Clark upstages the big boys

South African Tim Clark used a brilliant 5-under-par 67 final round to prevail in the battle of bridesmaids yesterday, winning the $9.5 million Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., by one stroke over Australian Robert Allenby.

Clark, who started the day three strokes behind overnight leader Lee Westwood, produced the day's best round in demanding conditions at the Sawgrass TPC in earning his first PGA Tour victory after finishing second eight times on the circuit. He finished at 16-under 272, spurred on by a string of birdies starting at No. 9 and ending at No. 12 that staked him to a lead he did not relinquish.

Allenby, who closed with a 70, could not pick up a birdie on the final two holes that he needed to force a playoff and finished second for the fifth time since 2008. Lucas Glover (70) claimed third at 14 under. Westwood, the Brit who keeps knocking on the door of a major victory, crashed and burned when he double-bogeyed the treacherous 17th hole and finished with a 74, which left him sharing fourth place with Heath Slocum, Davis Love III, Bo Van Pelt and Ben Crane at 12-under.

With his victory, the diminutive Clark, nicknamed Penguin for the waddle in his walk, shed the tag of being the most successful player on the PGA Tour money-wise to have never won a tournament. The NBC television executives might have been hoping for a different kind of ending for this year's tournament, but Oldgolfdawg enjoyed pulling for the plucky underdog, the little guy battling for respect and redemption on one of the game's biggest stages. On an entertainment scale of 1 to 5, Oldgolfdawg would throw the outcome 4 dog biscuits.

Clark's stellar play, which included a 66-67 finish on baked greens, stole the show after world number one Tiger Woods created an early sensation yesterday -- even though he wasn't in contention -- when he withdrew complaining of neck pain that he said he feared could be caused by a bulging disk. Though he did make the cut, his withdraw marks the first time in his career that he didn't finish tournaments on back-to-back weekends.

Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson's bid to seize Woods' world number one ranking fizzled with a final-round 74 and a tie-for-17th-place finish. And the question of whether Rory McIlroy could build upon his victory at Quail Hollow was answered Friday when he missed the cut.

ESPN.com, and PGATOUR.com contributed to this post.