KUALA LUMPUR — Nick Watney's wife Sunday revealed how she stepped in to carry her husband's bag when his caddie went down with heat stroke at Malaysia's CIMB Classic — and helped him to a famous win. Amber Watney was watching the baking hot first round when her husband's caddie, Chad Reynolds, was overcome with dizzy spells at the 18th tee. She immediately offered to help out. “I was behind the ropes watching the round, and Nick just called me over and said, ‘Chad's going to go to the first aid tent'. I said, ‘I'll carry the bag',” said Amber, whose father was a PGA Tour caddie. “Nick was like, ‘Are you sure?' I didn't know what I was getting myself into, it was just that hole ... So I just carried the bag. Luckily I was wearing tennis shoes that day.” She added: “I've never done it before. My dad is a caddie out on tour so Nick was telling me, it's in the blood, in the blood. I put in my application for Friday's round and I was denied -- but I was OK with that.” Watney parred the hole for a first round of 71, and used a replacement caddie for Friday's second round. Reynolds, after treatment with an intravenous drip, returned for the weekend and helped him card 61 Sunday for a one-shot win. Watney's only bogey Sunday, denying him the chance of a hallowed round of 59, was on the 18th — ironically, the hole his wife helped him par. The pair will celebrate their second wedding anniversary Tuesday. Watney shot an electrifying 61 to win the $6.1 million Classic and hold off charges by Tiger Woods and defending champion Bo Van Belt. Watney, 31, became the second player in two days to flirt with a magical 59 at the par-71 Mines Resort and Golf Club, before bogeying the last as the pressure told. But his 10-under-par round was enough for a thrilling one-shot win, while Van Pelt botched a chance to force a play-off on the 18th — the same hole where he also missed a 59 Saturday. Robert Garrigus birdied the last two holes to share second place with Van Pelt, while Woods, the 14-time Major champion who had earlier threatened to steal the show, finished tied fourth with Brendon de Jonge and Chris Kirk. Woods, starting the day five shots off the lead, had roared into contention with six birdies in his first 10 holes, and he picked up two more shots in his last three holes for a 63. But Watney, turning at five under, added another six birdies up the back nine and despite his lone bogey on 18, finished with 22-under 262 for his sixth victory in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, and his second of the year. Van Pelt needed a birdie on the last hole to set up a play-off, but he put his tee shot onto an adjacent fairway and then bunkered his recovery, before scrambling to save par. — Agencies
