Cameron Percy has flirted with a maiden PGA TOUR title on his way to his best finish in more than a decade at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.
Starting the final round tied for fourth, an eagle from deep at the par-5 seventh gave the 47-year-old Victorian a share of the lead and the prospect of improving on his tie for second at the 2010 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
A bogey at the 10th was a setback and despite a late birdie at the par-4 16th Percy was unable to keep pace with eventual champion Chad Ramey, shooting five-under 67 to earn a share of fourth just two shots from the winner.
Headed for an eye operation when he returns home, Percy credited an impromptu putting lesson with roommate for the week, Greg Chalmers, for his strong showing on Sunday.
“I’m rooming with Greg Chalmers and he gave me a putting lesson in the room last night and I putted fantastic,” said Percy, who was tied for eighth at Puntacana two years ago.
“My tempo was all off. It was a blast thing you put on your putter. We hit some putts with that and I was all over the place.
“He goes, ‘No, you’ve got to be two-to-one.’ Hit putts for about 45 minutes and it ran out of battery and it was way better today, so it was good.
“At the start of the week if you said I was going to come fourth, I think I’ll take and not play, but played really nicely today.”
It was a solid week too for Chalmers who shot 70 in the final round to earn a tie for 28th but Aaron Baddeley and Brett Drewitt both missed the cut.
Adam Scott was the lone Aussie to make it out of the group stage at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club in Texas.
Scott fell to eventual runner-up Kevin Kisner 1 down in the Round of 16, Lucas Herbert failing to advance after losing a playoff to Japan’s Takumi Kanaya following wins over Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele.
Queensland’s Sarah Jane Smith displayed her class to earn a share of second at the Epson Tour’s IOA Championship with Minjee Lee’s tie for 23rd the best of the Aussies at the JTBC Classic on the LPGA Tour, 19-year-old Atthaya Thitikul snaring her first LPGA Tour title in a playoff.
Travis Smyth made a Sunday charge on his way to a top-10 finish at the Asian Tour’s The DGC Open at Delhi Golf Club and Wade Ormsby’s tie for 12th led the Australian charge at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on the DP World Tour.
Results
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play
Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas
Final
Scottie Scheffler def. Kevin Kisner 4&3
Round of 16
Kevin Kisner def. Adam Scott 1 up
Round 3 results
Min Woo Lee tied Tom Hoge
Adam Scott def. Jordan Spieth 3&2
Marc Leishman def. Luke List 3&2
Takumi Kanaya def. Lucas Herbert 5&4
Round 2 results
Lucas Herbert def. Xander Schauffele 1 up
Min Woo Lee def. Thomas Pieters 1 up
Adam Scott tied Keegan Bradley
Justin Thomas def. Marc Leishman 5&4
Round 1 results
Lucas Herbert def. Tony Finau 4&3
Adam Scott def. Justin Rose 2 up
Kevin Kisner def. Marc Leishman 4&3
Billy Horschel def. Min Woo Lee 3&2
PGA TOUR
Corales Puntacana Championship
Corales Golf Course, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Winner Chad Ramey 70-65-69-67—271 $US666,000
T4 Cameron Percy 71-68-67-67—273 $166,500
T28 Greg Chalmers 73-69-69-70—281 $23,749
MC Aaron Baddeley 75-69—144
MC Brett Drewitt 73-72—145
DP World Tour
Commercial Bank Qatar Masters
Doha GC, Doha, Qatar
Winner Ewen Ferguson 67-71-73-70—281 €308,344
T12 Wade Ormsby 68-72-73-72—285 €25,836
T27 Jason Scrivener 72-72-69-74—287 €15,870
MC Scott Hend 77-69—146
MC Maverick Antcliff 77-70—147
LPGA Tour
JTBC Classic
Aviara Golf Club, Carlsbad, California
Winner Atthaya Thitikul 69-70-69-64—272
T23 Minjee Lee 69-71-70-71—281
T58 Hannah Green 73-69-74-70—286
T68 Katherine Kirk 71-73-72-72—288
T72 Stephanie Kyriacou 73-69-71-78—291
MC Sarah Kemp 76-73—149
Asian Tour
The DGC Open
Delhi Golf Club, Delhi, India
Winner Nitithorn Thippong 68-70-70-73—281 $US90,000
T10 Travis Smyth 67-73-79-68—287 $8,240
T15 Kevin Yuan 71-75-72-70—288 $6,208
T28 Cory Crawford 72-74-72-76—294 $4,083
66 Blake Collyer 71-76-78-85—310 $1,300
MC Will Heffernan 78-72—150
MC Jack Munro 72-78—150
WD Ben Eccles 76
Korn Ferry Tour
Lake Charles Championship
Country Club at Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Winner Trevor Werbylo 70-69-64-63—266 $US135,000
Won on the third hole of sudden-death playoff
T21 Curtis Luck 66-70-69-69—274 $6,312
T21 Ryan Ruffels 70-67-70-67—274 $6,312
T21 Rhein Gibson 66-71-71-66—274 $6,312
T41 Nick Voke 71-69-66-70—276 $3,488
MC Harrison Endycott 73-71—144
MC Steven Bowditch 73-74—147
Epson Tour
IOA Championship
Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon, Beaumont, California
Winner Linnea Strom 71-67-67—205
T2 Sarah Jane Smith 69-70-69—208
T47 Amelia Garvey 72-71-73—216
T54 Robyn Choi 76-67-74—217
T64 Hira Naveed 70-74-76—220
MC Soo Jin Lee 76-71—147
MC Grace Kim 76-72—148
MC Gabriela Ruffels 73-76—149
MC Julienne Soo 76-74—150
PGA TOUR Latinoamerica
Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational
Rio Hondo GC, Rio Hondo, Argentina
Winner Kevin Velo 66-67-64-73—270
MC Louis Dobbelaar 75-70—145
MC Denzel Ieremia 74-74—148
MC Tim Stewart 78-74—152
Challenge Tour
SDC Open
Zebula Golf Estate & Spa, Limpopo, South Africa
Winner Clément Sordet 64-66-70-67—267 €35,935
T31 Deyen Lawson 69-65-73-71—278 €2,176
MC Daniel Hillier 77-75—152