PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Shortly before Tiger Woods took to the stage Wednesday night for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame at PGA Tour headquarters just down the road, the skies opened up and peppered the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the emerald setting the Players Championship.
That was just the beginning of a chaotic, bizarre week at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, where Mother Nature, Old Man Winter and Tom Brady whacked the tournament into near submission.
Somehow, through aggravating rain on four of the five tournament days, the ferocious winds on Saturday, the freezing temperatures of Sunday morning and the NFL’s greatest QB announcing his retirement was ending Sunday afternoon to blot out most all other sports coverage, the Players lived on.
And with a Monday round that was fitting of the week, Cameron Smith, the man from Down Under who sports the game’s most wicked mullet, outlasted his mates and won the biggest tournament of his career.
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Smith, the only player to shoot four rounds in the 60s in the same year in Masters history, made 10 birdies and had 13 one-putts before putting his signature to a 6-under-par 66 to finish at 13 under and win by one shot over Anirban Lahiri.
His final one-putt came from 3 feet on the 18th to rescue bogey after he inexplicably punched his second shot from under trees into the water when he held a three-shot lead.
Thus, in the end, Smith, who in January won the Sentry Tournament of Champions by shooting lowest score in relation to par, 34 under, in a 72-hole tournament, won $3.6 million of the $20 million purse, the largest in Tour history.
It was far from easy getting to the scoring tent. Smith strung together four consecutive birdies twice during his final round – the foursomes starting on the first and 10th tees – but made a turkey of bogeys from the seventh through the ninth holes. He had one par in his first 13 holes, then made pressure-packed putts to save par from 14 and 8 feet on the 14th and 15th holes.
Then, at the always heart-pounding par-3 17th, he rifled his tee shot right at the flag, the ball coming to rest 4 feet from the cup. From there, he made his 10th birdie of the day to go up 3. And then he survived the 18th hole.
India’s Anirban Lahiri, who was ranked No. 322 when the tournament started, finished one shot back at 12 under after a 69, his chip on the 18th from 40 feet coming up a foot short of forcing a playoff.
Paul Casey closed with a 69 to finish at 11 under. Kevin Kisner shot 68 to finish at 10 under.