This was one of many craziest bounces in PGA Tour historical past.
The ultimate spherical of the FedEx St. Jude Championship — the primary spherical of the PGA Tour playoffs — offered some unbelievable drama on Sunday night. Will Zalatoris and Sepp Straka entered a playoff tied at 15-under after the 18th gap. After buying and selling pars on the primary two holes of the playoff, the 2 golfers headed to the par-3 eleventh, the place Zalatoris was the primary to tee off.
The 25-year-old American hit an errant tee shot that seemed to be headed straight towards the water, which might have set Straka up for a victory. However in what can solely be described as a miracle, his ball hit the stone wall that guards the water, bounced up within the air a number of occasions, and one way or the other managed to return to relaxation safely on the ledge – and out of the drink.
Whereas Zalatoris escaped the penalty, he nonetheless had a near-impossible lie beneath the grass line on the highest of the wall, setting the stage for Straka to win if he might get the ball onto the inexperienced. As an alternative, the Austrian hit a close to an identical shot to Zalatoris – solely his ball was not as lucky and ended up within the water.
Straka took it again to the tee for his third shot after the penalty, and was unable to search out the inexperienced but once more, hitting the bunker. After watching the benefit shift even additional in his route, Zalatoris then determined to take a penalty himself, as hitting the ball off the stone ledge had catastrophe potential.
He managed to search out the inexperienced on his second tee shot – and sunk a putt to win the event and earn the $2.7 million winner’s verify.
The win was Zalatoris’ first on the PGA Tour, although he has gotten agonizingly shut on a number of events. He completed second within the 2021 Masters in his first season on the PGA Tour, and in 2022 he misplaced to Justin Thomas in a playoff on the PGA Championship and got here in second but once more within the 2022 US Open at Brookline.
Within the first spherical of the PGA Tour playoffs, the Wake Forest product lastly tasted victory.
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