Brian Stuard made steady golf pay off on a waterlogged course in the haunting cypress swamps outside New Orleans.
The 33-year-old Stuard birdied the final hole of a largely unspectacular final round to sneak into a three-way playoff on Monday, then beat Jamie Lovemark on the second extra hole to capture his maiden PGA Tour triumph at the Zurich Classic.
Stuard never bogeyed a hole throughout the tournament on the long par-72 TPC Louisiana course, which was drenched with more than 11cm of rain during the tournament. Weather delays on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday not only forced a Monday finish, but also led officials to shorten the tournament to 54 holes.
Photo: AFP
“I was not playing great. I was just kind of ... hanging around,” Stuard said after his final-round 69, which was not even among the top 20 scores on the day. “I kind of hung in there all week. I just did not get too ahead of myself and just stayed real patient.”
Lovemark, Stuard and An Byeong-hun entered the playoff at 15-under.
An unraveled on the first playoff hole and Lovemark on the second, while Stuard remained composed, virtually clinching the win with an approach shot to within 6cm of the pin for an easy birdie putt.
Stuard’s best previous PGA Tour finishes were a pair of second places in Mexico, one in 2010 and the other in 2014. He arrived in New Orleans with conditional status on the PGA Tour, meaning he could only play in tournaments that had room for him when enough higher-ranked players skipped the event. His victory not only earned him US$1.26 million, it also gives him a two-year exemption, allowing him to play in majors and any other Tour event he wants.
“I have always been, I guess, a journeyman kind of player, just always grinded it out,” said Stuard, who became the seventh first-time winner in New Orleans in the past 11 years. “You just had to have the confidence to say: ‘One day, it is going to be your time.’”
Lovemark came in with only five career top-10 finishes, but four of those had come this season.
“I feel good,” Lovemark said after his best finish since his only other second place in 2009. “Not too disappointed. Just a little bummed, but moving on to next week.”
Jason Day, the world’s top-ranked player, wound up tied for fifth with Chris Kirk at 13-under.
“I just wish it was 72 holes,” Day said. “At least I gave myself an opportunity to be around the leaders.”
The saturated course rewarded players most adept at hitting long in the air off the tee and aiming right for the pin on approach shots. On many shots, balls hardly moved upon landing.
Players sometimes struggled to gauge abnormally slow greens. It happened to Lovemark at the most pivotal of moments; he left a 3m-long birdie putt for the win centimeters short on the 18th green.
The narrow miss seemed to unsettle Lovemark, whose shots became erratic. He managed to par the 18th on the first playoff hole, but his approach on the second playoff — also on 18 — found a muddy area near the grandstand, well left of the green.
An did not look like a contender entering Monday, but he shot up the leaderboard with birdies on holes 11, 13, 14 and 15. His 1.5m birdie putt on 18 landed him in the playoff — marking only his second top 10 and his first top three. However, he botched consecutive approach shots on the first playoff hole, leaving him with a bogey that ended his tournament.
Bobby Wyatt, a 23-year-old making his ninth PGA Tour start on a sponsor invitation, briefly surged into the lead with an eagle and six birdies on his first 13 holes of his final round. However, three-putts for bogeys on the 14th and 15th cost him.
“I certainly have not been in this position a lot, so I think probably some of it is nerves,” Wyatt said.
A birdie on 16, highlighted by an approach shot to within a meter of the hole, followed by a 2m-long putt on 18 for his eighth birdie of the round, left him alone in fourth at 14-under.
He still felt like a winner in the grand scheme of things. His first top-10 finish earned him US$336,000 and qualified him for a 10th Tour start at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, later this week.
“I found out I can play with these guys,” Wyatt said.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS