Aaron Rai wins Wyndham Championship in darkness as leader implodes down stretch
Aaron Rai won the Wyndham Championship after a bizarre finish.
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Max Greyserman coming to the finish of a crazy long day, but it was all going his way.
Starting the day one back of Matt Kuchar after nearly shooting 59 in the second round Friday evening, Greyserman pulled out ahead three-quarters of the way through Sunday at the Wyndham Championship finale thanks to three eagles over the third and fourth rounds. The third of which coming on the 13th hole of the fourth round, his 31st of the day, when he spun a wedge back from 91 yards for a duce.
It was seven minutes to 7 p.m. ET with just about 75 minutes until sunset on a day that began for Greyserman at 9:40 a.m. after heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby wiped out Thursday play, forcing the third and fourth rounds to both be held Sunday.
He doubled his lead to four shots as he headed to the tee of Sedgefield Country Club’s hardest hole and raced to play the last five.
Then, golf happened.
Greyserman wiped his tee shot on the 14th hole out of bounds, then compounded it by playing his 4th shot into a bunker and ended up making a quadruple bogey. Two holes later, after rebounding with a birdie to regain the lead, he four-putted the 16th green for a double.
That opened the door for Aaron Rai. Rai was leading the chase for second all day as Greyserman raced out ahead, but as the rookie struggled, the veteran hung tough. On the 72nd, after the sun had already set, Rai threw a dart of an iron from 200 yards into the heart of the green, rolling out to just seven feet. He drained the putt to slam the door shut on Greyserman in the fairway and win the Wyndham Championship for his first PGA Tour victory.
Rai’s win will not technically be official until Monday morning as Kuchar who was one over for the final round, elected not to finish Sunday evening and will complete his final hole Monday. He was the only player not to complete the final round Sunday.
But Rai’s victory was only the result of the bizarre turn of events for Greyserman that started after he holed out on 13 for eagle.
After holing out, Greyserman stood on the 14th tee, a burley 509-yard par-4 that’s played as the hardest hole this week, for nearly 10 minutes while he waited for Kuchar and Chad Ramey to finish the 13th.
When it was finally time for him to hit, he took a mighty lash at the ball with driver. As soon as his head came up, his right hand came off the club and pointed right. He was disgusted at what he saw.
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“FORE!” the last thing a PGA Tour rookie searching for his first win wants to shout with five holes left to play in a tournament.
The first bounce was a massive one off the cart path, up into the trees farther right. When it came down, it was well out of bounds.
“[He] was waiting there for so long,” said CBS’ Trevor Immeleman, stunned at what he had just seen.
With one swing, the two shots he had just picked up on the last hole were basically wiped out and he still had to tackle the 14th.
Greyserman reloaded with another pellet and ripped it. This one was a seed. The broadcast recorded it at 183 mph ball speed up the right side, but this one was turning left. Too much. The ball just barely cleared the bunker in the corner of the dogleg in the fairway but nestled in the thick Bermuda rough. He needed Kuchar’s help to find it.
With 186 yards to the green, there was no chance Greyserman could advance the ball to the green. But there was a massive cross bunker short that he had to layup short of. His caddie reminded him that he had 110 yards to the front of it.
Surely he wouldn’t compound his error further by laying up too far?
He hacked out. His shoulders dropped as soon as he looked up.
“Oh, he hasn’t just done that?” Immelman asked. “You can make a bad swing off the tee, get a little unlucky with the cartpath, but that mistake right there? That’s inexcusable.”
Things were going from bad to worse as Greyserman’s ball landed to the right, but took a hard bounce back to the left and down into the massive sand trap. It was close enough to bring to the lip into play when you factor in he was still 74 yards from the hole.
There aren’t many harder shots in golf.
Greyserman took a short iron and tried to blast his ball out and up the green. It didn’t make the front and plopped down short of the green with no roll.
From there, he stabbed at his chip shot, caught it too steep and it kept running, 10 feet by. His putt for a triple, the putt that could have preserved his once secure 4-shot lead, just slid past the low side of the cup.
He tapped in for a lead-evaporating quadruple-bogey 8.
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In one hole, he went from being four shots up with five holes to play to tied with four holes to play.
Luckily for Greyserman, the par-5 15th was playing as the second-easiest hole on the course and he was still tied with Rai for the lead.
He roasted another tee shot down the left side of the fairway and then hit a perfect 4-iron into the heart of the green in two. He two-putted for birdie to regain a one-shot lead.
His approach at the next, the par-3 16th wasn’t spectacular, but it was safe and on the green. Surely he’d now steadied himself. After all, he’d only dropped one shot over the past three holes.
Greyserman’s approach had landed in the middle of the green, but it spun down the slope and left him 41 feet, up the hill. It’s not a putt you expect to make, but not one you expect a pro to three-putt either.
He motored the birdie putt three-feet-four-inches by, leaving a ticklish downhill putt for par. Now the thoughts of a three-putt had to enter.
That’s exactly what happened. Greyserman was stunned as his putt caught the high lip, didn’t drop and trickled another three feet away.
He remarked and missed that one too. The meltdown was full on now. In the past four holes, he’d gone 2-8-4-5. Eagle-Quad-Birdie-Double. Four-shot lead, to one-shot deficit.
Meanwhile, Rai bided his time. He made four birdies in a row on the front nine to climb into contention. He added another one at 12 but missed makable chances at 13, 16 and 17.
On 18, he finally capitalized, even as darkness fell. He birdie putt after the approach never left the center of the cup as it curled in. Greyserman watched from the fairway, as Rai was illuminated by the leaderboard short of the 18th green, emotionless.
Greyserman’s last gasp effort to hole his approach at 18 to tie found the front left bunker and it was all over.
“Played good enough to kind of run away with it,” Greyserman said afterward, summing up his week. “Obviously stuff happens in golf that sometimes it’s not meant to be sometimes.”
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