Streb nearly holes out in a playoff to win at Sea Island
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Robert Streb now has two PGA Tour victories, both at Sea Island, both times winning in a playoff.
Those are the only similarities.
Six years after he had to rally from a five-shot deficit, Streb failed to protect a three-shot lead Sunday and felt the RSM Classic slipping away until piecing together three big shots to beat Kevin Kisner, none bigger than his final full swing.
His ball nestled in Bermuda rough on the second playoff hole on No. 18 at the Seaside course, Streb had to rely on a good guess and a soft bounce. He got both. His pitching wedge from a flier lie 158 yards away was perfect in flight, landed softly and came within an inch of going in.
That left him a tap-in birdie to cap off a wild final hour that changes everything for Streb – a check worth nearly as much as he made the last two years, a return to the Masters and a PGA Tour exemption through August 2023.
“We were planning on the ball kind of knuckling out of there and jumping,” Streb said. “You’re kind of at the mercy of whatever you get and it came out really well. I was just hoping it would land soft, and obviously it just worked out as good as you could hope for.”
Streb was one shot behind until his 6-iron on the par-3 17th took a good hop to 12 feet away for a birdie that allowed him to catch Kisner and closer with a 2-under 68.
Kisner, who won at Sea Island in 2015 for the first
had zero victories over Top 10 opponents over the preceding 12 months.
He called this run “a great boost of confidence for all the Slams coming up and all the tournaments. Hopefully I can continue this way.”
Thiem’s defense and power from the baseline put him on top early, and strong serving at key moments allowed him to save the first eight break points he faced.
“He was crushing the ball,” Medvedev said, “like (there) was no tomorrow.”
But Medvedev, the runner-up to Nadal at the 2019 U.S. Open, finally converted on his sixth break chance of the third set by sneaking forward behind a return, making a forehand volley winner and going up
3-2.
Thiem credited Medvedev with playing an “unreal game” there.
That was enough, because Medvedev never faced a break point the rest of the way; he finished with 12 aces.
A key shift came in the second-set tiebreaker, thanks to a change in style from Medvedev.
Thiem went up 2-0 there, before Medvedev used an element of surprise by rushing to the net more often than usual – behind serves and returns – and reeling off the next seven points.
That Medvedev began moving forward behind returns “was surprising” and “very gutsy,” said Thiem, who had won three of the pair’s previous four matches, including in straight sets in the semifinals in New York in September en route to his first Grand
Slam trophy.
In the second set Sunday, Thiem had break opportunities to take a 4-3 edge, but he badly missed a short shot on one. He put his hands on his hips,
“Maybe,” Thiem said afterward, “the match would have had a different outcome if I convert that break point.”
He stumbled and tumbled to the court in the next game, but appeared to be OK. Still, Medvedev said he sensed Thiem was fading down the stretch.
“To make Dominic tired in a three-set match,” Medvedev said, “is a great achievement.”
NOTES: Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic won the ATP Finals doubles championship for their first title as a pair. They beat Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 in Sunday’s final.