Aussies on Tour: Scott into Tour Championship with $500k sand save - PGA of Australia

Aussies on Tour: Scott into Tour Championship with $500k sand save


A brilliant up-and-down from the greenside bunker on the 72nd hole has guaranteed Adam Scott a spot at the PGA TOUR Tour Championship and a pay day of at least $US500,000.

Scott was the only Australian to join Cameron Smith at the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale at East Lake Golf Club and he did so in dramatic fashion.

Two strokes off the lead at the start of the final round, Scott had his eye on a drought-breaking win yet by day’s end had to scrap to stay in the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Bogeys at two, seven and nine saw Scott make the turn in two-over and in very real danger of falling out of Tour Championship contention.

As champions do, however, Scott responded.

He holed a 15-footer for eagle at the par-5 12th, dropped a shot at 13 but then hit back with a birdie at the par-5 14th when he got up-and-down from the greenside bunker.

From there he walked the tightrope towards Atlanta.

He two-putted from 59 feet at the par-3 15th, from 66 feet at 16 and 49 feet at 17 but his greatest test was yet to come.

The 42-year-old was left with an incredibly awkward second shot when his tee shot skipped into the left rough.

Forced to stand in the bunker with the ball at knee height in the rough, Scott’s approach shot from 131 yards turned over and found the trap to the left of the green.

It left a bunker shot of 34 yards to a back right flag, Scott calling on all of his class to splash it up to inside two feet and make the putt and a final round of even par 71.

“It shows you that it was a tough day for me because neither were a good position,” Scott said of his second and third shots on the 18th hole.

“I was a little unlucky off the tee shot. Anything could have happened with the second shot. It came out not well, but it could have come out worse.

“Yesterday I hit a really nice long bunker shot on my second hole, and when I was in there kind of weighing up the shot, it just looked similar.

“I just had those kind of thoughts and took a swing at it, and it worked out.”

The only player to qualify for the Tour Championship from outside the top 70 two weeks ago, Scott is now guaranteed a FedEx Cup bonus of at least $US500,000, the prize for 30th place.

Scott will enter the Tour Championship in 29th position but with the belief that his golf is now at a standard that can challenge the world’s best again.

“This week I felt like I played really high-quality golf,” said Scott.

“I was out there with Scottie Scheffler yesterday who’s obviously played incredible this year, and I felt like I was playing at that high, high level again, and I haven’t been in so many of those situations

this year.

“I felt like my game stacked up, and I felt like a top player.

“Hopefully stuff to build on this week, and go for it next week with really nothing to lose and head into the next season full of confidence and hopefully keep my head in this place where I feel like I’m one of the best players out here.”

Lucas Herbert put together a strong weekend with rounds of 68-69 to finish tied for 15th, not enough though to play his way into the Tour Championship.

Marc Leishman (70) and Cam Davis (71) also made progress on the leaderboard on Sunday but like Herbert, not enough to qualify for the FedEx Cup finale.

With a PGA TOUR card for next year already secured, Harrison Endycott’s tie for 18th was the best of the Aussies in week one of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Endycott was four-under through his first five holes on Sunday but after birdies at 16 and 17 double-bogeyed his final hole for a round of 67.

Min Woo Lee (67) and Jason Scrivener (69) were one shot back of Endycott in a tie for 26th, Aaron Baddeley’s four-under 67 lifting him into a tie for 37th.

Jake McLeod’s tie for sixth at the D+D Real Czech Masters was his best career result on the DP World Tour, Karis Davidson was tied for eighth at the Simone Asia Pacific Cup in Jakarta and Todd Sinnott, Brad Kennedy and Stuart Appleby recorded top-15 finishes on the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Champions Tour respectively.

Results

PGA TOUR
BMW Championship
Wilmington Country Club, Wilmington, Delaware
Winner Patrick Cantlay  68-68-65-69—270           $US2.7m
T5          Adam Scott        65-69-69-71—274           $547,500
T15        Lucas Herbert    70-70-68-69—277           $247,500
T28        Marc Leishman 68-71-71-70—280           $104,250
T35        Cam Davis          69-67-75-71—282           $67,750

Korn Ferry Tour
Albertsons Boise Open
Hillcrest Country Club, Boise, Idaho
Winner Will Gordon       67-66-67-63—263          
Won on the first hole of sudden death playoff
T18        Harrison Endycott           68-64-69-67—268          
T26        Min Woo Lee     63-69-70-67—269          
T26        Jason Scrivener 70-66-64-69—269          
T37        Aaron Baddeley 65-68-71-67—271          
MC        Anthony Quayle              68-71—139

DP World Tour
D+D Real Czech Masters
Albatross Golf Resort, Prague, Czech Republic
Event reduced to 54 holes due to rain
Winner Maximilian Kieffer          68-66-66—200  €297,500
T6          Jake McLeod      67-68-69—204  €56,875
T41        Zach Murray      71-68-71—210  €9,800
T60        Maverick Antcliff             70-72-73—215  €5,075
67          Jordan Zunic      68-74-77—219  €4,200
MC        Austin Bautista  68-76144
MC        Dimitrios Papadatos       75-69—144
MC        Elvis Smylie        73-71—144

Asian Tour
International Series Korea
Lotte Skyhill Country Club, Jeju, Korea
Winner Taehoon Ok       68-64-69-68—269           $US270,000
T15        Todd Sinnott      69-73-67-67—276           $18,112.50
T25        Travis Smyth      70-72-66-69—277           $14,325
T29        Sam Brazel         68-71-69-70—278           $11,766.67
T38        Brett Rumford   66-74-69-70—279           $9,615
T44        Wade Ormsby   69-72-67-72—280           $8,475
T51        Jake Higginbottom          69-68-77-68—282           $6,450
T59        Ben Campbell (NZ)          67-73-73-71—284           $5,100
T68        Cory Crawford  70-72-74-72—288           $3,675
T72        Daniel Fox          70-71-71-77—289           $3,225
MC        Ben Eccles          72-71—143
MC        Junseok Lee       73-71—144
MC        Kevin Yuan         74-71—145
MC        Scott Strange     72-75—147
MC        Blake Windred  72-82—154

Japan Golf Tour
Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup
The North Country Golf Club, Hokkaido
Winner Hiroshi Iwata     68-68-66-67—269           ¥24m
T14        Brad Kennedy    69-70-71-70—280           ¥1.944m
MC        Dylan Perry        76-68—144
MC        Adam Bland       75-71—146
MC        Andrew Evans   73-74—147
MC        Brendan Jones  76-72—148
MC        Michael Hendry 76-74—150
MC        Matthew Griffin              72-78—150

Ladies European Tour
Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande
La Reserva Club De Sotogrande, Spain
Winner Nelly Korda        67-69-67—203  €73,954.95
T39        Stephanie Kyriacou         69-77-71—217  €3,106.11
MC        Whitney Hillier  76-74—150

Ladies Asian Tour
Simone Asia Pacific Cup
Pondok Indah Golf Course, Jakarta, Indonesia
Winner Princess Mary Superal   66-71-67—204
3            Lydia Ko (NZ)     66-72-70—208
T8          Karis Davidson  72-75-68—215
T17        Momoka Kobori              76-70-73—219
T22        Cassie Porter     80-73-70—223

PGA TOUR Canada
CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open
Southwood Golf and Country Club, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winner Parker Coody     65-62-67-67—261
Will Barnett       74-76—150

Champions Tour
DICK’S Sporting Goods Open
En-Joie Golf Club, Endicott, New York
Winner Padraig Harrington         66-67-67—200  $US315,000
T15        Stuart Appleby  68-70-70—208  $29,937
T31        John Senden      74-70-67—211  $14,175
T37        Steven Alker (NZ)            71-74-67—212  $10,920
T37        David McKenzie 70-70-72—212  $10,920
T61        Robert Allenby  72-72-73—217  $2,940
T71        Rod Pampling    71-75-73—219  $1,659

Legends Tour
Irish Legends presented by McGinley Foundation
Rosapenna Hotel and Golf Resort, Ireland
Winner Phillip Price        72-70-71—213
T16        Michael Long     74-74-72—220
T31        Peter Fowler      76-75-71—222
T39        Peter O’Malley  77-79-69—225


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