Pulls a 'Sergio', Vijay Wins in Sudden Death at Barclays Championship

Kevin Sutherland, fresh off the 2002 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, fired a final round 68 at today's Barclays and found himself in a playoff with Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh. To be fair, Sutherland has had four top-10s this season, but he's about as far from exciting as you can get on the golf course.

But sometimes it's less about mind-blowing shots than it is about grinding it out, which is exactly what Sutherland was able to do today.

Garcia, on the other hand, shot a 1-under 70, and just missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would've given him the outright victory. Instead, in true Sergio fashion, he burned the edge, and after Singh did likewise two groups later, all three reconvened on the 18th tee box for a playoff.

Garcia and Singh both striped their drives, while Sutherland pushed his tee shot into the trees, effectively taking him out of contention. Sergio and Vijay found the green with their second shots, both ending up some 25-30 feet from the hole.

And then things got awesome: two of the tour's worst putters proceeded to drain their birdie putts -- first Sergio and then Vijay -- like it was the most natural thing in the world. Off the the par 5 17th.

Garcia pulled his tee shot into the rough on the right, tried to hit a hook from there but watched as his ball went straight -- behind a tree on the other side of the fairway, and then hacked his way to a par. Singh smoked his drive, hit his second shot some 260 yards to 20 feet, and calmly took two putts to claim the victory. Not too shabby.

For Garcia, it's just the latest in a long line of disappointing finishes, though, to his credit, he was particularly upbeat during the whole affair. Bacon points out that Sergio is now 4-4 in playoffs, which isn't bad, so there's that.