Berger wins PGA return in playoff
FORT WORTH, Texas — Daniel Berger had dreamed about moments like this — a putt on the final hole with everything riding on it — and he pulled it off to perfection Sunday at Colonial.
What he never imagined is how quiet it would be.
There were no cheers when his 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation gave him a share of the lead. There were no groans when Collin Morikawa missed a sixfoot birdie putt to win. And there was more silence on the first playoff hole that Berger won with a par.
‘‘It was a little different, for sure, but in the end I was holding the trophy,’’ Berger said. ‘‘And that’s all that matters to me.’’
The PGA Tour made a healthy and muted return from the COVID-19 pandemic at the fan-less Charles Schwab Challenge, except for Morikawa and Xander Schauffele having reason to feel sick to their stomachs.
One hole after wasting a chance to win in regulation, Morikawa hit a superb pitch to three feet on the 17th hole in the playoff. Berger converted his simple up-and-down for par from behind the green, but Morikawa’s short par putt to extend the playoff hit the right side of the cup and spun out.
‘‘Just hit a better putt,’’ Morikawa said. ‘‘My mind can’t go much else, other than what just happened on that hole.’’
Schauffele, meanwhile, made three consecutive clutch putts — for par, bogey and birdie — that kept him tied for the lead, only to learn new meaning of ‘‘Horrible Horseshoe’’ at Colonial. His three-foot par putt on the 17th dipped into the hole on the right side and came out on the left. His 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th to join the playoff was right on line but came up short.
‘‘If there are fans and everything with the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs,’ I’d probably be a little more [ticked] off,’’ Schauffele said. ‘‘Maybe that’s a good thing for me right now. But it was definitely weird. It was sort of an internal battle, which it always is for me, but more so internal this week with no fans.’’
Berger, whose birdie on the 18th gave him a 4-under-par 66, won for the third time on the PGA Tour, with all three titles coming on this week in the calendar. The other two — in 2016 and 2017 — were at the St. Jude Classic when it preceded the U.S. Open. The victory moved him from outside the top 100 to No. 31 in the world.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who was on the first tee when golf returned Thursday, was back in Florida watching a final round unfold with eight players taking turns at the top.
The scorecard this week included 487 tests for COVID-19, all negative. There were big names at the top of the leaderboard all tournament long, Colonial provided a bit of heritage and it was the first live PGA Tour event since March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘‘This has been a phenomenal start to our return,’’ Monahan said. ‘‘This is about a sustained return. But I think as we sit here late in the day Sunday, there’s no question that this has been an exceptional week.’’