Speith wins Travelers in playoff.
Spieth holes out to win in playoff
CROMWELL, Conn. — Jordan Spieth needed an extra hole, a little bit of luck and an amazing final shot to finish off a wire-to-wire victory in the Travelers Championship.
The two-time major champion holed out from 60 feet for birdie from a greenside bunker on the first hole of a playoff with Daniel Berger on Sunday at TPC River Highlands.
The 23-year-old Texan joined Tiger Woods as the only PGA Tour players with 10 victories in the era since World War II before the age of 24. Woods won 15 times before he turned 24.
“That was one for the ages,” said Spieth, also the winner at Pebble Beach in February.
Spieth held a onestroke edge after each of the first three rounds. He closed with an evenpar 70 to match Berger — who birdied three of the final six holes for a 67 — at 12-under 268.
Berger, the Memphis winner two weeks ago before missing the cut last week at the U.S. Open, just missed a 50foot putt from off the 18th green left that would have forced a second playoff hole.
“Jordan does Jordan things,” Berger said. “So there’s not really much you can say. I’m obviously disappointed, but happy to be in the position I was in today.”
Berger hit his drive on the first playoff hole left and into the crowd behind a fairway bunker. Spieth seemed to clip a tree left landing in the fairway but about 150 yards short of his normal drive and 230 yards from the hole.
Spieth’s approach fell into bunker. Berger’s ran off the green to the left.
Spieth had to back up after hitting his bunker shot to see the hole. When the ball rolled straight in the cup he threw his club and did a flying chest bump into caddie Michael Greller.
“If I was in Berger’s shoes, I be cursing Jordan Spieth right now for the break off the tee and then holing a 30-yard bunker shot, that’s a lot of luck,” Spieth said.
LPGA Tour: So Yeon Ryu became the LPGA Tour’s first two-time winner this season, taking the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers, Ark., on Sunday with a tournament-record 18-under 195 total.
Five strokes ahead after a course-record 10under 61 on Saturday, the third-ranked Ryu closed with a 69 for a two-shot victory over fellow South Korean player Amy Yang and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn.
WPLA Ray Fischer Amateur Championship: Jack Schultz of Whitefish Bay held on for a one-stroke victory after shooting a combined 6-under par in the final 36 holes Sunday at the Janesville Riverside Golf Club. Schultz’s 273 for the tournament was a stroke better than Madison’s Peter Webb, who finished second. Middleton’s Emmet Herb was third at 275.
European Tour: Andres Romero had seven birdies in his last 11 holes to win the BMW International Open in Munich.