Unsung Queenslander Cory Crawford has produced his own comeback for the ages with a one-shot victory in the Vic PGA Championship at Moonah Links.

More than seven years after his one and only Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia victory – in Port Moresby in May, 2017 – he has logged his second win after at least two years of struggle with a back fracture that was not originally diagnosed.

The 32-year-old who plays out of Sanctuary Cove holed a right-to-left 12-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole which turned out to have secured the victory at 14-under par.

But before he knew that the championship was his, he had to hit the driving range to keep warm while American Tyler McCumber came down the par-5 18th on the Open course.

McCumber was at 13-under and needed birdie for a playoff. The Floridean missed the green left with his long iron second shot, chipped up to just more than two feet, and had that putt for four to extend the contest.

But inexplicably, the man who has played 60 times on the US PGA Tour and who had looked the winner for much of the day, missed the putt and could only make a par.

Out on the range 100 metres away, the news passed through to Crawford, who had played superbly shooting a final-round 68 with seven birdies.

He was presented with the Jack Harris Cup by Marilyn Harris, the daughter of the late tour star and six-time winner of this event.

Much of the attention fell to potential miracle man Anthony Quayle, who had been penalized seven strokes in round one because of a mistake over preferred lies, and who shot a closing 69 to finish 12-under and in third behind Crawford and McCumber.

But it was Crawford who wrote the better redemption story on the day.

Victorian Darcy Brereton, who shot the equal-low round of the day, a 4-under 68, was tied-fourth at 11-under with overnight joint leader Jason Hong and WA’s Braden Becker.Crawford said he was on his “third restart” from a tough couple of years with the injury.

“A lot’s gone on. It’s been pretty difficult at times. To be in this is pretty special,” he said afterward.
Injuries have prevented him from playing much golf at all in the past few years since he injured his back in the gym. The injury turned out to be a fracture of the T10 vertebrae but the diagnosis came later, after he had attempted to play through the pain.

“It’s still a management process,” he said. “I’m still at the stage where if I move the wrong way it can come back again. But every day that doesn’t happen I’m getting further and further away from going back to where I was.”

Five or six players were deep in contention throughout a pulsating final day in difficult, 30km/h winds, but beyond bogeys at the fourth and sixth, the Queenslander was brilliant. He picked up shots at 8, 9, 12 and 13 with brilliant approaches to the green and then at 16, another lasered iron gave him the birdie that put him in front.

Crawford described himself as being “on my third restart” from the back issue, but today he felt vindicated for all the work he has done.

“I’ve worked really hard with (coach) Terry Price on trying to improve the ballstriking. It feels really good to hit some good shots under the pump,” he said.

He also paid tribute to caddie for the weekend Blake Proverbs, his fellow tour pro, especially for guidance over the putt on 18. Crawford had his read of a little right-to-left, but called Basic over to confirm it.

“Under pressure sometimes it can get a little hazy, but he was awesome. To have that bit of reassurance was awesome, and we hit a great putt.”

McCumber was the nearest-pursuer and he at one point had a two-shot lead through 12 holes. The American had flown to Australia to get some golf after his own long period of injury troubles, and he appeared on track for a win.

But he slipped out of the lead with a bogey at at the 15th, lipped out for birdie downhill at the par-3 17th hole and then could not make the birdie he needed at 18. Like Quayle, he would have reflected on the fact that in round one, he was penalized two strokes for taking preferred lie mistakenly.

Joint overnight leaders Jye Pickin (75 today) and Jason Hong (73) quickly slipped back into the pack with Pickin sliding to tied-eighth.

Quayle threw everything into his redemption story, but he fell two short.

“I’m sure when I reflect on this in a little bit of time, I’ll be really proud of this week,” he said.

Meanwhile Victorian pro James Gibellini and Tim Snow won the teams event, the Victorian Amateur Challenge, at 33-under par.

PHOTO: Cory Crawford celebrates his second main tour win. Image: Daniel Pockett

Quayle today told how he called the penalties – for illegal taking of preferred lies on four shots – as soon as he realized that he had erred on Thursday, and said how embarrassed that he was to make such “a rookie mistake”.

His opening 66 turned into a 73 but with rounds of 67 on Friday and 66 today, he is at 9-under for the tournament, an astonishing story of resilience. Through three rounds he is just three shots from the lead.

“It’s a mistake that’s totally on me and I totally own it,” he said after today’s 6-under round.The drama started on the 15th green in round one on Moonah Links at the Open course on Thursday.

The 30-year-old professional, who plays mostly in Japan, had just been asked by his playing partner, Tyler McCumber, if preferred lies were in play, and answered that yes, they were, and “I’ve been doing it all day”.

McCumber ultimately was penalized two shots as well for playing from a preferred lie.

At this point, he re-read a document handed out to all players by the Tour, which stated that preferred lies would be allowed on a portion of the third fairway.

The problem was, he had originally read the document as allowing preferred lies across the whole course.

“The fairways were decent,” he said. “You could see how maybe we needed preferred lies because there were a lot of collection areas with divots. Our last three tournaments on tour have been preferred lie. The document I was handed is a little half-page document that is highlighted ‘preferred lie’ and highlighted scorecard length.

“It’s a massive rookie error on my part. I had just assumed on this tour we play preferred lie a lot. I just didn’t think too much more of it. I’m kicking myself now. Turns out on that document it only said it was preferred lie on the third hole in the blue painted area. I guess that sort of sat more in the fine print of the document.”

Quayle could not even play on without addressing the issue. So at 15 green, he asked to speak to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia referee and Tournament Director Heath McLeod. “I didn’t feel comfortable hitting another shot without addressing it. I felt like I’d done something really wrong. As soon as I realized, I felt sick in the stomach, I thought I’d done something terribly wrong.”

McLeod told Quayle that he would be penalized two strokes for hitting from the wrong place on three of his shots, and one stroke for the other (because he replaced the ball in the same place, just a few centimetres off the green). In one instance, he told McLeod that he very likely placed his ball back in the same spot. “But I couldn’t be 100 percent certain, so I opted to take the two shots (penalty).”

McLeod said: “We’re proud of how Anthony’s handled it. As soon as he realised his mistake, he’s called me over, and went through it out at No. 15 green.

“He took responsibility for his actions straight away and we worked through the four separate occasions he had breached the rules and he accepted the penalty without any fuss.

“It’s just shows the character of Anthony really. To have something like that happen on Thursday, to put it behind him and come out and play some great golf the last two days is great to see.”

Quayle has contemplated it all and played brilliantly since.

“After I had a bit of time to process what happened on Thursday night, I sort of grew the opinion that ‘let’s treat this as a bit of a challenge and see what we can do. Making the cut with a seven-stroke penalty is going to be impressive’,” he said.

“After I made the cut, now it’s ‘finish as high as I possibly can because it’s going to be pretty impressive wherever I finish this week’. I sort of want the story to be as good as it can be going forward. It could be one that I remember for a long time.”

PHOTO: Anthony Quayle on his way to a 66 at Moonah today. Image: Daniel Pockett