General / Editor / 28 May 2007 / Leave a Comment

Converting a final round lead into a winning position and eventually lifting the trophy at the end of a tournament is one of the hardest things to do in golf.

Tiger Woods has made the conundrum something of an art form since the turn of the decade, as he has cemented his position as one of the game's greatest ever players.

But the world number one is very much in the minority with his ability to dominate a field on the last day and 'get the job done', and there have already been plenty more names to add to the roll call of buckling when the pressure was on in 2007.

Woods has the remarkable record in Majors of never having lost when holding the lead at the 54-hole stage and just how strong the American is mentally can be illustrated when you consider the first two Grand Slam tournaments this year.

Stuart Appleby and Aaron Baddeley both found themselves with two-stroke leads at the US Masters and US Open respectively, with 18 holes standing between themselves and a coveted place in the record books.

But the Australian duo failed to get the job done and faded out of contention long before the final rites were being administered.

The more surprising case was Appleby. An eight-time winner on the PGA Tour and having only lost out to Ernie Els at the 2002 Open Championship after a four-man play-off, he was fancied to finally get his first Grand Slam title under his belt.

But the 36-year-old began his fourth round in disastrous fashion with a double-bogey six at his opening hole and was always playing catch-up after that. To his credit, Appleby did still manage to haul his way back into contention but the damage of his blemish at the first hole took its toll and he eventually finished four shots behind winner Zach Johnson, after a closing round 75.

Baddeley fared even worse at Oakmont two weeks ago, as he set out on his search for glory alongside Woods in the final pairing.

The last thing that he wanted to do was surrender his lead at the opening hole but that is exactly what he did, as he racked up a triple-bogey seven. His race was run by the first six holes of the Sunday and Baddeley ended up carding a final round 80 to finish outside the top ten.

Baddeley - available at 95 to win The Open - tends to be much more dangerous in tournaments when he comes from off the pace, as he has proved with his victories at the Verizon Heritage tournament last year and the FBR Open in February.

At the FBR, John Rollins - who was pipped for victory at the Bob Hope Classic two weeks before - was in pole position on the final day but he failed to hammer home his advantage, allowing Baddeley to come through and snatch victory by one shot.

One of the most improved players in the world this year is Rory Sabbatini, but the South African is renowned for being outspoken at times and that returned to haunt him at this year's Wachovia Championship.

Sabbatini - trading at 100 to win The Open after finishing joint-second at the US Masters - went into Sunday with a one-stroke lead over Woods and said he wanted to play with him to prove that his victory at Riviera last year - when Woods withdrew through flu - was no fluke.

Sabbatini though, ended up carding a 74 to Woods' 69 to trail in behind him by four shots and he also nearly blew his advantage at the Crowne Plaza Invitational last month, before beating Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk in a play-off.

Andrew Buckle and Brandt Snedeker also become victims of 'the Woods factor' at the start of the year when held the 54-hole lead at the Buick Invitational, only to lose their way in the fourth round to allow the world's best golfer to clinch his seventh straight PGA Tour title.

It remains to be seen what long-lasting damage has been done to Sean O'Hair after his final day mishaps at The Players' Championship at Sawgrass.

Leading the field by one shot after three rounds, O'Hair was quickly overtaken by warm favourite Phil Mickelson but was still in with a chance of victory on the 16th green.

But the American failed to sink a birdie putt that would have pulled him to within one stroke of Mickelson, then found water twice at the notorious par-three 17th on his way to a quadruple-bogey seven.

O'Hair's misery was compounded by bogeying the last and he eventually shot 76 to Mickelson's 69 to finish outside the top ten.

But final round bottlers have by no means been restricted to the PGA Tour this year with European golf also having seen its fair share of collapses - not least of which at last month's BMW PGA Championship.

Local favourite Ross Fisher and the experienced Paul Broadhurst sat in pole position at the head of the field after 54 holes, but both players imploded in difficult wet conditions on the final day to finish well down the final standings.

Justin Rose - one of Europe's best hopes to end their eight-year wait for a Major winner and available at 32 to win The Open - also displayed further evidence at the same tournament that he is by no means the finished article when it comes to turning promising positions into winning ones.

Rose, who had blown a halfway lead at the Bob Hope Classic earlier in the season in America, led after two rounds at Wentworth before falling back on the Saturday and it was to his enormous credit that he still managed to fight his way into a play-off before losing to Anders Hansen.

Luckily, the Englishman has time on his side to learn as do German Martin Kaymer - who lost his way in the last round of the Celtic Manor Wales Open to finish outside the top ten after leading following three rounds - and Nick Dougherty.

But Dougherty will be left kicking himself if he fails to win this year after blowing two great chances for victory in Singapore and Italy.

No sooner had back-to-back birdies put him in line for his second Singapore Masters title in three years in February, than successive bogeys had ruled him out and worse was to follow at the Italian Open last month.

Dougherty led by three shots with only nine holes to play but somehow contrived to lose his advantage and even missed out on the play-off by one stroke - that was eventually won by Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez- Castano.

It is to be hoped that he learns his lesson.