Dramatic final day at Deutsche Bank
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship | Wrap | 06 Sep 2011
Webb Simpson has won his second PGA Tour title just two weeks after his first with a playoff victory over Chez Reavie at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
Jason Day, Luke Donald and Brandt Snedeker finished tied for third position two shots behind the playoff.
So many players had the lead or a share of the lead in round four it was hard to keep track. Bubba Watson started the day with the lead but Adam Scott took over early on with his brilliant birdie eagle start, then Brandt Snedeker, Luke Donald, Webb Simpson and eventually Chez Reavie all had their moments.
Reavie appeared to take control of the tournament courtesy of some great putting through the back nine and when he stood on the 18th tee he led by one over Webb Simpson who had finished his round of 65, the best of the day, 30 minutes earlier.
Reavie’s tee shot appeared to have done him a favour in many ways as it took the option of going for the green out of the equation and with it, on paper at least, the chance of a disaster. He laid up well short of the trouble but his third was pulled left and long. He took a drop but was unable to get up and down and the resultant bogey saw he and Simpson heading for the 18th tee once again to determine the outcome.
Both missed the green with their seconds at the par five 18th but managed to get up and down. Simpson needed to hole a 20 footer to do so but when they played the par three 17thit was Reavie who faltered and the title was Simpson’s.
For the 26 year old Simpson the victory comes just two weeks after his long anticipated first in Greensboro and sweeps him to the number one position in the FedEx Cup standings.
The TPC Boston is a great tournament golf course giving with one hand but taking with the other and with the breezes picking up over the closing stages and the importance of just what was at stake there was plenty of drama and suspense as the tournament entered its final few holes.
Of the Australians all eight who started the event and all eight survived the 36 hole cut. Day shared 3rd and Scott finished 8th after a round which, for Scott, may well have been one of the greatest roller coasters of his career. Scott recorded six bogeys, a double bogey, six birdies and an eagle in his round of 71.
John Senden finished 21st, Geoff Ogilvy 25th, Marc Leishman and Greg Chalmers were 42nd, Robert Allenby was 52nd and Aaron Baddeley was 77th.
Like Chalmers Leishman struggled to the line but he had done enough early in the day to just scrape through to the BMW Championship in Chicago in two weeks time. That was the also the case in his rookie season two years ago before he finished second in Chicago and made it to the Tour Championship.
Geoff Ogilvy somehow found a way to hole a 20 foot par saving putt at the 17th hole and then hole a six foot birdie putt at the last to ensure he would advance to Chicago. If he had not then a question mark might have remained over his chances of making the Presidents Cup side. It still may but he has kept the door open.
Unfortunately for Chalmers however his final nine hole struggle has cost him a place in the third leg of the Playoffs.
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