Charlie Beljan loses to John Merrick in playoffs of the Northern Trust Open
Charlie Beljan missed out on a chance of recording the second PGA Tour victory of his career, when he lost to John Merrick on the second extra hole in the playoffs of the Northern Trust Open, on Sunday, February 17, 2013.
The US$ 6.6 million tournament was being staged at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, featuring some of the prominent PGA Tour players from different parts of the world.
Entering the final round, Beljan was sharing the seventh spot on the leaderboard, five strokes behind the overnight leader, Bill Haas.
Meanwhile, when Haas struggled for a two-over par 73, Beljan made a strong charge on the leaderboard by firing a four-under par 67 in the final round.
He got off to a great start by carding a birdie putt on the first hole that he played. He then added another two shots to his scorecard, by scoring birdies on the seventh and the ninth hole, to reach the turn in three-under.
The back nine of the course witnessed him concede a bogey on the 10th hole, followed by a birdie on the 14th hole. Entering the 18th hole, he was trailing the clubhouse leader Merrick by one stroke.
So, he drained another birdie putt to force the game to enter into the sudden-death playoffs.
“To make that putt on 18 and hear the roar, was really special,” he said of his amazing birdie putt on the 18th hole.
On the first extra hole, both Merrick and Beljan recorded par putts, to enter into the second extra hole. Thereafter, Beljan failed to keep hold on to his nerves and faltered for a bogey. In the meantime, Merrick parred the second hole to record the first
PGA Tour victory of his career.
“Obviously not the way I wanted to end it, but you know what, you win some, you lose some, and that's how it goes,” said Beljan. “But... I'm looking forward to this tournament next year, and it's nice after four missed cuts to come out here ‑‑ the game has
been feeling good, just haven't been scoring”.
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