Byrd is eight miles high after final play-off hole-in-one
Jonathan Byrd took victory at Las Vegas' TPC Summerlin course in the most show-stopping fashion yesterday, the 32-year-old wrapping up the tournament with a hole-in-one on the fourth play-off hole.
The Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, to give the event its full, unwieldy title, had looked in danger of running on until Monday as the evening gloom descended on Sunday evening. But Byrd, Cameron Percy and Martin Laird decided they would try to settle things with a fourth hole, the 204 yard 17th - where Byrd concluded proceedings with an outrageous ace.
And Byrd's reaction was succinct, but reasonable: "I'm in shock," he told reporters immediately after that unforgettable final hole.
The victory was Byrd's fourth on the PGA Tour, and his first since taking the John Deere Classic in 2007. More importantly, the win gifts Byrd a two-year exemption from qualifying for a PGA Tour card - timely indeed, since prior to the tournament the player was 117th on the money list, with just the top 125 players gaining full tour cards for 2011.
Yet on taking the winning swing, the encroaching darkness was such that Byrd didn't even have a clear view of his six iron tee shot, having to turn to his caddy to check whether he had indeed found the hole.
Such a turnaround barely seemed plausible just minutes before on the 18th, where the American's ball had skipped past the green to roll perilously close to the water, finally coming to rest on terra firma. From there Byrd was chipping, not for victory but simply to stay in the tournament.
Earlier Byrd had tied with Australia's Percy and Scotland's Laird after the completion of the final round, all three men finishing 21-under-par for the tournament. Defending champion Laird had been in a position to win the tournament outright with birdies on four separate occasions, three times during the play-off. Yet each time the Scot failed to hole the putt.
Spencer Levin and Webb Simpson finished a stroke back on 20-under in a tie for fourth place, while Nick Watney and Cameron Beckman were tied for sixth place on 19-under.
Ryder Cup debutant Rickie Fowler finished further down the leaderboard, tied for 22nd place on 14-under, while Hunter Mahan, Fowler's teammate at Celtic Manor, was nine-under and tied for 50th place.
The final tournament on the PGA Tour Fall Series takes place in Florida, in two weeks time.
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