October 25 — Jonathan Byrd could not have picked a better time to make PGA Tour history by winning a sudden-death playoff with a hole-in-one.
With Las Vegas daylight quickly departing, Byrd aced the fourth hole in overtime to win a three-man playoff in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Open. It was the first time a golfer won a tour title with a hole-in-one during a playoff, according to the tour.
The odds must have been stacked against Byrd winning at all after he nearly knocked himself out of the three-man race on the previous hole.
Shocking. “It’s kind of hard to process because I’m still kind of in shock,” Byrd told reporters following his improbable victory.
More so, perhaps, because Byrd’s approach shot to the 18th came up just short of the water. He remained standing after chipping from the rough and draining a seven-foot par putt. He then moved to the 17th with defending champ Martin Laird and Cameron Percy.
No Monday finish. As it became increasingly difficult to see, the contenders decided the 194-yarder would be their last hole of the day. With a possible Monday finish in sight, they also agreed they would stop if anyone had trouble reading putts on the green.
Byrd, who hit first, put a quick and decisive end to that problem. He saw his ball draw toward the pin but was unable to watch it hit 10 feet from the flag and roll in. With a smattering of green-side fans to provide the sound effects, Byrd had to ask his caddie if the ball dropped.
“It was almost like I thought I heard somebody say it went in, and then I wasn’t sure, and then my caddie said, ‘I think it went in,’” Byrd recited. “Then he said, ‘It went in, it went in.’”
All over but the cheering. It was pretty much a formality for Laird and Percy after that, especially when each put his tee shot in the water.
It was Byrd’s fourth tour win, which came with a $774,000 purse. Ranked 117th on the money list before his victory, jumped up to 52nd. He had not posted a win since the 2007 John Deere Classic.
Byrd, who kept his post-ace emotions in check until his playing partners hit, explained his shot, which he said played about 185 yards.
“For me, it was put a 6-iron kind of back in my stance and try to play more of kind of a sweeping draw into that left pin and curve it over to it,” he said. “ It started perfect, it turned perfect, and it was coming right down the flag. I thought I hit it too good. I thought I hit it too far, and I couldn’t see anything. But to hear the reaction as it went in, I was just in shock.”
Fall Series Jackpot. Remember the ridiculous, over-hyped, “end-of-season” FedEx Cup “playoffs?” Yeah, no one else does, either, especially after the second consecutive thrilling ending to a Fall Series game. These matches may lack the star power of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, et al, but that doesn’t mean they want for drama. Rocco Mediate proved that when he holed out for eagle on the 17th hole of the final round to win last week’s Frys.com Open.
Playing for keeps. With a nail-biting New England Patriots-San Diego Chargers game and other regional NFL action stealing the show on a cold and rainy New England Sunday, too bad no one saw the exciting finish to Timberlake’s tourney.
Indeed, there’s a lot more at stake than winning an event for a lot of the guys playing in the Fall Series. Byrd’s exciting win bounced him up to 52nd on the money list, safely within the top 125 who will keep their tour cards in 2011. The victory also netted Byrd a two-year tour exemption.
Percy, who canned a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole in regulation to make it into extra holes, needed a victory to keep his PGA Tour card. He sat at 144th after his tie for second place Sunday.
Next stop, Disney World. The next opportunity for Percy and other golfers seeking to keep tour jobs will be in two weeks at the final official tour event of 2010. New England golfers Brett Quigley (T22 in Las Vegas)) and James Driscoll (T22) were in contention last week but are still outside the magic 125, at No. 155 and 154, respectively.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out at the Boston Golf Examiner and National Golf Examiner websites.)
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