60 holes not enough: Schwab Cup playoff goes to Monday,
The Charles Schwab Cup Championship was scheduled to be a 54-hole event. They played 60 and still didn’t have a winner by Sunday night.
For the second straight year, the PGA Tour Champions season-ending event went to a playoff at Phoenix Country Club but this time, they’ll need a Monday finish between Kevin Sutherland and Paul Broadhurst.
It became a race to beat the setting sun. Both golfers parred the first four holes and on the fifth playoff hole, after they each teed off, rules officials started using golf carts to get them quickly to their next shots.
Sutherland could’ve won it on the fifth extra hole but watched his putt lip out. After a quick chat with rules official Joe Terry, the two agreed to play on to a sixth. After both parred the par-5 18th for a third time in the playoff, it was simply too dark to continue.
“I did this once before and had to come back the next day. I prefer to get it done on Sunday, but coming back the next day is not so bad,” said Sutherland, who admitted he didn’t plan on staying another night in Phoenix. “I’ve got to go find a hotel, that’s next on the agenda.”
Broadhurst, who has his rental house till Monday, noted the pace definitely picked up in an effort to finish.
“As quick as I’ve ever played six holes. I didn’t dream we’d get six holes in.”
The longest previous Schwab playoff was five holes. The longest playoff in Champions tour history is10. The Rapiscan Systems Classic in March 2019 is the last tour event that needed a Monday finish to settle a playoff. That one also involved Kevin Sutherland, who beat Scott Parel.
The golfers will be back on the course at 8 a.m. MT. They’ll head to No. 17 and continue to alternate between 17 and 18 until someone claims the $375,000 first-place prize.
Broadhurst shot the best round of the week, a 63, on Sunday, but he missed a short birdie putt on 18 that would’ve sealed his first win since he won three times in 2018.
Sutherland, the 2017 Charles Schwab Cup Championship winner, later drained a 30-footer on 18 to force the playoff, which might have seemed unlikely at the start of day, as he lead the field by five, and Broadhurst by six, after he shot a second-round 64. Woody Austin birdied the 18th to get to 12 under to finish solo third. Wes Short, Jr. was solo fourth at 10 under. Bernhard Langer, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Fred Couples and Glen Day were all T-5 at 9 under.
John Daly withdrew on the ninth hole. He’ll get last-place money along with Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Byrum, who each withdrew on Saturday.
Season rolls on
Normally the Charles Schwab Cup Championship is a celebration to cap the season, the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work.
Due to the schedule shakeup in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no Cup trophy being handed out. This is still the final event of the calendar year but the PGA Tour Champions is combining the 2020 and 2021 seasons, so the points race continues.
This came in the wake of 14 PGA Tour Champions events getting canceled, although two new ones were added lastminute in August. Four of the five senior majors were lost this year.
The next Champions tour event isn’t for 11 weeks at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the island of Hawai’i, Jan. 21-23, 2021. The full 2021 PGA Tour Champions schedule is still being finalized but the 2021 Charles Schwab Cup Championship will be back at Phoenix Country Club Nov.11-14. The club is scheduled to host the event through 2027.
Off to Augusta
From here, golfers will scatter. There are eight former Masters champions in the field in Phoenix and they’re are all planning to travel to Augusta National. Fred Couples says he’s got a Monday tee time with Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas.
“I’ve been trying to stay COVID free because Augusta is my favorite tournament of the year and as I got closer to it, I really started to not do anything but maybe practice a little bit,” Couples said.
Mark O’Meara said he’s going but only to mingle. He stopped playing in 2018. “I’m actually going to drive back to Vegas on Sunday night and I’m on a Monday morning flight to Atlanta and drive over Tuesday mid morning, get tested, then go to the dinner on Tuesday night,” O’Meara said. “Then Tuesday night straight back to the Atlanta airport and then Wednesday morning, back to Las Vegas, watching the guys on TV.”
Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, José Maria Olazábal, Larry Mize, Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle are all former winners of the green jacket who played Phoenix this week.