JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A final round that Phil Mickelson hoped would be a cakewalk through the North Florida pines turned into a pitched back-nine battle against an unrelenting Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
But Mickelson turned back the challenge to win his third PGA Tour Champions event in four starts.
Mickelson pulled away from a tie with Jimenez with four holes left and with an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole shot 68 on Sunday at the Timuquana Country Club to beat Jiménez by two shots at 15-under-par 201.
Jiménez, who hit 11 fairways and 15 greens and shot 68, barely missed a 40-foot birdie attempt at the last before Mickelson added the exclamation point.
Steve Flesch birdied two of his last three holes, including a 30-foot putt at No. 18, for solo third at 10 under.
Tournament host Jim Furyk (69), Ernie Els (71) and Cameron Beckman (68) tied for fourth at 9 under. Bernhard Langer, who held onto first place in the Schwab Cup points race, shot 68 to tie for seventh at 8 under with U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker (70), Steven Alker (70) and Matt Gogel (73).
Mickelson shot 67 in the second round for a two-shot lead and said he felt an even lower round coming. He appeared prophetic when he birdied the first three holes to take a three-shot lead over Gogel.
However, Mickelson double-bogeyed the par-4 fifth hole and made six pars in a row, while Jimenez shot a 2-under, bogey-free front nine to pull within one shot, setting up a match-play scenario between the two for the tournament title over the back nine with other contenders fading by that point.
Mickelson birdied No. 12 on a 10-foot putt but Jimenez, methodically hitting fairways and greens, dropped a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 13 and a six-footer on No. 14. That sent he and Mickelson to the final four holes tied for the lead.
Mickelson broke the tie with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 15th —he was 9 under on the par-5s this week—and Jimenez finally made a mistake, coming up short of the green with his second shot and hitting a poor chip, 15 feet below the hole. He missed the birdie attempt.
Mickelson saved a good par at the par-4 16th after his drive found the left trees for the second day in a row. He had to punch out but hit a deft pitch shot to within 3 feet and made the putt. Jimenez, on the other hand, had a cruel break – his birdie attempt off the fringe with a putter hit the bottom of the flagstick and trickled 4 feet away.
He made the putt, but it was an opportunity lost.
Both players two-putted the par-3 17th hole for par before Mickelson closed it out at the last.
Mickelson earned $300,000 and moved to 24th on the Charles Schwab Cup points race. There is one event left in the tour’s regular season, next week’s SAS Championship in Cary, North Carolina, with the top-72 on the points list qualifying for the three-tournament Schwab Cup Playoffs.
The playoffs will end with the Schwab Cup Championship at the Phoenix Country Club Nov. 11-14.
Successful debut for host Furyk
The week marked a successful debut as a tournament host for Jim Furyk, winner of 17 PGA Tour titles who launched the event at Timuquana, the 98-year-old Donald Ross-designed course across the St. Johns River from his Jacksonville home that was best-known previously as the training ground for future 13-time Tour winner David Duval.
Postcard Florida weather on the weekend and a field that included World Golf Hall of Fame members Mickelson, Els, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Langer and Davis Love III, plus both 2021 Ryder Cup captains, with European captain Padraig Harrington joining Stricker attracted crowds estimated by tournament officials in excess of 10,000 on Saturday and slightly less on Sunday, with the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, just seven miles away.
The event is under a five-year contract with the title sponsor and the club.