Joe Highsmith solely made the minimize on the quantity and he adopted that scare up with one of many worst driving vary classes of his life, however the American pulled off a miracle to develop into a PGA Tour winner for the primary time.
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The 24-year-old held his nerve to two-putt from 26 toes on the remaining gap on Friday to increase his keep at PGA Nationwide in Florida into the weekend.
On Saturday morning he went to the driving vary to attempt flip his sport round and he walked to the primary tee along with his confidence shot.
“I hit it horribly on the vary and putted okay on the follow tee,” Highsmith stated. “However I felt prefer it type of compelled me to focus as soon as the spherical began as a result of I felt like I used to be going to hit it out-of-bounds on each gap, and it become certainly one of my finest rounds.”
Highsmith began the weekend on the Cognizant Traditional eight photographs off the lead, tied forty eighth.
His mom caught round to observe him play, however her confidence was missing too as she booked a Sunday afternoon flight out of Palm Seashore Gardens.
Her itinerary shortly modified as Highsmith started to surge up the leaderboard, ultimately heading into the clubhouse with a two-shot lead after capturing seven-under par spherical of 64 for the second straight day, to sit down at -19 total.
That margin remained intact, forward of Jacob Bridgeman and J.J. Spaun, because the later teams got here down the stretch, and there was no denying that the trophy was Highsmith’s.
He additionally pocketed US$1.65 million for his troubles, greater than he had earned in whole throughout the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Canada since turning skilled in 2022.
Highsmith was additionally the primary participant since Brandt Snedeker 9 years in the past on the Farmer’s Insurance coverage Open at Torrey Pines to make the minimize on the quantity and go on to win a PGA Tour occasion.
So uncommon are miracle comebacks of that margin that Highsmith is simply the tenth PGA Tour participant to do it within the final 50 years.
The left-hander clearly didn’t blast the ball out-of-bounds like he had feared, nevertheless it was his placing that made all of the distinction.
Highsmith drained an astonishing 231 toes of putts throughout the weekend.
He seemingly couldn’t miss with that flat stick, holing 13 birdie putts, and one eagle putt, in his remaining two rounds.
Maybe it was golf royalty who gave him just a few good reads, with Joe LaCava Jr., the son of Tiger Woods’ former caddie, on the bag.
Serving to Highsmith’s trigger was in a single day chief’s Jake Knapp remaining spherical meltdown.
Knapp led after 18, 36 and 54 holes following capturing golf’s magic quantity in a mind-blowing opening spherical of 59.
However his match unravelled on the par 4 eleventh through the remaining spherical with a stunning triple bogey.
Knapp left his second shot wanting the inexperienced and it trickled down the mound into the water.
The 30-year-old American opted to not take a drop nevertheless, as his ball was simply on the sting of the hazard and it was a call that backfired.
Knapp’s third shot stayed within the water, solely managing to drench his garments, and his fourth barely managed to remain dry, clinging onto some tough.
His fifth then made it onto the inexperienced, and a two-putt resulted in a seven on the cardboard, and coughing up his stranglehold on the match earlier than ending -15 with a one-over par remaining spherical.
Australian Min Woo Lee completed strongly birdieing the final two holes in his four-under par remaining spherical of 67 to climb to tied eleventh at -13.
Countryman Karl Vilips produced his finest displaying but in his rookie PGA Tour season regardless of capturing a one-over par remaining spherical.
Vilips completed tied thirty ninth at -9 for the match.