Wetterich takes EDS Byron Nelson Championship
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2006 EDS Byron Nelson Championship | Wrap | 15 May 2006
Brett Wetterich today provided yet another good example of the saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”.
The 32-year-old recorded his first victory on the USPGA Tour when he surprised most by holding out two of the young guns of world golf over the closing round of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship today to win by one shot over South African Trevor Immelman.
For Wetterich, who has travelled the much trodden path between the Nationwide and USPGA Tour in recent years, this is a result that will change his career. On three occasions he has gained USPGA Tour status via the Tour School but this will alleviate any of those concerns, at least in the immediate future. The US$1.16 million will not go astray either.
Heading into the final round the lead was shared by both Adam Scott and Immelman but, perhaps surprisingly, Wetterich applied early pressure to the more credentialed pair when he birdied the first hole to join the leaders at 11 under. When Immelman bogeyed the third there were just two in the lead. Wetterich bogeyed the fourth and fifth holes and appeared as if he might fall back but this is a much improved golfer in 2006. He had, after all, come off recent top ten finishes in Houston and New Orleans. When Scott took consecutive bogeys at the 8th, 9th and 10th holes to fall back to 8 under, Wetterich was, along with Omar Uresti, in second place at 10 under, one behind Immelman.
As the tournament entered its final few holes Wetterich and Immelman appeared to have the finish to themselves. Neither Immelman nor Wetterich had won on the PGA Tour, although both had won professional tournaments on the European and Nationwide Tours respectively. Immelman had gone so close the previous week in Charlotte when beaten by Jim Furyk but here was a chance to put that disappointment behind him.
When Immelman bogeyed the 12th and 15th holes he became the chaser and not the chased and it was Wetterich that would be required to hold his nearest pursuers at bay. At the par five 16th both Immelman and Wetterich hit fine drives and when both found the green with their mid iron approaches they had makeable eagle chances to perhaps break the deadlock. Neither was able to do so but both made birdie and when they both two putted for par at the 17th, the difference was till one as they headed to the last.
Wetterich took a fairway wood from the tee at the 72nd and hit a perfect shot along the right half of the fairway. Immelman, looking for the birdie he so desperately needed, pulled his tee shot slightly and it bounced further left into the recently introduced lake guarding the left side of the landing area. From there Immelman took relief some thirty yards back of where he might otherwise have finished and was forced to hit a seven iron for his third. He hit the perfect shot to eight feet and reminded Wetterich that he still had work to do if he was to retain that one shot lead.
Wetterich responded in style by hitting his pitching wedge to twenty feet short and right of the flag and when he ran his putt adjacent to the hole it was all over. Immelman holed his putt to retain outright second with Scott holing an eight foot birdie putt to move into a share of third with Uresti.
Uresti, as a native of Texas, was playing on invite in this event and the run he was having on the final day promised to provide him with a huge windfall. In five events on the PGA Tour in 2006 leading into this week, the 37-year-old had made only one cut and had missed the cut in both events on the Nationwide Tour but all of a sudden here he was contending in an event no doubt dear to his heart being in his home state. He had agonisingly missed regaining his card by just one shot at last year’s PGA Tour School, although he did have limited status, but here was a chance to put all that behind him. He was unable to finish it off but his share of third and the subsequent US$359,000 will go a long way towards securing his full status.
The other Australians in the field had mixed results. Rod Pampling moved his earnings in 2006 close to the US$1.5 million mark when 8th. Mathew Goggin did his quest to retain his status on then PGA Tour no harm when his last round of 66 saw him move into 13th place.
Peter Lonard showed a little improvement on what has been an ordinary year to date when 26th, Phil Tataurangi was 34th, Nathan Green 48th, Stephen Leaney and Greg Chalmers were 67th and David McKenzie 79th.
The PGA Tour now moves a few miles westward to Fort Worth for this week’s Bank of America Colonial.
Photo – Anthony Powter
