Watney moves higher into TOUR elite with another strong finish

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Nick Watney won the Buick Invitational earlier this year for his second TOUR victory.

DORAL, Fla. -- Nick Watney shouldn't have been disappointed with his runner-up finish to Phil Mickelson in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship on Sunday, but you can understand why he was.

The 26-year-old gave a great effort, shot a 2-under 70 in the final round at Doral, where the lead changed hands a whopping seven times, but still came up one, lousy, stinking shot short.

Adding to the sting, Watney left a 30-foot birdie try from the fringe on the final hole practically hanging on the lip.

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No birdie meant no playoff and no World Golf Championships hardware.

"Overall, I'm very pleased with the way I played," said a soft-spoken and dejected Watney, who moved to No. 3 in the latest FedExCup standings. "Right now, it still hurts to finish second. I mean it's disappointing to come up one shot short. But overall, it was a positive week. I've just got to keep working hard."

The turning point for Watney came after bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12 dropped him to 18 under, where he relinquished the lead to Mickelson for good.

No. 12 was particularly crushing for Watney. It's a par 5 that played as the second-easiest hole scoring-wise on the Blue Monster Sunday.

"On 12 I hit a nice drive and a 4-iron, it was the perfect club," Watney said. "I hit a very poor shot [with the 4-iron] into the left bunker. And then, for maybe the fourth time this week, I was one foot in the bunker and one foot out. The lie wasn't that great."

Watney proceeded to leave it in the bunker with his third shot, and failed to get up and down to save par when a putt that was a little over 10 feet slipped past the hole.

"Somebody asked me earlier if I'm going to look back on the putt at 18," Watney said. "[Instead] I'm going to look back at the putt on 12. I probably gave away two shots there. Disappointing."

"Disappointment" seemed to be the word of the day for Watney -- at least post-round -- who wore the expression on his face the way Tiger wears red shirts on Sundays.

It's not the woe-is-me kind of disappointment, so don't be mistaken. It's the competitive edge kind, a burning desire to win and anything short of that -- particularly second place -- is a total bummer.

Not only is it a bummer, but it's also painful. Even still, Watney was able to find at least a little bit of solace, and humor, in his runner-up finish.

"I played really well," he said. "I beat 78 of the best players in the world. I beat Tiger, which is always good."

There's also that other little thing that Watney can hang his hat on: This finish is just another notch on the belt of his incredible start to the 2009 season. He hasn't missed a cut in six starts; five of those starts were top-25 finishes and one of those five resulted in a win at Torrey Pines in the Buick Invitational, the second victory in Watney's four-year career.

"It's been kind of an eye-opener," Watney said, referring to the start to his season. "I worked hard over the off-season and I'm seeing results. I think I'll get over this and it's a positive week... I'm very pleased with the way I'm playing. I think I'm progressing physically and mentally and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year."

The question remained though -- is Watney too hard on himself? It didn't take long for him to think of an answer.

"I don't think so," he said, almost with a what-makes-you-think-that look on his face.

Others do. Including his uncle Mike Watney, who also served as his college coach at Fresno State.

In Watney's profile for his senior season in 2003 on the Fresno State Web site, uncle Mike had this to say about his nephew:

"I have made the comment in the past that I do not think Nick is satisfied unless he beats everyone every time. Well, I can tell it is true. He won the first four tournaments this year and was upset when he did not win his fifth in a row. Hopefully he was not too upset. He just went back to work on his game. That is the secret to his success. People can see his athleticism and the power in his shots, but they do not see all the hours he works on his conditioning or the time he puts into his game, especially his short game. If anyone on the team did what Nick does, they would improve. His personal discipline to improve is impressive and the reason he is the No. 1 ranked collegian in the country. If he continues to stay disciplined when 'the ole coach' is not around, he will challenge the upper echelon of the elite players on the PGA TOUR."

Funny, isn't it, that Watney is quickly becoming a part of that upper echelon?