Abraham Ancer of Mexico hit a terrific approach and made a birdie on the second playoff hole to win the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational on Sunday in Memphis.
Ancer, 30, defeated Sam Burns and Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama of Japan to cap off a wild day at TPC Southwind.
The trio played the Par 4 18th hole twice during the playoff, and all three made par the first time around. On the second go-round, Ancer was 145 yards away from the pin and stuck his approach to about six feet.
Burns went next and landed his ball just inside Ancer’s. But after Matsuyama missed a long birdie try and Ancer converted his, Burns’ birdie putt lipped out nearly 180 degrees back at him.
A third consecutive round of 66 was enough to give Rory McIlroy a tied-12th finish at 10 under par after he made five birdies on the front nine and dropped just one shot on the way in.
For Shane Lowry, a double bogey at the Par 3 11th was a blow in an up-and-down round which included three bogeys and five birdies with the Offalyman eventually signing for a level par 70 and a tie for 23rd at six under.
Ancer’s first career PGA Tour win was a long time coming. The No23 player in the world, Ancer has four second-place finishes to his name, including one in May at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“Definitely a dream, a dream come true to win on the PGA TOUR, and to do it on a big stage like a WGC event was really, really cool, man,” Ancer said. “It was a crazy round. I thought I was going to need a really low one to have a chance today, but it just worked out that it was like pretty much survival mode on the back nine.”
At 16 under, Ancer, Burns and Matsuyama went to a playoff following the collapses of 54-hole leader Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau and Australia’s Cameron Smith.
English moved to as low as 20 under for the tournament and led by three strokes at one point. He made birdies at the third, sixth and eighth, the latter a 31-foot putt that drew all the momentum his way.
But on the Par 3 11th and 14th holes, he found water hazards off the tee and struggled to recover, making double bogey on each hole. English later missed a birdie putt on the last that would have qualified him for the playoff.
With a final round of 74 he finished alone in fourth place at 15 under.
“It sucks to finish fifth or fourth, I don’t know what I finished, but I can still take a lot of positives from this week,” English said. “I played great golf. Really had a tough nine holes and that was it.”
Playing in the final pairing with English, DeChambeau chipped in for birdie at the fifth but followed it with an errant tee shot on the sixth which landed under a fence, nearly out of bounds. He was granted relief but hit his second shot into a tree branch en route to a bogey.
DeChambeau followed English into the water off the tee at the 11th and put his next shot in a bunker, leading to a triple bogey that killed any hope of contending the rest of the day. He shot 41 on the back nine and 74 for the day.
Earlier in the afternoon, Matsuyama posted a final-round 63 and Burns turned in a 64 to set the clubhouse lead.
“When you start the day eight back, you’re just trying to post a good round and see what happens,” Burns said. “Fortunately enough Hideki and I did that ... But I don’t hope either of those guys (English and DeChambeau), you know, lose it. I hope they play well on the last couple holes.”
Ancer (68) joined the group at 16 under after leaving a would-be go-ahead birdie putt on the 18th a few inches short. He finished the day with three birdies and just one bogey.
Ancer was asked if he ever began to think that winning the tournament wasn’t meant to be.
“That thought wanted to slip in my head a little bit,” Ancer said, “and I just said, hey, what are you doing? You worked your ass off to be here, this is the time that you’re going to go and get it, you’re going to make birdie and you’re going to win this tournament. That’s what I kept telling myself.”
Smith also missed some chances to seize control when the leaders tumbled. A birdie at the last hole would have put him at 17 under and in position to win. Instead, his tee shot flew way off line into a wooded area, and his second shot caromed off a tree and out of bounds. He finished the round with a double bogey.
Final scores from the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational (USA unless stated, Par 71)
264 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 67 62 67 68 (won at the 2nd extra playoff hole), Sam Burns 66 64 70 64, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 68 69 64 63
265 Harris English 62 65 65 73
266 Daniel Berger 66 67 67 66, Paul Casey (Eng) 68 66 65 67, Cameron Smith (Aus) 67 62 65 72
268 Bryson DeChambeau 65 66 63 74, Will Zalatoris 66 66 67 69,
269 Dustin Johnson 69 65 65 70
Ian Poulter (Eng) 64 66 67 72
270 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 72 66 66 66, Jordan Spieth 71 69 63 67
271 Scottie Scheffler 65 65 67 74,
272 Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 69 67 68 68, Webb Simpson 71 65 72 64
273 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 67 68 65 73, Billy Horschel 68 67 66 72, Phil Mickelson 69 66 70 68, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 70 68 68 67, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 64 68 74, Matthew Wolff 64 70 72 67
274 Patrick Cantlay 71 67 69 67, Shane Lowry (Irl) 68 69 67 70, Kevin Na 67 71 67 69,
275 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 68 65 72, Collin Morikawa 67 71 68 69, Ryan Palmer 70 64 68 73, Aaron Rai (Eng) 70 67 71 67, Justin Thomas 67 67 69 72
276 Cameron Champ 71 72 65 68, Patrick Reed 68 69 69 70, Lee Westwood (Eng) 67 69 69 71
277 Tony Finau 69 65 69 74, Jason Kokrak 67 68 68 74
278 Corey Conners (Can) 67 69 69 73, Brian Harman 70 69 69 70, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 69 70 70 69, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 73 65 69 71, Marc Leishman (Aus) 65 71 69 73, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 64 69 73 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 74 66 70 68
279 Stewart Cink 68 66 74 71, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 67 70 70 72, Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn) 74 66 70 69
280 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 69 70 69 72, Jim Herman 64 68 73 75, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 70 70 67 73, Xander Schauffele 69 73 70 68, Robert Streb 71 66 71 72
281 Max Homa 66 68 74 73, Matt Jones (Aus) 69 68 74 70, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 69 71 68 73
282 Brooks Koepka 70 69 67 76, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 68 74 70 70, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 69 69 75
283 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 72 67 74, Lucas Glover 71 73 66 73, Martin Laird (Sco) 68 69 69 77
285 Cameron Davis (Aus) 68 72 73 72
287 Victor Perez (Fra) 71 69 71 76
288 Min-Woo Lee (Aus) 67 75 74 72
289 Kevin Kisner 67 72 71 79
290 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 76 72 72 70
293 Si Woo Kim (Kor) 70 70 75 78
