Ryan Palmer (FJ ICON style #52005, SciFlex glove) nearly chipped in for eagle on the 72nd hole but left himself just a tap-in for birdie and the win at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Palmer was tied for the lead on the 18th and after both competitor's left their tee shots in the right rough it was a battle to see who would get up-and-down, or better, for the win. Palmer's challenger chipped to about 9 feet from behind the green and then watched as Palmer's chip raced towards the hole, hit the flag stick and backed up just a few inches.
“Lucky bounce,” Palmer said. “It was probably going to go by 7 or 8 feet. I still hit a good chip. You need things like that to win.”
For Palmer, who finished with a 15-under 265 total, it was his third career victory and first since the 2008 Ginn sur Mer Classic. It gives the 33-year-old Texan exemption on the PGA Tour through 2012 and a trip back to the Masters for the first time in five years.
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Jay Haas (FJ ICON style #52203, SciFlex glove) won the Senior Players Championship by a stroke, birdieing the 18th hole Sunday to match the course record with a 6-under 64 in the final Champions Tour major of the season. Haas, a golf icon in his own right, recently switched to the new FJ ICON golf shoe and and has now won consecutive events including this week where he finished with a 13-under 267 total for his third senior major title. He now has 14 career Champions Tour victories, including another he picked up two weeks ago when he won the Greater Hickory Classic.Haas took advantage of a well-placed 6-iron from 185 yards on his second shot on the par-4 18th hole. His shot dropped on the right side of the green, then rolled within 3 feet of the cup for an easy birdie.
Trailing by a shot to start the day, Kenny Perry (SciFlex glove) fired a bogey-free 7-under 63 to run away with the Travelers Championship on Sunday. He set the tournament scoring record with a 22-under 258 total (61-68-66-63), including a course record-tying 61 on Thursday, to win by three shots over David Toms (SYNR-G style #53883) and Paul Goydos (ReelFit style #53918, SciFlex glove).
Perry has now won five times in just over a year, the most of any player on TOUR, and 14 times in his career. His 258 tied the fourth-best 72-hole score in TOUR history and beat the old tournament record of 259 set in 1982.
The 48-year old Perry, the new leader in the Chase for the FedEx Cup, shot a 32 on the front nine and then birdied the tenth and eleventh holes. He was up by five strokes heading to the par-4 15th and put the tournament away by making birdie on No. 17 after hitting a 164-yard approach to within 8 feet.
"I knew that I had to keep making birdies," he said. "I wasn't going to let up. I wasn't going to play defensive golf. I learned something from that (Augusta) mistake."