Nick Watney wins the US PGA Tour Playoffs’ first tournament, The Barclays
Nick Watney carded a two-under par final round of 69 to claim his fifth US PGA Tour title at The Barclays, as Brandt Snedeker missed out on his second victory of the season.
Watney started off his final round campaign with a two-stroke deficit against Sergio Garcia and hit each and every green except on the 16th hole. At the end of the round, he turned the shortfall into a three-stroke lead and took the title home.
Right from the start of the final round, he opted for a defensive strategy because of the toughness of the course.
The plan paid him off in the end, as his rival on the top did the opposite and slipped down the leaderboard. Garcia had a great chance of registering his second win of the season.
However, he faltered badly and handed over the win to Watney, after posting a four-over par 75, thanks to the five bogeys against a lone birdie.
According to Watney, it was a perfect place to record a victory, as the tournament featured some of the best players in the world and he proved his mantle once again on the bigger stage.
“I'm just very, very happy right now. It's been not quite the year I would have wanted, but this really -- you know, this really makes it all forgotten,” he said.
“And today was -- this course, winning a tournament is hard, but winning out here and against this field was very, very difficult. I'm kind of still on a high right now. I'm still kind of ready to play the next hole”.
“I was just trying to stay very in the moment out there, and crossing the holes off after I got done; I'm kind of ready to -- I'm not really sure what to do right now,” he added. “Just so excited and very, very proud”.
Luke Donald, who was in a bid to reclaim the world number one spot with a victory in the tournament, tied for the 10th position after carding a three-under par tournament score. In the meantime, the world number one Rory McIlroy tied for the 24th
position.
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