Piece of cake: Wilson, Weir break Millers's hearts

LEHI — To most, being the last of six golfers to hit a wedge shot from 80 yards away with $75,000 on the line would be an unnerving, almost impossible task.

To Masters champion Mike Weir, it was a piece of cake.

With several thousand fans watching from the tee and behind the No. 9 green at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club, Weir stuck his 54-degree sand wedge shot within 2 1/2 feet of the cup to win the first prize at the Trend Micro Champions Challenge for himself and partner Dean Wilson.

"It was a perfect situation for Mike," said Wilson, who split the $75,000 first prize with Weir in the two-man scramble. "With five other guys in front of him, he's registering all the information in there just right and then goes up and puts it two feet away."

By winning, the Weir-Wilson team broke the hearts of the Miller family, which made up much of the field. Weir and Wilson, college teammates at BYU from 1989-92, had made a back-nine rally to get in a playoff with the teams of Johnny Miller-Todd Miller and Andy Miller-Ty Tryon, who all finished at 13-under-par 58.

The three teams went back to the 191-yard final hole, which had been converted into a par-3 so the players could compete for the SCO Million Dollar Hole In One. Amazingly, all six players missed the green, and no team came close to making birdie, forcing a chip-off from 80 yards away, where the closest shot to the hole was the winner.

Todd Miller went first and stuck his approach just under six feet to the left of the flagstick. The next four players couldn't top that, leaving just Weir, who had made two poor shots on his previous tee shots at the ninth hole (the nines were reversed for the tournament, so No. 9 played as No. 18), missing the green left and then hitting the front bunker.

This time, Weir's low wedge shot flew in just to the right of the flagstick and sucked back, exactly 30 inches away to produce the victory for his team.

After making a few comments to the crowd, Weir made a beeline for the parking lot because he had to catch a flight to Colorado for a meeting before The International tournament at Castle Pines. As he walked away he was asked to compare the pressure Tuesday with that at Augusta in April.

"There was a shot already in there 6 feet, and I was the last guy to hit, so there was still some pressure there," Weir said. "It wasn't like winning the Masters, but there's still some pressure."