NISSAN OPEN FINISH PROVIDED MORE THRILLS.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

Another Nissan Open, another rainstorm, another dramatic finish - which has been the case in eight of the past nine editions of this 80-year-old Los Angeles stop for touring PGA golfers.

Rory Sabbatini, the hottest player on the 2006 tour, came out on top Sunday at Riviera Country Club, winning by a stroke over 2005 champion Adam Scott.

Early finisher Scott made up all of a final-round deficit with an eight- birdie 64 that matched the best round of the tournament. The 26-year-old Australian moved into a first-place tie while waiting in the clubhouse, then waited some more for what would have been the event's fifth playoff in nine years.

Sabbatini ended that prospect with a 16th-hole birdie, but he needed to validate it with a par out of fairway rough on No. 17, then a long lag putt to set up his winning par on No. 18.

``This year, it seems like I have been flying under the radar,'' he said after his first win and third top-two finish in six 2006 starts. ``Putting a lot of good rounds together, but just not enough to get in the winner circle. ... This week, I think everything came together.''

Scott, whose 67-66-133 won the rain-shortened 2005 Nissan Open - which had ducks swimming in bunkers on the weekend - said he never thought he could catch third-round leader Sabbatini without shooting 61. It turned out that Scott's 64 was good enough to tie - at least for a brief time - as Sabbatini struggled through a 72 he called ``the hardest round of golf I ever played in my life.''

If Sabbatini was struggling, it didn't show when he needed grit the most. He hit a 7-iron to four feet off the flagstick to set up his tie-breaking birdie on the bunker-surrounded 16th green. He drove into right-side rough on 17 but made a tricky downhill putt to save par. Then, he set up a 14-inch winning putt with a 44-foot lag on 18.

``Rory didn't miss many shots,'' said Fred Couples, who played in the final group with Sabbatini and Craig Barlow and made up four shots to move into the back-nine tie for the lead with six holes to play.

``It's no surprise to me,'' Scott said of Sabbatini's third career tour victory, which upped his season earnings to $2,184,294 - tops on the tour and more than the 29-year-old South African had won in six of his previous seven full seasons. ``He is that talented, that if he gets it all figured out, he's going to be in contention and winning tournaments.''

Couples, perhaps the most popular player at Riviera since Ben Hogan, also was in contention in his 25th appearance in the tournament that was known as the Los Angeles Open for most of its existence.

The 46-year-old two-time Nissan champion opened his week on a flight from Perth, Australia, after tying for ninth in the Johnny Walker Classic. He spent the next two days in bed with the flu, then shot 66-72-65-71 to finish fourth at Riviera for his 11th top-10 finish in the event.

Couples was cheered on throughout by a vocal and growing gallery that helped swell the Sunday attendance to 38,147 at a tournament without Tiger Woods - who dropped out Saturday because of illness.

``The crowd was behind all of us,'' Couples said. ``They were certainly behind me more. But it was fun, fun to watch a guy win.''

--Miller time: Southern California PGA section champion Scott Miller of Simi Valley earned $9,588 at his first Nissan Open, placing 76th after making his first tour cut to qualify for weekend play.

So what will he do with his first paycheck in a PGA Tour event - cash it or frame it?

``My wife will cash it,'' he said. ``I'll make a photo copy of it and frame that.''

Miller, who earned the Nissan berth - and berths in the PGA Tour's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and Buick Invitational - by virtue of his tiebreaker win in the section championship last summer, said weekend play was the least stressful part of a tour event for a qualifier.

``We grinded, but knowing that we made the cut, it's just a lot less stressful. ... It's pretty special, very special, very cool.''

Miller exited Riviera in a rainstorm Friday afternoon, not knowing if he would survive the cut after opening 71-72 for a 1-over-par 143.

``We were on the computer as soon as we got home,'' he said.

Alternating cheers and groans of agony lapsed into computer-front celebration when Jesper Parnevik finished par-par to secure the cut on the number for Miller.

``He got us in tied for 69th and it was a beautiful thing, it was awesome,'' Miller said. ``We had a blast. It was stressful, though.

With his PGA Tour experience concluded - Miller missed two of three cuts and had a low score of 68, on Torrey Pines North at the Buick - he returns to work on a new job.

The former Moorpark Country Club head pro starts today as head pro at North Ranch Country Club, which will be the site of this year's SCPGA club-pro championship.

--Names in the game: Former Oak Park High star Brandon Beck, who is currently redshirting at the University of California, has advanced to the final 16 in the San Francisco City Golf Championship. Beck, seeded 47th, plays No. 2 seed and former PGA Tour player Rick Reinsberg on Saturday. ...

Mitch Voges, the Birmingham of Lake Balboa alumnus who won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1991, and former College of the Canyons player Nikki DiSanto, a participant on the Golf Channel's Big Break V, will be among the speakers at this week's Southern California Golf Show. The third annual event, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center. ...

Cal State Northridge freshman Erik Jarvey, who shot 65 last week at Wood Ranch in a final qualifier, opened the Matadors' spring season with a tournament-leading 68 in the Santa Anita North Texas Classic at Club de Golf in Guadalajara, Mexico. Jarvey and CSUN senior Doug Miller wound up tied for 16th as the Matadors placed seventh in the event.

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BY DAVE SHELBURNE