WINNER’S TEARS
RISING Pune Supergiant’s record- breaking investment in Ben Stokes has paid dividends, with the England all- rounder delivering a blistering maiden Twenty20 century to secure his Indian Premier League team a crucial victory.
Stokes, whose $ 2.16 million contract broke the IPL signing record for a foreign player, hit an unbeaten 63- ball 103 during the Supergiant’s five- wicket win over the Gujarat Lions on Monday.
“He’s done a terrific job for us. We paid a big amount to get him. We know he’s a quality player. ( He) certainly earned his cash tonight,” Supergiant captain Steve Smith said. CAMERON Smith stood on the edge of the 18th green, wiping away tears at a ceremony complete with alligator skin championship belts and a silver chalice.
The 23- year- old Australian, the youngest and least accomplished player left on the course, had been painstakingly close to his first PGA Tour victory – from the final hole of regulation at the Zurich Classic on Sunday night through the fourth playoff hole Monday.
He kept his emotions in check long enough to stick a 50m lob wedge within 1m of the pin on the fourth playoff hole – the par- five 18th – and sink his birdie putt.
The sequence lifted him and teammate Jonas Blixt, of Sweden, to the first championship under the Zurich Classic’s new team format. And it finally vanquished the feisty team of South Carolina residents Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown.
Kisner and Brown had rallied with a final round of 12- under 60 on Sunday, capped by a nearly 30m chip- in for eagle by Kisner as darkness fell on Sunday night at TPC Louisiana.
“It was pretty cool to knock the putt in for the win,” said Smith, who along with Blixt had missed potential winning putts from 9 to 10 feet on earlier playoff holes. “I guess it would have felt a little bit different if Jonas had done it for my first win.
“To have a putt to win on the PGA Tour when you’ve been working toward it your whole life is a completely different feeling,” Smith added. “It felt like the longest putt I’ve ever hit.”
The Zurich Classic was the first team event on the PGA Tour since the Walt Disney World National Team Championship in 1981.
The tournament began with 80 teams and players choosing teammates. Many said they chose friends on the Tour rather than research whose game best complemented their own.
The new format attracted half of the top 30- ranked players. For most of the week, players raved about the relaxing conditions. They and their caddies could talk strategy, and players took comfort in knowing their teammates could pick them up. That was especially the case on the best- ball second and final rounds as well as the playoff – players played their own balls and teams took the better score per hole. In the first and third rounds, teammates alternated shots.
“You support each other and it feels good to have someone to lean on,” Blixt said, nodding at Smith. “Having a great teammate like him, it’s a walk in the park.”