Co-champions at tournaments leave some pros fit to be tied

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Tiger Woods has won 48 tournaments around the world, enough to know what it means to be a defending champion. That's why he was so confused by the outcome at the Australian PGA Championship and the Volvo Masters.

Each ended in a tie.

Two tournaments, four champions.

"Whose picture do they put on the program next year?" Woods said, joking.

The joke is on golf.

Not many people Up Yonder would have cared who won Down Under except that the Australian PGA Championship produced two winners -- Peter Lonard and Jarrod Moseley, who turned a major event into an exhibition for no other reason than convenience.

Tied at the end of regulation and after the first playoff hole, with darkness setting in, they decided to share the title instead of returning Monday morning to determine the winner of one of Australia's majors.

"We've got commitments tomorrow," Moseley explained.

Even more disturbing was that something similar happened just three weeks earlier on the European tour.

Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie were in a playoff at the Volvo Masters when it became too dark to continue. They decided to share the title, giving each his first victory of the season.

They cited equally feeble excuses for not returning to Valderrama the next day.

If golf were meant to have ties, Greg Norman would have won the career Grand Slam. He's the only player to lose all four majors in a playoff.

Norman was among those outraged by the result in Australian PGA.

As early as the sun rises in Queensland, he saw no reason why Lonard and Moseley couldn't return at 6 a.m. to finish. They still would have had time to make flights to their oh-so-important commitments.

"It's the third-oldest golf tournament in the world, and here we are making a decision like that," Norman said. "It never ceases to amaze me."

Ian Baker-Finch won the Australian PGA and considers that one of his majors. Told of the outcome -- or lack of one -- he was disgusted.

"That's ridiculous," he said. "It belittles the event."

Baker-Finch speaks from experience. He was desperate to make a flight to England for the British Open when he was caught in a marathon playoff against Bruce Fleisher in the 1991 New England Classic. It was getting dark, and a PGA Tour official told them they might have to return the next morning to complete the playoff.

"Not finishing never crossed my mind," Baker-Finch said.

Fleisher made a 40-foot birdie putt on the seventh playoff hole to win. Baker-Finch caught a late flight out of Boston and went on to win the British Open.

"The whole idea is to sift through the field to find a champion," he said.

Such a concept apparently is lost on the European and Australian tours.

The ending led to a bizarre snapshot of Moseley and Lonard planting their lips on each side of the trophy.

The PGA Tour goes to any length to determine a winner, even if that means coming back to the course nearly seven months later, which was the case in 1998 when the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was washed out.

"Our policy is to play the tournament to a completion," said Henry Hughes, chief of operations for the PGA Tour. "That allows for a champion, not a tie."