Slocum snatches Barclays title
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 The Barclays | Round Four | 31 Aug 2009
A 20 foot par saving putt at the 72nd hole at the Barclays event at Liberty National in Jersey City has given the understated 35-year-old Heath Slocum his third PGA Tour victory and his most significant at that.
Slocum moved from the number 124th position in the FedEx Cup rankings to third and he now trails only Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the race for the US$10 million annuity to the leader in the points table at the completion of the Tour Championship.
“Obviously, it was an incredible day, an incredible week,” said Slocum after his round.
“You know, starting off early, at the beginning of the week I knew I had to play well just to move on. That was my goal. But coming into today, I was a bit more nervous than I anticipated on the first. I don’t know why, but I was. I got off to a shaky start. The up and down on one, the long putt on two kind of settled me down.”
“For the rest of the day, it is the best I felt on a golf course for a very long time, probably since ’05. I was just in a great frame of mind. I felt good over pretty much everything, especially the putter. It’s one of those days that I haven’t had in a very long time. At the end of the day, putt on the last was magical. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”
The final two hours or so of the tournament turned into a gripping climax to the opening event of the FedEx Cup series with as many as ten players genuine chances of winning over the final nine holes.
While Slocum will remember the putt that essentially secured victory, his eagle at the par four 5th, when he holed his 7 iron approach from 158 yards, was equally important.
“As soon as I hit it, I knew I just flushed it. It was going right to the pin. I saw it hit, I didn’t see anything else. I didn’t see it go in. The crowd went crazy. I didn’t know if it was really close or if it had gone in. Stricker told me it went in.”
He followed that up with a birdie at the 6th and after starting four shots behind the overnight leader he was all of a sudden a potential winner.
An early stumble by the 54 hole leader Paul Goydos put him out of calculations but, in addition to Slocum, the moves on the final day would come from Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and, almost inevitably, Tiger Woods.
Els is beginning to show a return to form, having reverted to his longer golf swing and the results are starting to show. His near faultless round of 66 moved him from 12th to joint second on the final day and while he will be disappointed not to have won, he will be delighted that he is back playing well.
Woods bogeyed the 4th when he three putted from 7 feet but he then birdied three of the next four holes to let everyone know he was still a factor. A birdie at the 14th from 12 feet moved him to 7 under and then at the short par four 16th he hit a delightful pitch from short and left of the green to set up another birdie and move to 8 under.
It appeared likely he would need another birdie and he gave himself every chance when he hit a magnificent approach at the last to 7 feet. As he has been on a regular basis in his last two events, Woods was again caught out by a misread and the missed putt would eventually cost him a chance at a playoff.
Steve Stricker would also recover from a slow start and, playing with the eventual winner, reached the final hole tied in the lead at 9 under with Slocum. Both would miss the fairway and were forced to lay up. Slocum pitched from 60 yards or so but came up 20 feet short. Stricker’s approach was from closer range and finished 10 feet from the hole.
Stricker had the advantage but it would be Slocum who holed out while Stricker’s putt shaved the left edge and stayed out. Slocum had won while Stricker was forced to share second with Els, Woods and Harington who was again in the mix late on Sunday.
The leading Australian was Jason Day, who moved past the US$1 million mark with his cheque for US$157,000. This has been a year of consolidation for Day but now it would seem his first PGA Tour victory is not far away.
Robert Allenby was 15th, Rod Pampling 41st, James Nitties and Adam Scott 58th and John Senden 64th.
The PGA Tour moves north to Boston for the Deutsche Bank Championship where 11 Australians have made it through to play the event at the TPC Boston. Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby, John Senden, Jason Day, Nathan Green, Mathew Goggin, Rod Pampling, Marc Leishman, Greg Chalmers and Nick O’Hern all live to fight another day.
Aaron Baddeley and Adam Scott drop out of the race.
