Date: October 22, 2007
Author:

Hensby falls a stroke short

Australian Mark Hensby has fallen one shot short of victory in the Fry&aposs Electronics Open after a tense final round in Arizona. Hensby, 35, went into the last 18 holes trailing third-round leader, Swede Carl Pettersson, by one stroke but was pipped by experienced Canadian Mike Weir. Weir&aposs final-round 68 was enough to snatch the title from Hensby with American Billy Mayfair (68) four off the pace in third position at Grayhawk Golf Club. Hensby&aposs countryman Jarrod Lyle, who began the day in a share of third place, had four bogeys in his opening five holes on his way to a one-over-par 73, which left him 10-under-par for the week and in a share of 14th place. The focus was on the two-way battle between Hensby and Weir at the top of the leaderboard. The Australian opened his three-under-par round of 67 with a bogey but bounced back on the second with a birdie on his way to 35 on the front nine. Weir mixed a couple of bogeys with a pair of birdies on the front nine to record the same score to halfway. On the way home Hensby birdied the 11th before a bogey at 13. His final birdie of the day came immediately after at 14. The duo went head-to-head on the back nine before Weir&aposs birdie at the 15th, a par four, gave him a one-stroke buffer. That is how it stayed with both players closing out their rounds with par at the last three holes. The remaining two Australians in the field had difficult finishes to the tournament. Paul Gow (75) ended four-over-par while Andrew Buckle (67), who started the week with a solid round of 67, was 19 shots from the winner at five-over-par. Final Round of the Frys Electronics Open, Scottsdale (par 70) -14 Mike Weir 69 64 65 68 -13 Mark Hensby (Australia) 71 61 66 69 -10 Billy Mayfair 68 66 68 68 -9 Sean O&aposHair 68 66 68 69, Carl Pettersson 67 66 64 74 -8 Pat Perez 66 71 67 68, Alex Cejka 68 67 68 69, Brian Davis 70 67 66 69, Daisuke Maruyama 67 65 69 71, Ryan Moore 66 63 71 72, Justin Leonard 68 68 65 71 -7 Chris Stroud 69 65 69 70, Jarrod Lyle (Australia) 69 67 64 73 -6 Briny Baird 70 65 69 70, Marco Dawson 67 67 70 70 also: +4 Paul Gow (Australia) 70 69 70 75 +5 Andrew Buckle (Australia) 67 73 71 74