Re: different try-finally approach

In java it is common to check if the resource is null in finally
statement, before closing it:

public void doSomething() throws MyResourceException
{
 MyResource res = null;
 try
 {
   res = new MyResource();
   // do something
 }
 finally
 {
   if (res != null) res.close()
 }
}

But in some other languages this is the preferred way:

public void doSomething() throws MyResourceException
{
 MyResource res = new MyResource();
 try
 {
   // do something
 }
 finally
 {
   res.close()
 }
}

The first example ensures nothing more than the second one, right? If
the constructor throws an exception the "res" is null, so it can't be
closed anyways.

So, my question is - why the extra coding in java? Am I missing
something?