Grillo wins playoff at Colonial after lead floats away on 18

FORT WORTH, Texas — Emiliano Grillo could only watch as his ball kept floating and rolling back toward the No. 18 tee after his wayward shot into the flowing water of a small concrete drainage canal. That mishit on the 72nd hole at Colonial cost him his two-stroke lead, but he still got his first PGA Tour victory in more than 7 1/2 years.

Grillo curled in a five-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole, the 186-yard 16th hole where he had taken the solo lead before needing a playoff Sunday. Grillo and Adam Schenk, who both finished at 8-under 272, had two-putt pars from 26 feet at No. 18 to start the playoff.

A 20-foot birdie at No. 16 in regulation had Grillo up by two strokes before his tee shot at No. 18.

“I’ve done it before. I’ve hit the exact same shot to the right of the tree,” he said. “When I saw one of the marshals walk right of the tree, I knew it was going to be a long wait until that ball stopped. … It stopped for like five, 10 seconds at one moment. I actually thought I got lucky. Then five seconds later, the ball kept moving.”

The ball finally came to rest against a rock in the middle of the flow about 150 yards downstream. Grillo took a penalty stroke with a drop where the ball had entered the canal, and had to set his ball on the concrete. His approach was short of the green, and he two-putted from about 20 feet for double bogey to drop to 8-under.

“One bad swing all day,” he said.

It was the second PGA Tour win for Grillo, the 30-year-old from Argentina whose only other win was at the Frys.com Open in Napa in October 2015. He had four other top-10 finishes this season. He had a closing 2-under 68.

Along with a $1.566-million US cheque, plaid jacket and fully restored 1973 Bronco vehicle, the win at Hogan’s Alley pretty much set Grillo up for all four majors. He now is set for the Masters and PGA Championship next year, and is in line for this year’s U.S. Open and British Open after moving from 80th to 42nd in World Golf Ranking.

PGA Tour rookie Harry Hall, in the final group with Schenk, bogeyed the final hole after his drive into the water to miss getting in the playoff. He finished tied for third at 7-under with local favourite Scott Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who had a hole-in-one at the 189-yard 8th hole during his closing 67.