Vijay Singh hadn’t won a PGA Tour Champions event in nearly five years. But that wasn’t what made the 60-year-old’s Sunday victory at the Ally Challenge a surprise. Rather it’s how he won … or rather how Paul Goydos lost.

Looking for his first senior win in six years, Goydos held a one-stroke lead heading to the par-3 17th hole at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, Michigan. But after hitting the green off the tee, Goydos watched his 18-foot birdie try go three feet long. And then it got ugly.

Four putts from 3 feet.

Paul Goydos' 1-shot lead became a 2-shot deficit after a triple bogey on the 17th hole @AllyChallenge. pic.twitter.com/KRRdp97iXo

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 27, 2023

Four putts from three feet, and five putts total for a triple-bogey 6 left him now two shots back of Singh, who was in the group in front of Goydos and in the midst of posted a four-under 68 to get to 14-under 202 for the tournament. When he looked at the leaderboard, he realized he was suddenly out front.

“I was 14 (under), Jeff [Maggert] was 13 and no … no Goydos,” Singh said. “I was surprised what he did there.”

That contrasted the incredulous look Goydos had on the 17th hole, wondering how things had slipped away. Not to mention the incredulous voices of the Golf Channel announcers watching what was happening.

John Swantek: “It has become complete unglued for Goydos, who was in command here at 17.”

Lanny Wadkins: “I was thinking all he had to do was tap this short one in and par 18 and it’s his. But not now …”

Goydos would make a par on the 18th hole to finish with a one-under 71 and in a tie for third place.

The win for Singh was his fifth career PGA Tour Champions title but first since the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November 2018. Interestingly, it was the fourth time he’s won a pro event at Warwick Hills; the course used to host a PGA Tour stop that Singh was the victor in at 1997, 2004 and 2005.

“For some reason, I drive the ball very well here,” Singh said. “I did that this week, and I putted well. Putting has been a mystery for a long time. I found a few things out in the last few weeks and I’ve been putting really well.”

And as for Goydos’ reaction to what happened? Well here was his response on social media, posting this music video with the lyric: “I’m not sick, but I’m not well.”

Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta (Official Music Video) – YouTube https://t.co/dlPbh3GWmU

— Paul Goydos (@PaulGoydosPGA) August 27, 2023

The post WATCH: Gut-wrenching five(!)-putt costs PGA Tour Champions pro first win in six years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
The putter can be a lethal weapon in golf, and Joe Durant used his expertly over the weekend in ending a long victory drought while also slaying a legend who nonetheless effectively reminded us of why he has become legendary.

Durant’s one-stroke victory over World Golf Hall of Fame Bernhard Langer in the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich., on Sunday was the fourth of his PGA Tour Champions career, but first in more than three years, surprising even himself.

“The way I played this year, no,” he said, when asked whether he expected to win.

But he capped a brilliant putting tournament by holing a five-foot bogey putt on the 18th hole for the victory. He finished with a four-under par 68 that was good enough to fend of a challenge from Langer, who two days earlier remarkably had shot his age, 64.

“I putted brilliantly,” Durant said, while noting that until this week it had been his putting that kept him not only from winning, but also from contending. Durant, 57, had not had a top 10 since November of 2019, encompassing 25 starts without playing himself into contention on Sunday. He put that dismal stretch behind him with a 54-hole score of 17-under par 199.

Langer, meanwhile, closed with a two-under 70 for a second-place finish that still propelled him past Jim Furyk in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

Durant has been leaning on another legend of sorts, Brad Faxon, a putting maestro, for help on the missing link from an otherwise well-rounded game. And it came through in the clutch on the last hole. He took a two-shot lead into 18, then hit his drive so far off line it wound up on an adjacent fairway.

“I hadn’t been in that position in quite a while, and I had a lot of things that shouldn’t have been in in my brain that were in my brain,” he said. “I’m a good driver of the ball, too, but I just stepped up and I didn’t have a clear picture of the shot I wanted to hit and I just completely flared it. I was very fortunate to be in the other fairway, but still had to get the second shot over the trees, but clipped a tree. I actually had the perfect yardage for me [for his third shot], 60 yards, and I just dumped that one. That showed how nervous I was.”

Putting for par from off the green, Durant ran it five feet past the hole. But this time the putter did not let him down and he was a victor for the first time since February, 2018.

The post Joe Durant fends off a challenge from Bernhard Langer to win for the first time in more than three years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Jim Furyk needed no introduction, of course, but he emphatically made his presence known anyway by winning his PGA Tour Champions debut in the tour’s return from a five-month COVID-19 hiatus.

Nearly three months after turning 50, Furyk shot a four-under-par 68 at Warwick Hills C.C. in Grand Blanc, Mich., on Sunday to win the Ally Challenge by two. His 54-hole total of 14-under-par 202 was two better than another senior rookie, Brett Quigley, and Retief Goosen.

Furyk became the 19th player in tour history to win in his debut and the first since Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2014. He also became the third rookie to win in 2020, joining Quigley and Ernie Els, and forming a potentially dominant nucleus of newcomers to the senior circuit.

It was a surprise to no one that Furyk prevailed, principally because he remains competitive on the PGA Tour from which he likely has forged a World Golf Hall of Fame career. He came into the Ally Challenge 92nd in the World Ranking. The senior closest to him in the ranking was Els at 477th.

Furyk, who won 17 times on the PGA Tour, has made the cut in three of his last five PGA Tour starts, most recently at the Memorial, where he tied for 48th. He is only 16 months removed from finishing second in the Players Championship, and he is in the field at the PGA Championship at the TPC Harding Park in San Francisco this week.

He began play on Sunday in second place, trailing Quigley by a stroke, a deficit that grew to two on the front nine. But he pulled even on the 10th hole with a birdie to Quigley’s bogey.

Goosen, with birdies on Nos. 14, 16 and 17, joined the duo atop the leader board, but bogeyed 18.

Furyk and Quigley arrived at the 17th hole tied for the lead, but the latter bogeyed the final two holes by missing the greens in each instance. Furyk, meanwhile, missed only one of 18 greens in regulation and hit 13 of 14 fairways.

No doubt, his fellow senior competitors are wishing Fuyrk only the best of luck at the PGA at Harding Park. With a good finish, they can only hope, perhaps he won’t feel the need to come back and visit them any time soon.

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