2006 The Honda Classic Donald Takes the Keys to Honda By Associated Press - March 12, 2006 PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Luke Donald was the last player on the driving range Sunday afternoon, grinning after a series of perfect shots. He flashed a bigger smile walking up the 18th fairway five hours later, knowing he was about to win the Honda Classic. Donald used back-to-back birdies midway through his back nine to take the outright lead at 11 under, made a great scrambling par on the difficult 16th to preserve the margin and held off Geoff Ogilvy by two shots for his second career PGA Tour victory. A 3-under final round of 69 was good enough for the Englishman, who hadn't won on tour since the 2002 Southern Farm Bureau Classic and pocketed a winner's check of $990,000. He made a 10-foot birdie putt at the 13th and a 25-footer on the 14th for the lead, then holed a slippery 18-footer to save par on the 16th. All that, followed by an approach to about 4 feet for a final birdie on 18, was good enough to hold off a field that remained tightly bunched all day. "I knew if I just played Luke Donald golf, it'd be good enough," Donald said. "It's nice to finish with a great shot like that." Ogilvy shot a 69 to cap his wild week, one that featured one double eagle, three eagles and three double bogeys. It was nearly enough for him to win his second straight start; after taking only one victory in his first 133 PGA Tour events, he won two weeks ago at the Match Play Championship. "I made some good putts and for the most part I played really well," Ogilvy said. "I got lucky a couple times. But how do you forget the week you had your first double eagle? It was good." David Toms shot a 69 to finish at 9 under, three shots off the pace and tied with Billy Mayfair (72), who entered the day tied with Donald for the 54-hole lead. Tom Pernice (68) wound up alone in fifth at 8 under, former Honda champion Dudley Hart (69) was 7 under, and three players -- Stephen Ames (68), Frank Lickliter (71) and Jeff Gove (74) -- shared seventh place at 6 under. Donald -- who had been 0-for-2 when holding 54-hole leads in tour events -- birdied two of his first four holes to get to 11 under, but bogeys at Nos. 7 and 10 knocked him from the outright lead. Short putts were dooming him; he missed a 4-footer for birdie at the par-5 sixth and three-putted there, then slid a 2 1/2 -foot par try past the right side of the hole at the 10th -- a miscue that allowed Gove to briefly take sole possession of the lead. Gove made a bogey and a double bogey in a three-hole span between 13 and 15. Ogilvy birdied 13, 14 and 16 -- but a bogey on 15 kept him from staying with Donald's pace. And Toms made an eagle on 17 to get to 9 under, but knew that wasn't going to be good enough. "Not disappointing at all," said Toms, who's has never won a tour stop in Florida. "I played a good, solid round of golf today under tough conditions and I came back from a disappointing day yesterday. I feel good about leaving here." Mayfair saw his chance of getting his first victory in 228 starts roll away following two misadventures at a couple par-5s. At the sixth, his third-shot chip ran across the green, eventually resting against an extremely thick tuft of grass off the back. He tried popping it free with a fairway wood -- but that shot rolled a few feet up an incline, then back toward his feet and ultimately led to a bogey. And at 12, another chip rolled up the green a bit before U-turning back his way, and Mayfair then sent his fourth shot off the opposite side. He made another bogey, dropping his third shot in seven holes. Padraig Harrington, who earned his first PGA Tour victory at the Honda last year, shot a 74 for the second straight day and wound up tied for 16th at 2 under, 10 shots back. He was aiming to join only Jack Nicklaus as back-to-back Honda winners. Divots: Brian Davis (71) went off first in the final round, finishing in only 2 1/2 hours. ... Playing together, Kris Cox and John Rollins each eagled the par-5 6th. Both reached in two, then Rollins made a 10-footer and Cox an eight-footer. ... Ian Poulter, who four-putted for triple bogey at 14 on Saturday, made double bogey there Sunday. ... Mark O'Meara (82) made three double bogeys in his first eight holes.