Myrtle Beach's Head Start shelved

An Early Head Start program in the works in Myrtle Beach for more than a year isn't going to happen after all.

Timing of the two grants needed to launch the program in the city's Canal-Nance neighborhood didn't line up, so the city plans to build three affordable housing units there instead, disappointing some neighborhood residents who say the kids really need the Early Head Start program.

"We need a child development center," said Rose Deason, who has lived on Dennison Avenue her entire life. "There isn't any option for the younger kids. Kids need somewhere to go. A Head Start would have been a good thing for those kids."

The plan fell apart after the two partners in the project, the city and the Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council, had grant money to spend - just not at the same time. The city received $200,000 from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program administered through the state, but couldn't get the paperwork approved in time to meet a deadline the Waccamaw EOC faced. The EOC had to move ahead and funded a Head Start program in another area, Assistant City Manager John Pedersen said. Officials at the Waccamaw EOC, which operates the Head Start centers in Horry, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties, could not be reached this week.

Now, the city, facing its own deadline, can't wait on another potential EOC grant to come through, Pedersen said.

The city was going to use its Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant to build the building for the Early Head Start program, Pedersen said, and the EOC was going to run it.

"We were all disappointed," he said. "We were at that point where we were in a use it or lose it situation. We really can't bank on a grant that might not even materialize."

So on to Plan B - the three affordable housing units. The city plans to use the $200,000, paired with about $50,000 in Community Development Block Grants, to build two 1,100-square-foot houses off Canal Street near Dennison Avenue and renovate an existing structure into a house, Pedersen said.

The city plans to rent the houses - criteria for who could rent them hasn't been set yet - with the revenue going into a new Community Land Trust, which would bank the money to buy more land in the neighborhood for more affordable housing, Pedersen said.

The S.C. State Housing Finance and Development Authority, which gave the Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant to the city, must sign off on the new housing plan before the city can move forward. The city plans to submit the revised paperwork by Wednesday and has already alerted the state agency of the proposed change, Pedersen. If approved, the city aims to start construction in January.

It's unusual for recipients to change how they plan to use grant money, S.C. Housing agency spokesman Clayton Ingram said, adding that he couldn't say this week whether the shift is likely to be approved.

"We really won't know until we get the final plan," he said. "This would be one of the first ones I know of that would be shifted in this way. Hopefully it is something we can accommodate."

Building affordable housing was one of the main goals in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Ingram said. Along the Grand Strand, average prices for houses and condominiums have plummeted in the past three years as the real estate market collapsed, but that hasn't erased the need for even more less-expensive houses, Ingram said.

The median price for a single-family home along the Grand Strand was $171,750 in October, according to the Multiple Listing Service. That's still too high for many workers in hospitality, transportation, the service industry and even nurses, Ingram said.

"Even though housing prices have fallen, they are still relatively high for a lot of people," he said. "There is always a need for this."

But some residents and members of the Canal-Nance Steering Committee aren't as excited about the housing as they were the Head Start center.

"Things don't always work out the way you want them to," said Frank Burgess, a committee member. "So you move on."

Though the Early Head Start program is off the table, Myrtle Beach officials still want to make it happen in Canal-Nance eventually. Myrtle Beach doesn't have an Early Head Start center, Pedersen said.

"We are still hopeful that it will still open down the road," he said. "The need is still there."

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Barefoot land faces foreclosure

A lis pendens, which is Latin for "suit pending," is a formal notice that a lawsuit is about to be filed.

Barefoot Retail Partners owns Barefoot Landing's entertainment district, where the Alabama Theatre, House of Blues and Alligator Adventure are located, according to Horry County property records.

The pending foreclosure would not include Barefoot Landing's retail and restaurant areas, which are owned by a separate corporation.

While a foreclosure would include the Barefoot Retail Partners property, it would not affect the operations of the entertainment venues there, which lease land from Filipowski's corporation.

"It would have no impact on us," said Bob Wood, general manager of the Alabama Theater. "The bank would have to honor our lease."

Filipowski did not return telephone messages last week.

Michael Hickerson, a Charleston lawyer who represents TD Bank, also did not respond to requests for comment.

Barefoot Retail Partners bought the property for $9.5 million in 2005, according to county property records. The corporation obtained a $10 million loan from what was then Carolina First to buy the property.

Barefoot Retail Partners obtained another $6 million loan tied to the property from Carolina First in 2007, according to court documents.

The $10 million loan was due in, August and the $6 million loan was due in September, property records show.

TD Bank has not said how much of the loan amounts are in default. That information likely would be included in the foreclosure lawsuit.

Businesses and lawsuits

Filipowski - a 60-year-old son of Polish immigrants who goes by the nickname "Flip" - made his fortune from a Chicago-based software company he formed called Platinum Technology Inc. in 1987.

That company, which produced database management software, grew through a series of acquisitions until it was bought out by Computer Associates in 1999 - the cusp of the dot-com stock run-up.

Computer Associates paid $3.5 billion for Platinum Technology - the most expensive software-industry transaction at the time - and Filipowski pocketed about $300 million from the sale.

Filipowski's success was a boon to Chicago's fledgling technology sector, which had hoped to compete with California's Silicon Valley. His next venture - an Internet incubator called Divine Inc. - proved to be a disaster.

Divine spent millions on overvalued tech start-ups, and its stock offering faltered amid the dot-com bubble's burst, eventually driving the company into bankruptcy.

"It was a life event - one with a lot of learning experiences, but not one with a lot of monetary success," Filipowski told a newspaper in the wake of Divine's eventual demise in 2003.

Filipowski next moved to Winston-Salem, N.C., where he formed his latest business, called Silkroad Technology Inc., which sells business management software.

Filipowski also formed Silkroad Equity, a private investment firm that counts Barefoot Landing's entertainment district as one of its subsidiaries.

Another Silkroad subsidiary - SilkHOB LLC - has been embroiled in a two-year legal battle with the House of Blues restaurant at Barefoot Landing.

House of Blues claims the subsidiary promised to provide the restaurant's promotional and marketing services for a three-year period starting on July 4, 2005.

House of Blues also claims SilkHOB promised to cover the venue's operating losses during that time, totaling $3 million.

SilkHOB claims in court documents that no final agreement ever was signed and that the subsidiary does not have $3 million to cover House of Blues' losses.

A hearing to determine whether House of Blues should be granted a summary judgment in the lawsuit is scheduled for Monday at the federal courthouse in Florence.

HOB Entertainment Inc., the California-based parent company of the local House of Blues, has joined the local restaurant in the lawsuit against SilkHOB.

Filipowski was a former member of HOB Entertainment's board of directors and was one of the people who ousted House of Blues founder Isaac Tigrett as chief executive in 1997 - the same year Tigrett visited North Myrtle Beach to herald the local venue's grand opening.

More lessons to learn

In addition to the Barefoot Landing property, Filipowski soon could lose a trio of oceanfront homes he and his Flips LLC business own along the Golden Mile section of Myrtle Beach, according to court documents.

JP Morgan Chase filed a lawsuit against Filipowski last year, claiming he had defaulted on an $8 million loan for which the homes had been used as collateral.

Filipowski filed a countersuit, claiming the bank tricked him into signing an interest rate swap agreement that he later learned would cost him $750,000 to terminate.

Both sides agreed to dismiss their claims earlier this year, but JP Morgan Chase still has a lis pendens on each home.

Filipowski is trying to sell the homes for a combined $8.8 million, according to real estate listings. That includes $4.6 million for his privately gated home at 3404 N. Ocean Blvd., complete with Japanese garden, ornate furnishings and infinity-edge pool.

In a separate court action, TD Bank is threatening to foreclose on five parcels Filipowski's Coastal Resort Holdings LLC owns in Barefoot Resort because of an unpaid $5 million mortgage. TD Bank filed a lis pendens against that property earlier this month.

Filipowski's legal problems have been complicated by his divorce from ex-wife Veronica, whom he met in the late 1980s during a golfing trip to Myrtle Beach.

Veronica Filipowski received an undisclosed sum from the divorce last year. The judge in that case closed the divorce hearings to the public and only allowed those who signed confidentiality agreements to attend.

Veronica Filipowski now is suing her ex-husband's mistress under North Carolina's "heart balm" torts law, which lets jilted spouses seek financial compensation for adultery. Veronica Filipowski is seeking at least $40,000 in damages from the mistress in a trial scheduled for next month.

The divorce also scuttled Andrew Filipowski's plans to help build a minor league baseball stadium for Winston-Salem's Class A team, the Dash. That team plays in the same league as the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Filipowski had co-owned the baseball team - then known as the Warthogs - with Billy Prim, founder of the Blue Rhino propane cylinder exchange company and the brother of Veronica Filipowski.

The Filipowskis split in the midst of the stadium construction, leaving Prim and city officials to come up with his partner's share of the costs. The $48.7 million stadium ultimately was completed in time for the Dash's opening game this year.

Andrew Filipowski and Prim also had been partners in Blue Rhino, which got its name after Prim went on an African safari and remarked that a rhinoceros would be the perfect mascot for his company because it is "tough, sturdy and looks like a tank." Blue was added to the name because it is the color of a propane gas flame.

Blue Rhino also ran into trouble when its auditor questioned some of the company's financial transactions in 1999 and its stock plunged from about $25 per share to $2 per share. Blue Rhino continued to dominate market share, however, and Prim and Filipowski sold the company in 2004 for $343 million.

Most recently, Andrew Filipowski's Silkroad Technology announced this month that it has closed on $40 million in equity financing from a group of investors.

A news release announcing the investment said the money will be used for sales and marketing efforts, acquisitions and product development. It is not clear whether any of the money can be used to pay off debts related to the threatened foreclosures along the Grand Strand.

Tech-sector analysts have said it would be foolish to discount Andrew Filipowski's ability to bounce back from financial setbacks, citing the numerous times he has done it in the past.

"For better or worse, Andrew Filipowski ... is the closest thing the digital content industry has to a rock star," Michelle Manafy, editor of E-Content newsletter, wrote in a 2003 profile of the entrepreneur.

Even amid the breakup of his marriage and the public feud with former business partner Prim, Andrew Filipowski maintained an optimistic philosophy during a 2007 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, telling the newspaper he has no regrets about his personal or business failures.

"I only think about it from a lesson learned," he said. "If you dwell on the past, you end up going crazy."

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Vegas aiming to boost golf in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela – While some golfers in Venezuela see a dim future, Jhonattan Vegas sees an opportunity.

Vegas has become the first Venezuelan to earn a PGA Tour card at the same time that golf is under assault in his country with President Hugo Chavez calling it a pastime of the rich and threatening to seize elite clubs to make way for public housing. Chavez’s government already has shut down some courses, including the one where Vegas’ father was the groundskeeper and first introduced his son to the game.

The 26-year-old Vegas qualified for next year’s PGA Tour by finishing among the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list in his third season of professional golf. He wants to use his position on the PGA Tour to help keep golf alive in his homeland, particularly among those who can’t afford to join expensive private clubs.

“One of the things I hope to do for the country is take the sport to the people, and to have people get to know golf a lot better,” Vegas said in an interview with The Associated Press.

When he secured his card last month, Vegas achieved a dream that long eluded Venezuelan golfers.

“We come from a super humble family that always had to work to achieve things,” Vegas said. “But my father always gave everything he had to provide us with that opportunity.”

Especially out on the fairways.

Vegas grew up with his parents and three brothers in a remote oil drilling camp in Morichal, in the swath of oil fields along the Orinoco River. His father sold food to the oil workers and was the groundskeeper for the camp’s nine-hole golf course.

That now-abandoned course is one of six that have been closed by Venezuela’s government in the past seven years – all but one of them on land owned by the state oil company.

It’s a disappointing trend for Vegas.

“Unfortunately here in Venezuela, they’re closing the courses on us instead of opening new ones” as many countries are around the world, he said.

Chavez has warned that he could expropriate private courses in Caracas to make way for public housing complexes. In one televised appearance last year, Chavez called golf a “bourgeois sport” while discussing his plans for transforming Venezuela into a socialist state.

For his part, Vegas says Venezuelan golfers haven’t done enough to broaden the sport’s popularity.

“We’ve created that stigma because in reality we haven’t done anything to take golf to the people,” he said.

Of the 17 courses that remain in the country, only two are public, severely limiting the access to those who can’t afford to play at the private clubs.

“Maybe what I’m looking to do here is ignite something, to see if we can change the perception of golf in the country,” Vegas said.

Venezuela “hasn’t done anything at all to create a system in which any kid off the street can come and hit golf balls,” he said. “Maybe we’ll see if we change that paradigm from now on.”

Vegas was all smiles at a national tournament in Caracas this month as he shook hands with fans, signed autographs and posed for photos with children.

Among the hundreds who turned out to watch him play at the exclusive Valle Arriba Golf Club was his 55-year-old father, for whom the place held special memories.

Carlos Vegas grew up in a poor neighborhood next to the course and remembers earning money as a boy by picking up stray golf balls. He used an empty juice carton, fashioning it into “a sort of glove,” to collect them.

Carlos Vegas’ passion for the sport was infectious. He recalled that Jhonattan was about 2 years old when he started imitating his father’s golfing stance and took swings using a broomstick or club-like plastic rods.

“When he was about 2 1/2, we had to cut him some little golf clubs – like three irons – so that he could do what he liked best,” the father said.

Later, Carlos Vegas took his son to a golf school in the eastern town of Punta de Mata that was run by Franci Betancourt. He soon became Jhonattan’s mentor and today is his trainer.

After winning the national youth golf championship at 17, Vegas moved to the United States to enroll at the University of Texas, where he studied kinesiology and continued to refine his golf game. He helped the Longhorns finish 11th at the 2007 NCAA championship, placing 39th individually.

Vegas turned pro in 2008 and got his first win this August when he captured the Wichita Open. He finished 2010 with more than $330,000 in earnings, putting him seventh on the Nationwide money list and assuring his spot on the PGA Tour.

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Vegas, who was third on the Nationwide circuit in driving distance at 312.9 yards, will make his PGA Tour debut at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

Betancourt is confident his pupil has the talent to eventually be among “the top 20 in the world.”

Colombian Camilo Villegas is glad Vegas will be joining the ranks of Latin Americans on the Tour.

“I played with him in a couple of South American tournaments, and the one I remember the most is the last one I played in Colombia,” Villegas said during last week’s Australian Masters. “He’s a strong kid who hits it far. It’s nice to see him play good this year and get his card.

“I’ve always said, ‘I don’t want to be the only Colombian on tour, and we need more South Americans on tour.’ Adding Jhonattan is nice. He’s a great kid to have on tour.”

In Venezuela, golf fans are hoping the sport will get a boost from Vegas’ emergence in a country where baseball has long been the No. 1 sport and Chavez’s threats have halted construction of new courses.

The course shutdowns by the government – most recently on Margarita Island after Chavez ordered a hotel expropriated – have hindered efforts to expand the sport in country, said Juan Nutt, president of the PGA of Venezuela.

He’s hoping Vegas can help turn that around.

“When Jhonattan is playing in next year’s Tour and he goes on television, there are going to be many more followers of golf in this country, even if they aren’t golfers,” Nutt said. “A lot more attention is going to be paid to a sport that traditionally hasn’t been followed much in this country.”

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Bottom 10: Tour’s worst statistical performers

The longest season in major professional sports has ended for 2010. The PGA Tour is on vacation.

The best players have their awards. The top 125 have their exemptions for 2011. And the worst players? Well, they have a flurry of slap-you-in-the-face statistics that might provide motivation for a bounceback.

Welcome to the Bottom 10 for 2010. Helpful hint: You don’t want to be here.

The Bottom 10 identifies the poorest performers in some of the PGA Tour’s most important statistical categories. The Bottom 10 reflects official numbers from the PGA Tour and may exclude some players without the required number of rounds.

The purpose of this analysis is not to embarrass anyone, but rather to point to the enormous skill necessary to play the world’s most competitive golf tour. For example, a scoring average of 72.00 would not have cracked the top 175?in 2010, while a stroke average of 71.00 would not have made the top 100.

BOTTOM 10 SCORING AVERAGE (worst listed first): Brad Faxon 73.12, Greg Kraft 73.07, Kevin Johnson 72.88, Justin Bolli 72.88, Chris Wilson 72.68, Jerod Turner 72.60, Jeff Gove 72.40, Vance Veazey 72.32, Craig Bowden 72.23, Andrew McLardy 72.22, Mark Calcavecchia 72.22.

The injury-plagued Faxon clearly is ready for the broadcasting booth, and Calcavecchia probably should concentrate on the Champions Tour.

Several of these statistical categories are related. Why is Gove, a very solid ballstriker, in the Bottom 10 in scoring average? Because he is arguably the world’s worst putter.

BOTTOM 10 PUTTS PER ROUND: Jeff Gove 31.00, Roger Tambellini 30.71, Kris Blanks, 30.60, Billy Mayfair 30.50, Cameron Tringale, 30.45, Troy Matteson 30.44, Mathew Goggin 30.33, Charles Warren 30.28, Rocco Mediate 30.28, Davis Love III 30.24.

At 46, Love remains a potent ballstriker but continues to falter on the greens.

For amateurs, counting putts is the simplest of the stat categories. Use the PGA Tour formula: If a ball lies anywhere on the fringe, no matter how close to the hole, the resulting stroke is not a putt, even if a putter is used.

Consequently, for those who keep complete stats, any shot from the fringe is eligible for an up-and-down.

BOTTOM 10 UP-AND-DOWN FROM LESS THAN 30 FEET: Brad Faxon 65.52, Jerod Turner 69.23, Nicholas Thompson 73.27, Steve Lowery 74.60, Vaughn Taylor 75.56, Chris Couch 76.25, Mark Calcavecchia 76.27, Chris Tidland 76.67, Cameron Tringale 77.14, Craig Bowden 77.42.

The best player in this category was Brett Quigley, at 97.33 percent. Quigley had 75 of these shots during the year and got up-and-down 73 times.

Phil Mickelson may be known as a short-game machine, but he, too, had 75 shots of less than 30 feet and got up-and-down just?62 times (for a percentage of 82.67 and a rank of 143rd).

BOTTOM 10 DRIVING DISTANCE: Brian Gay 266.4, Craig Bowden 270.0, Brad Faxon 271.4, Omar Uresti 272.0, Tim Clark 272.2, Greg Kraft 273.2, Jeff Quinney 273.3, Paul Goydos 273.6, Mike Weir 273.9, Ben Curtis 275.5, Greg Chalmers 275.5.

You gotta love Corey Pavin. He played in just eight PGA Tour events, yet still finished 116th on the money list. He didn’t have enough drives to be included in the driving distance category. That’s probably a good thing, because he would have been last by a mile. Pavin averaged 256.7 yards off the tee, almost 60 yards behind leader Robert Garrigus (315.5) and about 10 yards shorter than Gay, who is listed in last place.

For Pavin and Gay, of course, there is a noteworthy compensation in driving accuracy. Pavin hit 76.14 percent of the fairways, which would have been first. Gay finished at 74.00 percent, third in the official stats.

Garrigus, by the way, finished 175th in driving accuracy (55.73 percent, more than 20 percentage points behind Pavin).

BOTTOM 10 DRIVING ACCURACY: Martin Flores 50.15, Daniel Chopra 51.27, Jimmy Walker 51.29, John Daly 52.21, Phil Mickelson 52.66, Rich Barcelo 52.80, Tim Herron 53.49, Mike Weir 53.83, George McNeill 54.34, J.B. Holmes, 54.45.

Daly and Mickelson are notoriously wild off the tee, but the name that stands out on this list is Weir. The former Masters champion was the only player on Tour to finish among the Bottom 10 in both driving distance and driving accuracy.

What’s up with Weir? He was battling a partially torn ligament in his right elbow, and he played when he probably should have been resting. Weir, who finished 151st on the money list, will start the 2011 season with a major medical exemption.

BOTTOM 10 GREENS IN REGULATION: Mike Weir 57.89, Jerod Turner 58.94, Brad Faxon 59.05, Matt Bettencourt 60.17, Greg Kraft 60.63, Daniel Chopra 61.64, Rich Barcelo 61.72, Stuart Appleby 61.84, Padraig Harrington 61.90, Derek Lamely 61.93.

Appleby? Harrington? Yes, they have some serious work to do. Another marquee player who barely missed the Bottom 10 in GIR was Ian Poulter, who finished 181st in this category.

BOTTOM 10 SCRAMBLING: Brad Faxon, 47.49, Nicholas Thompson 49.38, Henrik Bjornstad 49.59, Jeff Gove 50.36, Steve Lowery 50.38, Vance Veazey 50.72, Jerod Turner 50.88, Mark Calcavecchia 50.96, Kevin Johnson 51.32, Steve Wheatcroft 51.84.

Scrambling percentage measures how often a player makes par or better after missing a green in regulation.

Perhaps the most mystifying stat of all is proximity to the hole, which measures the average distance a player’s ball comes to rest after an approach shot (not including shots from around the green). Jay Williamson finished second in proximity to the hole (30 feet, 9 inches), but was 167th on the money list. Joe Durant, third in proximity to the hole, finished 124th on the money list.

BOTTOM 10 PROXIMITY TO THE HOLE: Martin Flores 38-3, Jerod Turner 38-2, Daniel Chopra 38-2, Ted Purdy 38-1, J.B. Holmes, 38-1, Derek Lamely 38-0, James Driscoll 38-0, Angel Cabrera 37-10, Aaron Baddeley 37-9, Scott McCarron 37-8.

Bottom 10. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Poulter leads Dubai, eyes back-to-back wins

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Ian Poulter broke free from a crowded leaderboard Saturday to take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Dubai World Championship.

The Englishman was at 12-under after a third-round 69, two shots ahead of Ross Fisher of England, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Francesco Molinari of Italy, who all were at 10-under.

Poulter, who won last week’s Hong Kong Open, started Saturday in a tie for the lead with Fisher, and the two were even for much of the day. Poulter made his move on the back nine with two birdies while Fisher three-putted the 15th hole and went in the water on the 18th, which forced him to settle for a bogey.

“You know, I think it was important today to go out there and play solid, bank a few birdies,” Poulter said. “I felt I dropped two silly, silly bogeys on holes that I really feel I should have taken advantage of. That was the only frustration of the day.”

Fisher, who tied the course record with a 64 in the second round, was left to rue what could have been a solid round and a chance to at least tie for the lead several times on the back nine. His best chance came on the 15th, when he hit his drive to the green on the 371-yard, par 4 hole. His first putt for eagle rolled past the hole, and he missed what should been an easy putt for birdie.

“I made it harder, I didn’t play as well as yesterday,” Fisher said. “I missed a couple of putts at key times ... Hit a great drive on 15 onto the green and unfortunately didn’t capitalize there.”

Jaidee and Molinari charged up the leaderboard, with the Thai shooting a 3-under 69 while the Italian had a 4-under 68 to put themselves in contention. No. 1-ranked Lee Westwood also was in the mix, shooting a 1-under 71 to remain three shots off the pace.

Westwood won the tournament last year, shooting a course record 64 on the final Sunday on his way to an easy victory.

“Kept giving myself a lot of chances at birdies, and nothing would go in,” Westwood said. “I had to hit some good shots coming in just to make a couple of birdies in the last five holes, which has kept me in the tournament probably.”

Graeme McDowell’s hopes of winning the European money title took another hit after he finished four shots behind money-leader Martin Kaymer and far down the leaderboard in a tie for 30th.

Kaymer, the U.S. PGA champion, will claim the money title and a $1.5 million bonus by finishing higher than McDowell, who can only overtake the German in the Order of Merit by winning the tournament or ending up alone in second as long as Kaymer finishes no higher than a tie for third. If McDowell is tied for second, Kaymer could afford to finish as low as sixth.

“Barring the impossible, I think Europe’s No. 1 is probably not a reality for me any more,” McDowell said. “Unless I shoot 55 tomorrow, which unless one of you boys comes and putts for me tomorrow, I don’t think will happen.

“You know he (Kaymer) is going to win the Race to Dubai tomorrow and he’s the best. He’s been one of the best players in the world this year and certainly deserves everything he has achieved.”

After failing to break par in the first two days, McDowell made three birdies on the back nine to reach 2 under for the tournament.

Kaymer effectively ended the two-man battle for the Order of Merit on Thursday, surging to a five-shot lead over McDowell after shooting a 67. The lead ballooned to eight shots Friday, when Kaymer hit a 70 for a share of fourth place.

Kaymer occasionally struggled Saturday, shooting a 1-over 73. It was an up-and-down day that ended badly with a double-bogey on the 18th, when the No. 3-ranked Kaymer’s chip onto the green rolled back into the water.

“It was a very frustrating finish, very disappointing,” said Kaymer, whose chances of overtaking Westwood at the top of the rankings also appear unlikely. “I thought if I could finish with a birdie I might have a chance tomorrow ... Tomorrow I will play as aggressive as possible.”

McDowell, though, never could take full advantage of Kaymer’s errors because of his poor putting.

“The big issue this week is really that I can’t hole putts and, without the putter working, it’s very difficult to get on top of the golf course,” he said. “Like I said yesterday, I feel like every time I miss a green I feel like I’m making bogeys because I’m not holing the 6- and 8-footers.”

McDowell’s fellow Northern Irelander, Rory McIlroy, shot a 6-under 66 – the lowest round of the day – to climb back into contention at 7 under. He made seven birdies, including three in a row after the turn.

“My iron play improved, I gave myself a lot of chances,” McIlroy said. “I was hitting a lot of greens but just not getting it close enough, and today, I birdied a few of the par 3s and played really well. “

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Heartbreaking finish for Coastal Carolina football

CONWAY -- In time, the Coastal Carolina players and coaches will likely look back with pride on this late-season charge they made and remember 2010 as a step forward for the program - as the year the Chanticleers returned to national relevancy with their second-ever FCS playoff appearance.

But that kind of perspective was hard to summon Saturday afternoon after the way it all ended.

After falling behind by a touchdown with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter against No. 21 Western Illinois, the Chants and senior quarterback Zach MacDowall looked like they might just have one more push, one more surprise left in them as they moved 72 yards all the way to the Leathernecks' 4 with 21.7 seconds remaining.

Instead, the drive, the comeback and the season all came to an abrupt end that summed up the afternoon all too well for CCU.

On first-and-goal from the 4, MacDowall fired the football across the right side of the field and into the front of the end zone where WIU's Kieron James intercepted the pass to seal the Chants' fate in their first playoff game since 2006.

With the help of five Coastal Carolina turnovers, Western Illinois left Brooks Stadium with a 17-10 win before a crowd of 4,556 to advance to a second-round playoff matchup at Appalachian State.

CCU, meanwhile, was left to deal with the painful ending to what had been a memorable ride.

"It's just heartbreak down there," senior safety Dominique Davenport said of the postgame locker room. "You sit back and try to hold tears as you see your teammates bawling their eyes out because we gave it our all this season. A lot of people doubted us, but we stuck together as a team. To fall short like this, it hurts."

The Chants (6-6) had rallied back from a 2-5 start to the season to finish in a three-way tie for the Big South title and claim the conference's automatic playoff bid through a tiebreaker, completing a rather improbable turnaround that delivered the first home playoff game in program history.

A game they envisioned going much differently Saturday.

"It hurts to lose like that," CCU coach David Bennett said. "We were blessed to get into the postseason and blessed to have a home game and we didn't take advantage of it. We didn't do our part."

Missed opportunities were the unfortunate storyline all day for the Chants.

MacDowall, who had been playing the best football of his career the last three weeks and was a key reason the Chants had even advanced this far in the first place, threw a career-high four interceptions while completing 21 of 39 passes for 292 yards.

Bennett revealed after the game that the senior quarterback had been administered an IV earlier in the morning after battling illness the last few days.

And after not throwing any interceptions the last two games, MacDowall was picked off by Leathernecks cornerback Chris Boone on the Chants' first possession Saturday after leading the team to the WIU 26.

Then on its second possession, Coastal Carolina reached the WIU 20 before losing a fumble as senior Eric O'Neal never got control of the handoff.

The Chants would have yet another scoring opportunity thwarted in the final minute before halftime as WIU's Tyler West jumped in front of the waiting hands of junior tight end David Duran to intercept MacDowall in the end zone on a play that started at the Leathernecks' 14.

"The sad thing is at halftime we could have had 28 points," Bennett said. "We just didn't play as well as we've played the last few weeks. If we would have, we would have been victorious. We feel that in our hearts. We didn't do it, and it hurts."

Because meanwhile, Western Illinois (8-4) and its vaunted offensive attack weren't doing a whole lot against the CCU defense.

The Leathernecks, who entered the game ranked second among all FCS teams in total offense, took a 10-0 lead into halftime.

Their first score, a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matt Barr early in the second quarter, was set up by an 83-yard completion from Barr to Terriun Crump after sophomore cornerback Tre Henderson tried to jump the route for an interception. Instead, Crump caught the pass with no other defenders behind him and raced all the way down the sideline to the CCU 8.

Western Illinois added a 38-yard Pat Smith field goal later in the second quarter, but the Chants were still very much in the game in the second half, thanks to a spark from Davenport.

After the Chants pinned WIU at its own 2 on a nice punt from senior Ben Erdman, the CCU defense did what its offense hadn't been able to - reach the end zone.

Davenport picked off a short pass from Barr and raced 17 yards into the end zone as Coastal Carolina cut its deficit to 10-7 with 4:36 left in the third quarter.

"I was just doing what I was coached to do," said Davenport, who tied a Big South single-season record with his second interception return for touchdown this year. "We were playing man, and the fullback that I had came into the flats, and I just kind of baited the quarterback a little bit."

The Chants would get their opportunity to tie the game early in the fourth quarter as MacDowall led the team down to the WIU 12. Senior kicker Justin Durham then lined up for a 29-yard field goal attempt. He missed it to the left, although the CCU sideline didn't seem to agree with the call.

But Durham would get another chance to even the score on the Chants' next possession, and this time he connected on a game-tying 34-yard field goal with 4:38 remaining.

"I was glad I got the opportunity to go back out there and hit the second one after I missed the first one," Durham said. "Kickers have to have a short [memory]. That's the mentality that we always have."

Unfortunately for the Chants, Western Illinois responded with an 81-yard touchdown drive to take the lead right back. Barr picked up a key first down with an 11-yard run on third-and-10 early in the drive and eventually capped it with a 5-yard touchdown run on third-and goal with 1:50 remaining.

That left Coastal Carolina with time for one more drive.

MacDowall passed for 40 yards and rushed for 27 on CCU's final possession and the Chants benefitted from a pass interference penalty and a Leathernecks' personal foul as they got down to the WIU 4. But their fifth and final turnover would prove decisive.

"Defensively, we held the No. 2 offense in the nation to 17 points. Offensively, we had [462] yards of offense," Bennett said. "But ... you can't turn the ball over five times in a national playoff game and win."

So this is where the journey ends for the Chants. They picked up a share of the Big South title for the fourth time in program history and reached the playoffs for the second time.

But they'll have to wait a little longer for that first playoff victory.

"I'll tell you what, our team and our guys realized that we belonged," Bennett said. "We belong in the playoffs."

It wasn't the ending the Chants had imagined after riding high into this game on a four-game winning streak. But then again, who would have even pictured them being here after that 2-5 start?

"I promise you this, a month ago if you had said we'd be sitting here, winning the conference, in the national playoffs with a home bid, I'd have told you you're crazy," Bennett said. "So I'm very proud of what these seniors have accomplished."

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Coastal Carolina football back on the map

A season that seemed lost a month ago following a 2-5 start unexpectedly has new life after the Chants finished a remarkable late season turnaround Saturday by earning a share of the Big South title as well as the conference's automatic playoff bid. And the coach who became a target for a frustrated fan base midway though the season has now delivered the program's second playoff berth and one of the highlights of his tenure.

"It's a funny world, ain't it?" Bennett said, as his team prepared for the first home playoff game in program history, Saturday against No. 21 Western Illinois. "You're one win away from being great, one win away from being bad in this profession that we do."

Bennett admits now that the season took a toll on him at times.

He felt the criticism, heard some of the things people were saying and even questioned himself to a degree.

"It was one of them deals where middle way through, you go, 'Man, do I even do a good job coaching anymore?' You ask yourself that question," Bennett said. "You go, what can I do better? What can we do better? The bottom line is you stay the course, you keep your faith."

Bennett has talked a lot about faith and blessings over the last week. He knows how improbable all this seemed just a couple weeks ago.

These same Chants went 1-4 in non-conference play, losing to a Towson team that didn't win another game all year. They were 2-5 after a disappointing loss to Stony Brook on Oct. 23 in which they fell behind 31-0 in the second quarter.

There were plenty of doubters at that time, Bennett acknowledged, and he knows because he heard the criticism - some from sources he didn't expect.

"Just because I coach football [doesn't] mean you're not human," Bennett said. "So when it gets back to you that people that you think are your friends and people that you think have your back [are] talking bad about you, you find out who your true friends are. In life, your circle of real close friends is smaller than you think. So you can't worry about what other people say or do."

He doesn't want to go into specifics, but he says there were a couple criticisms or comments that particularly stung along the way.

"When it comes back to you that somebody you think is your friend, one of your dear friends, [is] saying things, what do you do? You say a prayer for them and move on," Bennett said. "You forgive, but as human beings, it's hard to forget, isn't it? So you remember that. You just tuck it away."

But he's got more important things to worry about these days. Through all the setbacks and disappointment this season, Bennett has projected a steady message that this team still had something to play for, that this program still had big goals.

He had commented in his office back in early October that his grand vision for the program hadn't changed - despite the Chants' 1-4 record at the time and the three straight non-winning seasons before it. He reiterated that message again this week.

"We still have the vision of winning a national championship here. I think it would be so awesome for our university, our community, our state," Bennett said. "We're not there yet. We're striving for it. ...

"There's a lot of people that are just looking for a conference championship, and they're satisfied with it. We don't want just that. We want to help put this place on the map nationally."

---

After that Tuesday practice, with his team gathered in front of him on the field, Bennett read down the list of CCU players who had made the all-Big South team. He mentioned the five first-team selections, the seven second-teamers, junior Marcus Lott's all-academic honor and sophomore Andrae Jacobs' Big South defensive player of the year award.

He didn't mention his coach of the year recognition to the players, though.

But CCU athletic director Hunter Yurachek would a few minutes later while congratulating the team on its remarkable run over the last month and commending Bennett's role in that.

It was a month and a half ago when Yurachek sat in his office and said he thought the football team was "close" despite its 1-4 non-conference record, while also voicing his confidence in Bennett.

"I think when he was sitting at 1-4 and 2-5 - not myself, but I think from the outside [with] people saying 'Hey, we need to make a change' - I think he just kept pressing forward," Yurachek said this week. "I think he had a belief that he had a team that could get this done, and he kept telling those guys to believe in themselves. He kept picking himself off the mat and dusting himself off after that tough start to the season, so I think he showed great resiliency and great leadership in really not letting the ship sink."

Beyond Bennett, Yurachek talked about what this playoff opportunity means for the program overall.

"It kind of puts us back on the FCS football map," he said. "It gets our program back to where it was four or five years ago."

It's amazing what a four-game winning streak can achieve.

Instead of talking about a fourth straight non-winning season, the Chants are talking about claiming their fourth Big South title (or at least a share of it) in eight seasons while remaining the only team to advance from the conference into the NCAA-FCS playoffs. And what all that might mean for the program going forward, for recruiting, etc.

"The exposure," Yurachek said. "They have a selection show that was on ESPNU nationwide, and you see Coastal Carolina. We popped up there first. That's exciting, and that's great exposure not only for us as an athletic program but as a university as a whole. ... You can't put a price tag on that type of national exposure."

Yurachek hopes Coastal Carolina can draw a crowd of 6,000 to 7,000 fans for the first home playoff game in program history. The ticket office was closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, but the university had sold about 4,000 tickets through Wednesday, and Yurachek is hoping for a strong walk-up crowd Saturday.

Meanwhile, the athletic department planned to have a presence at Coastal Grand Mall today while also marketing the game in newspaper, television and radio advertisements.

Bennett has been vocal in his hopes that the community will come out in support of what the Chants, their coach and their athletic director hope will be a big moment for the program.

Said Yurachek, "This is just going to be a springboard, I think, to bigger things to come next year and the years after that."

---

It's still a bit incredible to think how this all came about.

Coastal Carolina (6-5, 5-1 Big South) had to win its final four games while knocking off a Liberty team that had lost only one other conference game over the last four seasons and then limiting a Charleston Southern team (one that had scored 42 points the week before) to as few points as possible Saturday to have a chance at claiming the playoff bid through the league's tiebreaker.

A tiebreaker that the Chants could only win if Liberty first knocked off a hot Stony Brook team and scored at least 42 points of its own in the process to swing the tiebreaker of fewest points allowed in conference play to the Chants.

Bennett tells the story of asking his wife Melanie last week whether she wanted to spend Thanksgiving at home or in Cheraw with family.

"She said, 'We're not going to either. Let's just go with God's plan.' So I went, 'OK,' " Bennett said. "She says, 'We're going to the playoffs.' And I went, 'OK. Honey, just let me tell you something ..."

He broke down the scenario for her and said "That would be almost a miracle."

Whatever it is and however it happened, the Chants are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2006 - and this time at home.

And as the initial shock wore off and the reality set in, the players have also started talking about what all this could mean for the program in the big picture.

"This is getting the name out there again," senior receiver Marquel Willis said. "It's been since '06 since we've been in the playoffs, and people kind of forgot about us. And people are still kind of looking at us, like, 'Oh, 6-5, they got in because they won their conference out of a tie.' So if we can win a couple games, you know, this will put us back on the map and have people realize what we can do."

Said senior fullback Racheed Gause: "It's a great opportunity for the whole Coastal community. It's so overwhelming and exciting for me. I didn't think I was going to be in this position, but to be here is unbelievable. And I think that the whole community is on our backs, and we're going to take them where we need to go."

In his office Tuesday night, Bennett was asked what he thinks this all means for the program after everything it - and he - have been through the last four seasons.

He said it's a step in the right direction. He talked about how he still thinks of Coastal Carolina as a young football program. A young program that has now earned four conference titles and two playoff berths in eight seasons. And he talked about that big-picture vision he continues to have for the Chants.

As for how close he thinks they are to making it a reality one day, well ...

"I don't know - we'll know after Saturday. And then the next Saturday. And the next Saturday," Bennett said. "If we're still playing football, it's closer than you think."

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