Waste Management Phoenix Open final leaderboard here.
I tweeted late Sunday that a playoff was eminent as Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth were having their worst rounds of the week, while the big pack was slowly closing on them, but nobody was separating themselves.
Not until Brooks Koepka, who'd been in the pack all week, flying under the radar as the CBS crew got caught up in the Spieth 61 hoopla, chipped in at the par 4 17th for an eagle 2, and that one flash of brilliance, and good fortune to be honest came at just the right time late in his round to make the difference in the logjam.
He leapfrogged into the lead at -19 with a 65, then watched as nobody could match him, even though Korean, Kyoung Hoon Lee had a birdie putt on the 72nd that he just missed. Koepka went -5 over his last 6 holes for his first win since 2019. He's been recovering from a debilitating left knee injury. It was his 8th PGA Tour win.
Five players ended up within 2 shots, eight within 3. Schauffele (71) and Spieth (72) both ended up in the water, Spieth as I expected was 11 shots worse than Saturday but will be delighted on his week at T4 -17, good for Steve Stricker at 53, T4 -17, also Mexican Carlos Ortiz who matched Rory Mcllroy with the low score of the day 64, to T4 at -17. Rory was T13.
We didn't see much at all of Corey Connors who quietly had a solid week T17, 69 68 68 67 -12, while Adam Hadwin was T50 with a closing 67.
Later this week the tour moves to Pebble Beach which won't have it's traditional pro-am this year due to COVID.
Bryan Angus
The Phoenix Open course and format have been one of my favourites to watch through the years... esp. pre-pandemic large boisterous crowds at the par-3 16th, the drivable par-4 17th (wish there were more short 4's on Tour), and a high-risk/high-reward par-5 15th.
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