The Live Report: Round 4 of the CA Championship

MICKELSON GETS THE WIN (6:40 p.m.): It came down to the hardest hole on the golf course and when it mattered the most Phil Mickelson hit his cut approach shot right at the flag. The ball released to the back of the green, but a simple up-and-down was all he needed to secure his first World Golf Championships title.

Nick Watney gave Mickelson a scare, nearly jarring his long putt from just off the back for birdie. Instead, it stopped agonizingly short, less than an inch from the cup. Mickelson burned the cup as well, but he didn’t need to make it, just get it close.

The one-stroke victory over Watney moved Mickelson to second in the FedExCup standings and, when the rankings are released Monday, the closest he’s ever been to the No. 1 spot in the world. -- Brian Wacker

ONE UP, ONE TO PLAY (6:30 p.m.): The lead has changed hands seven times today between Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney, but Mickelson is taking a one-shot lead to the final hole. Mickelson has parred the difficult finishing hole each of the last two days after a birdie on 18 on Thursday. Watney, meanwhile, has parred it all three days. -- Brian Wacker

FURYK’S FURIOUS FINISH (6:10 p.m.): With Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney battling each other shot for shot down the stretch here, Jim Furyk is trying to apply a little back-door pressure by mimicking what he did in 2000, when he came from six back with seven to play with a back-nine 30 in the final round to beat Franklin Langham.

Furyk’s already poured in four birdies on the back nine today, including a pitch-in from the bunker on No. 14. All those birdies moved Furyk to 16 under for the week and he just hammered his second shot directly into the wind on 18, the hardest hole all week, to 10 feet from over 200 yards out. Furyk pushed his birdie putt, but is still in good position should Mickelson and Watney collapse on the last couple of holes. -- Brian Wacker

WAY TO GO (6:00 p.m.): England’s Oliver Wilson made a big move up the leaderboard on Sunday. Starting the final round nine shots off the lead at 7 under, Wilson made six birdies on his way to a 6-under 66 and a likely top-10 finish.

Wilson didn’t seem too surprised by the low score. Though he was only able to manage an even-par 72 on Saturday in the third round, Wilson liked what he was doing.

“Yesterday was probably one of the best rounds I’ve played for a while shooting level,” he said. “I really hung in there and ground it out and it gave a chance to do what I did today, so it worked out pretty good.”

Being nine shots off the lead, what was the goal on Sunday?

“I didn’t really have one,” Wilson admitted. “I was just trying to shoot a low score. I wanted to shoot in the 60s. I just wanted to finish playing well, put in a good score and conquer the last hole.”

Wilson may not have conquered the par-4 18th with a birdie, but the par gave him plenty to be proud of. – T.J. Auclair

POULTER'S FINISH (5:55 p.m.): Ian Poulter didn’t get as much out of his weekend as he would have hoped, particularly in Saturday's 73 that included 17 pars and one bogey. He still finished 10 under, though, and closed with on a positive note with a 69.

“It was a frustrating weekend when my game was so good and I’ve played awesome this weekend,” Poulter said. “But the upside is my game is great. I am playing good golf.”

The Englishman, who underwent eye surgery recently, had a cyst on his right wrist drained Monday. He had gone in for an MRI that revealed the cyst which had apparently been there for quite a while. Only now, it was large enough to show up in the test.

“There is a chance that it will come back as it can do with any cyst but the good thing is that it is pain free now which is happy days and I feel great with it,” Poulter said. “If it was to come back I’d just get it syringed again.

“It literally was sore for a day after the syringing but after that it was fine and if we need to do it again, we will. We could go the surgery route but there is no need to. It was a lump, which got taken away pretty quickly.” -- Helen Ross

QUITE A FINISH (5:45 p.m.):If you’ve never heard of Thomas Aiken, he’d probably understand and certainly wouldn’t hold it against you.

The 25-year-old South African may have just completed the best golf day of his life.

Starting the final round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at 5 under and 11 shots off the lead, Aiken started rolling in birdies one after another. With a front-nine 32 to go with a back-nine 33, the 291st-ranked player in the world – No. 12 on the Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit, which is what got him into Doral – fired a 7-under 65 on Sunday to finish at 12 under.

He made it interesting, too, with the final hole at the Blue Monster being quite the adventure.

After he "smoked a driver down there" on the par-4 18th, Aiken was left with 177 yards to the hole. In his words, "a perfect 5-iron."

Turns out not only was the 5-iron perfect, but "absolutely flushed," according to his caddie, Trevor Fisher.

The 5-iron approach sailed over everything – the 18th green and the television tower behind it. After a free drop off of a cart-path, Aiken proceeded to lose a flop shot in the greenside bunker. From there, he sent the bunker shot through the green, barely holding up in the light rough instead of falling off into the drink.

With 20 feet left for bogey and a 65, Aiken nailed the putt and threw up a fist-pump as if he’d eagled the hole.

"That’s pretty much the best bogey I ever made," a thrilled Aiken said. "The adrenaline was definitely pumping down the last. I think if it isn’t on that hole, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you."

The high finish, which will be hovering right around the top 10, should give Aiken playing privileges on the European Tour for the rest of the season.

"I just tried to hit one shot at a time and finish as best as I could and the ball just got rolling, and that’s the funny thing about this game," Aiken said. "As soon as you think about your score, you’re going to struggle. If you just relax and let things happen, then things do happen, and that’s what happened today." -- T.J. Auclair

SO MUCH FOR TROUBLE (5:30 p.m.): So much for Phil Mickelson squandering that one-shot lead. Both he and Nick Watney made a mess of the par-5 12th hole with Watney leaving one in the bunker after being left with an awkward stance when his second shot found the sand. Despite it playing as the second-easiest hole on the course, Mickelson and Watney each bogeyed it. But Watney’s bogey was particularly painful. His tee shot found the fairway after Mickelson was in trouble on the right. From the fairway, Watney found the sand and was left with an awful stance and the ball well below his feet. He left it in the sand and once he did get on the green wasn’t able to save par from 11 feet. -- Brian Wacker

LEFTY GOES RIGHT (5:20 p.m.): Phil Mickelson has a one-shot lead over Nick Watney, but that might be about to change after Lefty just pulled it right off the tee and into some grassy bushes on No. 12. It looked like Mickelson overswung a bit, taking the club well past parallel and losing his balance on the follow-through. The ever-creative Mickelson -- who is right-handed in everything except golf -- flipped one of his clubs over and lashed at it right-handed. He managed to get it out, hitting it about 30 yards and into the rough. -- Brian Wacker

WATNEY CHIPS IN (4:42 p.m.): It looked like momentum was starting to swing Phil Mickelson’s way on the par-3 ninth hole when Nick Watney hit a low laser through the green and nearly into the water. With his ball between a grandstand and a TV tower, Watney could have taken free relief. Instead, he chose to play the ball as it lies -- mostly because he had an opening to the hole and a good lie in the fickle Bermuda rough. It turned out to be a pretty good decision. Watney hit the shot of the tournament, pitching it up the slope, landing it short of the green and watching it funnel right into the hole for a birdie that pulled him to within one of Mickelson. -- Brian Wacker

O’HAIR’S DAY (4:40 p.m.):Sean O'Hair closed with a solid 67 on Sunday that moved him to 10 under. It could have been so much better, though.

O'Hair finished bogey-triple in the second round and double-double in the third -- leaving him 8 over on the two difficult par 4s in those two rounds alone. He did manage to birdie the 18th on Sunday and the 17th on Thursday so the cumulative damage was 6 over.

Four pars in the second and third rounds, though, would have left O'Hair, who is defending his title at the Transitions Championship next week, at 16 under. Phil Mickelson is currently in the lead at 18 under. -- Brian Wacker

LEADERBOARD CHECK (4:30 p.m.): Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney are nearing the turn here at Doral and there’s simply no separating the two. Mickelson just moved to a two-stroke lead, but Watney has kept pace with him all day. Mickelson has four birdies and one bogey, while Watney has two birdies and one bogey.

Two other names that have crept up the leaderboard: Kenny Perry, who is four shots back at the moment, and … Tiger Woods. The world’s No. 1 player is 78th in putting this week, but has managed to scrape it around well enough to move up to a tie for 11th at the moment. He’s made four birdies through 14 holes today and still hasn’t made a putt, which tells you that once the putts start dropping the way they usually do, Tiger will start winning like he usually does.-- Brian Wacker

YANG’S YO-YO WEEKS (4:00 p.m.): Y.E. Yang, who won last week up the coast in Palm Beach at the Honda Classic, had a polar opposite week here at Doral, where CA CEO John Swainson was following him around today. Yang hit only 50 percent of his fairways and just under 64 percent of his greens in regulation on the week and shot rounds of 73-70-73-78 to finish at 6 over. Last week, his worst score was a 70 and he was third in the field in greens in regulation. -- Brian Wacker

AIKEN MAKING A MOVE (3:20 p.m.): Thomas Aiken is quietly putting together the day’s best round and making a huge leap up the leaderboard with a bogey-free round in which he’s put together four birdies in a five-hole stretch as he moved to the back nine. Aiken, who was the 2001 South African Amateur of the Year, already has two top-15 finishes on the European Tour this year with a season-best T4 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. If he keeps putting the way he has, however, he could be looking at an even better finish. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON UPDATE (2:40 p.m.): Phil Mickelson was still weak Sunday morning and curtailed his practice session before the final round of the CA Championship. He spent roughly 10 minutes on the practice green before heading to the range about 35 minutes before his scheduled 2:45 p.m. tee time. Mickelson's normal pre-round routine would have been at least an hour. The world's No. 3 player spent about two hours in an urgent care facility being treated for heat exhaustion on Saturday night. Mickelson, who received two bags of IV fluid, also had been battling some gastrointestinal issues earlier in the week and hasn’t eaten a real meal since Thursday. -- Helen Ross

PERRY ON THE REBOUND (2:20 p.m.): Kenny Perry is doing his best to erase a forgettable round of 1 under 71 on Saturday. He began his day with birdies on each of the first two holes to get to get to 13 under. Perry has now birdied those holes 7 of 8 times this week with only a par on No. 2 during Thursday’s opening round keeping him from perfection. If he can continue to putt well -- something that’s always been hit or miss with Perry -- then he may be able to put some pressure on leaders Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney should either one of them falter. -- Brian Wacker

TOUGH DAY FOR STENSON (2:15 p.m.): It looks like Henrik Stenson's most notable moment here will be his strip show earlier in the week. It certainly won't be his final-round 83 that included a triple bogey, a double bogey and eight other bogeys. Stenson hit just 21 percent of his fairways and 44 percent of his greens on a forgettable day for the Swede. Not that seeing him in his underwear earlier the week should be any less forgettable. -- Brian Wacker

Here's a look at Stenson's scorecard from today:

TIGER AND HANK (1:50 p.m.): From worst to best in a flash. That is what Hank Haney must have done this week. Taking time out of his schedule trying to cure the total ineptitude that is Charles Barkely's golf game has turned from the ridiculous to the inane. I am not sure that the Hank Haney Project on GOLF CHANNEL was intended to be the best new comedy on television this year, but it certainly has turned into just that.

No comedy on the driving range with the world's No. 1 player today. An hour before Tiger Woods was to tee off, Haney strode shoulder-to-shoulder with Tiger to put in a pre-round word. Neither one of them could think that even Tiger would be able to mount the kind of charge that would be required to make up the 9-shot deficit he faces here at the CA Championship. But the form has improved every day and I would expect Tiger to play his best golf since his return. -- John Maginnes

FINCH CLIMBING LEADERBOARD (1:37 p.m.): The leaders won't tee off for another hour, but Richard Finch is doing all he can to climb into the top 10. After two ho-hum 72s and a 69 yesterday, Finch has birdied six of his first 12 holes today and climbed to 9 under for the tournament.

Finch began the day with birdies on each of his first four holes and has since added two more to move from T49 to T13.

If Finch's scoring is any indication of how Doral will pay this afternoon, then don't expect anybody to be able to catch Phil Mickelson or Nick Watney. -- Brian Wacker

MICKELSON TREATED FOR HEAT EXHAUSTION (1:20 p.m.): Phil Mickelson was treated last night in a Doral urgent care center for what the attending physician called "heat exhaustion and mild dehydration." To read more on this story, click here.

TALE OF THE TAPE (1:05 p.m.): With Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney having separated themselves from the rest of the field by four strokes, there's little else that's similar between the two. They do share the same swing coach -- Butch Harmon -- and are both native Californians -- Mickelson SoCal, Watney NorCal -- but that's about it.

Mickelson has 35 career wins, Watney has two. Mickelson has held the 54-hole lead 33 times in his career, Watney just twice. Mickelson's best finish at Doral is a runner-up, while this is Watney's first appearance here.

This week, however, there have been more similarities, as you can see in the chart below, which gives a pretty good visual on why they're both 16 under and leading the tournament. -- Brian Wacker

PHIL'S BIRDIE PROWESS (12:45 p.m.): If history is any indication, Phil Mickelson will be celebrating his second victory of the season in a little more than 5 hours from now. Mickelson has made 22 birdies through the first three rounds here. That's almost half the number of birdies he's made all year. And every time Mickelson has averaged seven birdies or better, as you'll see below, he's gone on to win the tournament. -- Brian Wacker