Monday qualifier Rod Spittle wins AT&T Championship
Rod Spittle, who won the AT&T Championship on Sunday 31 October, was selling insurance just six years ago before he became a professional golfer. Now the 55-year-old Canadian, a Monday
qualifier for the Champions Tour event, is a winner on the tour and can hardly believe it.
“Not to sound corny, but to say this is a dream come true literally is the case,” said Spittle, the former Ohio State player. “These are great players out here, and to come and tip-toe
in that company is truly amazing.”
Spittle, who beat Jeff Sluman on the first play-off hole, birdied three straight holes beginning on the 15th for a final round 67, finishing at 12-under for the tournament. Sluman also
shot a four-under 67 in the final round, posting birdies on holes 15 and 16 before finishing with two pars at Oak Hills Country Club, which has played host to numerous U.S. Opens as well as the 1995 Ryder Cup.
The play-off, beginning on the par-three 18th hole, was short-lived as Sluman failed to get up and down for par while Spittle calmly rolled in a four-foot par putt to take home the title,
becoming just the 11th player in Champions Tour history to win an event after qualifying on the Monday before the tournament.
Spittle’s par on the play-off hole was set up after he hit a difficult chip shot to four feet. After Spittle moved his ball marker to get out of Sluman’s line, he almost forgot to move
it back for his par putt, which would have resulted in a loss for the Canadian. But fans in attendance, as well as Sluman, reminded him before he struck the putt.
Sluman did not want to win a tournament like that.
“Fortunately it didn’t end on a terrible note like that,” he said. “It would have been awful.”
John Cook (68), Larry Nelson (70), and Chien Soon Lu (69) finished in a tie for third at 11-under. Nelson, entering the final round with the lead, followed up a double bogey at the fifth
with a bogey at the sixth, killing his chances of getting his first win in six years. Cook failed to convert an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole to qualify for the play-off.
Corey Pavin (66), Steve Haskins (67), and Jay Don Blake (70) finished in a tie for sixth at 10 under, while Charles Schwab Cup points leader Bernhard Langer (69) finished a further stroke
back along with Jay Haas (67).
The event was the final full-field tournament on the Champions Tour schedule, with the top-30 on the money list heading to Harding Park in San Francisco next week for the season-ending
Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Tags: