(By OCAL, courtesy Clker.com)
53-year-old Tom Pernice Jr. birdied the last two holes of the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minnesota to win by one-stroke.
Pernice Jr. finished just ahead of Jeff Sluman and Corey Pavin.
Pernice Jr. in the final round ended up with a 4-under-par 68 and a 17-under 199 total.
The UCLA graduate has been a pro golfer since 1983 and has five wins.
John Merrick
30-year-old John Merrick growing up in the Los Angeles area always wanted to play in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club.
He realized a dream last week.
On Sunday, the native of Long Beach, California made a couple of clutch shots that led to two pars in a sudden-death playoff and an eventual win in the Northern Trust Open when Charlie Beljan missed a 5-foot par putt on the second extra hole.
After a 169 starts on tour, the win could not have come at a better place for Merrick. He grew up in the LA suburb of Long Beach and went to college on the westside of town at UCLA.
Merrick closed the tournament at 2-under-par 69, to become only the ninth player to win this tournament at Riviera in Los Angeles, earning his first PGA Tour victory.
Merrick finished at 11-under-par 273.
Info compiled from PGA Tour
Junior center Joshua Smith recently quit UCLA’s basketball team and was given his immediate release.
He’s the second player to leave the program in the past three weeks. Another junior, guard Tyler Lamb quit the team to transfer to another school to gain more playing time.
Joshua Smith (courtesy UCLA)
Smith averaged 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds while playing 13.5 minutes a game in UCLA’s six games this season.
Smith started 24 of the 65 games during his first two years at UCLA. His time there was a struggle with weight and conditioning issues.
Info compiled from UCLA news release
Going into last Saturday game at Ohio State, California running back Brendan Bigelow was listed as the number-3 man behind Isi Sofele and C.J. Anderson.
After the game ended, a 35-28 loss to the Buckeyes, Bigelow had the best game of all three, rushing for 160 yards on just 4 carries, with two touchdowns, including an 81-yard run in the 3rd quarter and a 59-yarder in the 4th quarter.
California RB Brendan Bigelow (megasportsnews.com photo)
Bigelow’s 81-yarder was a career-long. It was Cal’s longest play from scrimmage this season, surpassing Daniel Lasco’s 77-yarder the week before vs. Southern Utah. It is the longest rush since Jahvid Best’s 93-yard touchdown run at UCLA in 2009. He ended the day with a personal-best 160 rushing yards and 230 all-purpose yards. His previous career best in all-purpose yards was 137 against Presbyterian last year.
The 5’10, 190-pounder was named to the CFPA Special Teams Trophy watch list prior to this season.
Corey Pavin (file photo)
Corey Pavin made a 12-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at Broken Sound in Boca Raton, Florida, to hold off Peter Senior and take home the Allianz Championship for his first win on the Champions Tour.
Bernhard Langer (71) and Michael Allen (69) tied for third place, a shot ahead of Jay Haas (69) and John Cook (69).
Both Pavin and Senior shot a final-round total of 71 to finish tied at 11-under 205.
Senior forced the playoff with a birdie on the last hole of regulation, but his try for birdie in the playoff stopped an inch too short of the cup.
The 52-year-old Pavin, known as “Bulldog”, is a UCLA grad and has won 21 tournaments in four different golf tours, 15 of them on the PGA Tour.
Info compiled from Champions Tour news
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