Ken Duke finally wins on the PGA Tour, takes home the Travelers Championship title – Golf News
Ken Duke birdied the second extra hole in the playoffs of the Travelers Championship and outshined his Chris Stroud to claim his maiden PGA Tour victory on Sunday, June 23, 2013.
The tournament was being staged at TPC River Highlands, featuring some of the best players on the PGA Tour.
It was Duke’s first victory in 187 career PGA Tour starts and was the 17th first time winner in the history of the Travelers Championship.
In addition to that, Duke, 44, became the oldest player to get his breakthrough victory on the PGA Tour since 1995, when Ed Dougherty won the Sanderson Farms Championship at age of 47.
Talking to the reporters after his victory, Duke expressed his pleasure in finally joining the winners’ circle on the PGA Tour.
“It’s been a long time,” Duke said in a news conference. “I’ve been on the Canadian tour, the mini tours, Asian Tour, South American Tour, Web.com, all of them, and it’s just great to be a part of this big family on the http://topics.bloomberg.com/pga-tour/.”
“You gotta believe in yourself in everything you do,” he added. “It's kind of one of those things once you finally do it, it might come easier the next time. That's kind of the way I feel. You have to be patient. You can't make
things happen out here. You can't win by pushing everything.”
The American started his final round campaign at the sixth position on the leaderboard. He then got off to a decent start and parred eight holes, while adding birdies to his scorecard, on the front nine of the course.
The back nine of the course witnessed him picking up come pace and he gained four shots while losing just one, to post a 12-under tournament score.
Stroud, in the meantime, carded a bogey-free three-under par 67 to force the game to enter into the sudden-death playoffs.
On the first extra hole, both the players recorded par putts and returned back to the 18th tee for the third time on day four. Thereafter, Stroud failed the challenge of a birdie putt proposed by Duke on the second hole
and settled for the second position in the tournament.
Tags: