Goosen had just hit his approach from a fairway bunker to four feet on the par-4 17th, the third playoff hole. If the 50-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer won the playoff, he would take both prizes. Maggert faced an approach shot in the fairway from 123 yards. All that was on the line for him was the tournament title. And if Maggert beat Goosen to win it, it meant Scott McCarron—watching intently back in the clubhouse—would win the points race and collect the $1 million reward for the winner.

Knowing he needed to hit one tight to keep up with Goosen, Maggert set dead aim on the flag. And, well, this happened:

A playoff hole-out for the win. ?

Jeff Maggert drains his approach for eagle on the third extra hole to win the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.pic.twitter.com/vvIkInzpeW

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) November 11, 2019

Two bounces and then the dunk. It clinched Maggert’s sixth career PGA Tour Champions win but his first since 2015. And it allowed McCarron, who had finished a disappointing 27th in the tournament, to claim the year-long title after leading in the standings for the majority of 2019.

Suffice to say, McCarron is likely to send Maggert a little holiday present in the very near future.

The post Watch this Jeff Maggert hole-out that wound up winning Scott McCarron $1 million appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
What if is a familiar lament in golf circles, even a cliché, though Jeff Maggert would be forgiven for using it in the wake of his tie for third in the Hoag Classic on Sunday.

On the final hole of his first round at Newport Beach Country Club on Friday, Maggert had a five-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th. He missed. He missed the comebacker for par. He missed his bogey putt, then missed his double-bogey putt, before tapping in his fifth putt for a triple-bogey 8.

@tak6tak @KipHenley so… This just happened to Jeff Maggert pic.twitter.com/kbghznC2yo

— Frank Andy (@ftandru) March 9, 2019

He shot a five-over-par 76, 12 shots behind the first-round leaders in the PGA Tour Champions event.

Then he received a putting tip from his friend Billy Ray Brown, who was on site working for Golf Channel. Brown noticed that Maggert’s forward press was causing him to hit the ball with a descending blow. He told him to move hands back slightly.

On Saturday, Maggert shot the best round of the day, an eight-under-par 63 and followed it up with a six-under-par 65 that equalled the best round of the day on Sunday. In the end, Maggert impressively finished one shot out of a playoff and tied for third. It was Maggert’s best finish in five starts on the PGA Tour Champions in 2019 and his best result since finishing solo second at the Constellation Senior Players Championship last July.

Of course, what might have been had he not five-putted was that he likely would not have received the tip from Brown that Maggert rode to his runner-up finish.

The post Jeff Maggert’s what if: If he hadn’t five-putted from five feet on Friday, he might have won on Sunday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Maggert, a three-time PGA Tour winner who held the solo 54-hole lead at the 2003 Masters, reached the 18th green in regulation and had less than 10 feet left for his birdie. Would you believe it if we told you he walked off with a triple-bogey 8? Warning — graphic content below:

@tak6tak @KipHenley so… This just happened to Jeff Maggert pic.twitter.com/kbghznC2yo

— Frank Andy (@ftandru) March 9, 2019

File this one under things you just hate to see, but not in a sarcastic way like the kids say. You actually really do hate to see that, especially if you’ve ever dipped your toe into a real competitive round before. Suddenly, those five-footers that are “good” on the weekend become the toughest putts in your round, and if you’re not used to them you can find yourself in a similar, nightmarish situation as Maggert’s. One short miss becomes two, two becomes three and the next thing you know you’re in the five-putt club.

Credit to Maggert for remaining calm, though you can tell he’s simmering on the inside. He gave his entire group the quick handshake as he made a b-line for the locker room, and we can’t blame him. Not everybody can just laugh it off like Ernie Els

Maggert finished with a five-over 76, dropping him into a tie for 66th.

The post Watch Jeff Maggert five-putt from inside 10 feet on the 18th hole at the Hoag Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Vijay Singh has aged well, clearly, but his success on the PGA Tour in his 40s has not been replicated on the PGA Tour Champions in his 50s.

But he showed on Sunday that that is a chapter of his career with which he is not finished. Singh, 55, won the Constellation Senior Players Championship on Sunday, defeating Jeff Maggert on the second playoff hole at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Ill.

The victory was only his second in an individual competition and his first major on the senior circuit, in contrast to 22 of his 34 PGA Tour victories and one of his three majors coming in his 40s.

“I don’t know if I was running out of patience,” Singh said of his struggles in senior majors. “I think I just wasn’t playing to my standard. I had good chances. This week was a different story. This golf course was not difficult tee to green. You just had to make a lot of putts.

“I told my caddie when the week started, I said, ‘five under is par.’ If you shoot five under every day, 20 under is going to be close. Afterwards, it was in a playoff.”

Indeed, Singh, who began the final round one shot back, posted a five-under par 67 on Sunday and finished at 20-under par 268.

Meanwhile, Maggert, who shared the 54-hole lead, needed a par at 18 in regulation to win but, from the middle of the fairway, pushed his approach, the ball clipping a tree and leaving him a 60-yard shot from the rough to the hole. A strong third shot left him with a 15-foot birdie putt to win and he missed it, allowing Singh to tie and force a playoff.

On the first playoff hole, Maggert missed another 12-footer to win, this one for a birdie, while Singh two-putted from 30 feet for par, sending it to a second playoff hole.

This time, Singh spun a wedge shot back to tap-in range for birdie, the winning combination after Maggert pulled his second shot and missed a 25-foot birdie putt.

“It just seemed like I was putting from 15, 20 feet all day and just never really had a lot of close putts for birdie,” Maggert said. “I had an opportunity on 18 there [the first playoff hole]. I hit it in there pretty close and just pulled the putt a little bit.”

Singh has been attempting to split time between the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, with mixed results. He has played nine events on the former tour, 11 on the latter this year. Maggert, perhaps to his and others’ detriment, suggested it’s time for Singh to focus on the seniors.

“We all have an ego to compete,” Maggert said. “I was fortunate to be competitive in my late 40s. I actually had dual status when I turned 50, so I was going back and forth between the two tours. But you have to commit to one tour or the other, I think, to play well.

“If you try to do both, you’ll wind up splitting your schedule. I think eventually guys get in their mid-50s, it’s tough to compete on the other tour, obviously. The young guys hit it a mile. Vijay still hits it a long way, probably not as far as he used to. But it’s time to move on.”

The post Vijay Singh finally wins a senior major, the Constellation Senior Players Championship, in a playoff appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.