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Play title as Farren bogeys final two holes

Thursday, May 15, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The par has gotten a bad rap in the world of golf. When was the last time you heard someone bragging to his buddies about a par he made? Pars don't make headlines. Birdies do.

	John Aber played it safe with pars and won the Tri-State Match Play Tournament yesterday at Southpointe. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette)

But John Aber is a rare golfer who embraces the par.

"I don't underrate pars in my mind," he said. "You never want to give a hole away with a bogey. If you play a round and not make a bogey you'll never take a step back."

Aber put on a clinic of how to make pars in a 1-up victory against Sean Farren to win the Tri-State PGA Match Play Championship at Southpointe Golf Club yesterday.

Aber, the pro at Allegheny Country Club, picked up $3,000 and Farren, of Totteridge Golf Club in Greensburg, earned $1,800.

Aber took an early lead with birdies at Nos. 2 and 3 and parred the next 15 holes to hold off Farren, a long-hitter who often was 40 or 50 yards farther down the fairway than Aber with his drives. Farren steps to the tee and gives it a whack. No wiggles or waggles. No nonsense.

"That doesn't bother me at all," Aber said. "I play a lot of guys who drive it farther than I do."

Course management and patience paid off handsomely for Aber.

"That is my only game plan. I don't have an extra 20 yards," said Aber, who defeated Brad Westfall in the semifinals yesterday morning, 2 and 1. "I can't control what my opponent does."

It was a crisply played match that produced only pars and birdies until Farren had bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18. Aber and Farren took advantage of the ideal scoring conditions after spending Monday and Tuesday at the mercy of the elements and the demanding 6,856-yard layout.

Aber was 1-up at the turn after Farren's birdie on the par 5, 539-yard sixth hole. It remained that way until Farren's 6-foot birdie putt squared the match at No. 14. Farren took his only lead with a chip-in out of the first cut of rough guarding the left side of the 15th green.

"I expect Sean at any time to make a couple birdies in a row," Aber said.

"I felt the momentum go my way," Farren said. "I was playing pretty solid and figured if I could finish par-par-par that probably would win." He laughed. "I would have been right."

Both players made gut-wrenching short putts to par No. 16, and Farren went to No. 17 with a lead and a nightmarish memory of his trip in the morning to the 17th in a 1-up victory against Gordon Vietmeier in the semifinals.

Farren never finished playing the 17th. He finally picked up after a series of misdirected shots to concede the hole.

"This time I was thinking just get it into play," said Farren, whose drive at the par 4, 367-yard 17th left him 119 yards to the green.

"A little wedge," he said. "It just jumped."

The ball settled in the lip of the trap behind the green and after blasting out Farren missed a 5 1/2-footer and took his first bogey. Appropriately, Aber won the hole with a conventional two-putt par.

On No. 18, Farren's drive flirted with the creek alongside the right of the fairway, and his approach left him with an awkward sidehill lie about 10 yards short of the green. His chip ran 20 feet away from the cup and his putt coming back was off the mark. Another bogey.

While Farren struggled, Aber calmly two-putted for another par and the victory.

"He doesn't make many mistakes," Farren said. "His short game is awesome and he makes every putt. You needed birdies to beat him."

Aber didn't beat himself with bogeys.

"I play for pars," he said, "and hope to make a birdie or two."

That was his recipe for victory yesterday.