PGA Tour team wins Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge in Las Vegas
Bubba Watson sunk a clutch putt for birdie on the 18th hole of the Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas to clinch the win for the PGA Tour team at the Wendy’s 3-Tour Challenge on Tuesday 9
November.
The charity event pits three-person teams from the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, and the Champions Tour in an 18-hole competition lasting one day. The better-ball format allows each team to
discard the worst score of the three players per hole, with the other two counting.
Along with Dustin Johnson and Boo Weekley, the PGA Tour team finished at 14-under for the event, one ahead of the Champions Tour team of Nick Price, Bernhard Langer, and Kenny Perry. The
LPGA Tour team, who won the event last year, consisting of Christie Kerr, Suzann Pettersen, and Natalie Gulbis, finished one further shot back at 12-under.
The Champions Tour team was leading the event by four shots after 11 holes but an eagle by Johnson and a birdie by Watson on the par-five 17th hole capped a rally that pulled the PGA Tour
even with the Champions Tour with one hole to play.
"I knew I needed to make something happen on 17," Johnson said to reporters after the event.
And it was Watson who made something happen on the final hole, when he hit his 150-yard approach shot to within birdie range on the right side of the green. When he sunk the 18-footer,
he let out a fist-pump.
"Having a chance to make that putt is something you dream about," he said. "When you actually make it, you don't know what to do."
Watson, who won his first PGA TOUR event this year, said his second shot wasn’t perfect but making the putt made everything better.
"My wedge backed up more than I wanted it to, but it was a good uphill putt and I made it," he said.
Langer, who won the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race this year, had a 12-foot birdie putt on the last to force a playoff between the two teams but it rolled past the hole on
the left. "I was really high up and had far more break than [Watson]," he said.
It was the 18th edition of the event and the PGA Tour team, who won $500,000 for their efforts, won the event for the eighth time since it began in 1992. The Champions Tour and the LPGA
Tour have each won the event six times.
The new format for the event, which allows each team to discount one score per hole, sat well with the players.
"This format is just right," Watson said. "One guy, one lady, you're gonna have a bad score. You can throw it out and it makes it more competitive."
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