BLAINE, Minn. — Sunday evening at TPC Twin Cities, across the road from where the 3M Open was about to finish, six volunteer practice facilities attendants waited patiently in a small, air-conditioned tent.
They couldn’t leave until the driving range was empty, and they were waiting on clubhouse leader Max Greyserman, who just shot eight-under 63 and was now waiting to see if it was good enough to win in just his 22nd career start. Surely he’d come there to warm up for a potential playoff. One attendant even held the bib of Greyserman’s caddie, thinking the looper might have returned it prematurely. He decided to go find him and give it back.
Across the road, Jhonattan Vegas and Matt Kuchar were playing the watery par-5 72nd hole. Greyserman, behind a back-nine 30, vaulted up the leaderboard and finished 16 under overall. He was tied with Vegas, who needed birdie to win, with a par forcing a playoff. Even Kuchar wasn’t out of it. At 15 under, if Vegas made par, he could make birdie and join the playoff.
So, where was Greyserman? And how was the 29-year-old PGA Tour rookie preparing for this potential mega-stress moment?
He was playing Ping-Pong with Neal Shipley.
“Honestly, it was moving so slow there on 18, I was kind of getting bored,” Greyserman said afterward. “It’s so hot outside I didn’t want to be on the range for 30 minutes. I went to the range and all I needed was 10, 15 balls to get warm. Sitting inside, I was like, Neal, want to play Ping-Pong? He was like, ‘Alright, let’s go.'”
Greyserman didn’t win the 3M Open. Vegas made birdie on 18, good for a one-under 70 and one-stroke win, but Greyserman recorded his best-ever PGA Tour finish (solo second), tied for the low round of the day and even hit the shot of the day, which led to a crucial birdie on the 18th.
He started Sunday eight under and eight behind Vegas, teeing off an hour before the final group. He turned in two-under 33 but found a second gear on the back nine, making birdies on six of the nine holes to shoot 30 coming in.
The final birdie even had some drama.
The par-5 18th is one of the easiest holes here, but wind, pressure and nerves can change that. Last year, J.T. Poston stepped to the 18th tee down three. Looking for eagle, he took a dangerous route with his second shot, found the water and made triple bogey, losing $260,000 in the process.
Greyserman, tied for the lead at 15 under, pulled his tee shot left into the trees and had 256 yards to the pin. There were trees in the way and windows left and right, but he had to carry a ton of water and hit a draw.
“Surely there is no way for him to reach this,” analyst Trevor Immelman said on the CBS broadcast. “This is just some sort of layup. He’s either going to have to hit a huge hook or crush it over the lake.”
But this was no layup. With fans pushed to each side to create a gap, Greyserman took a mighty hack and blasted it out through the trees. It landed on the far left side of the green, giving him an eagle putt.
“That’s a tough shot, but I felt good about it,” Greyserman said. “I just felt like it was a low, stock draw 4. If I had to hit maybe like a 7-iron or something through that gap, that would be difficult because I had to keep it low, but since I had a low-lofted club, normally I think you have to play a little bit to the fat side of the pin if there’s trouble. At that point in the tournament, you’ve just got to go for it, so I just went for it.”
Greyserman two-putted from 77 feet to take the lead, then waited. Behind him, Vegas was trying to win for the first time since 2017. The 39-year-old pro has battled injuries and form since his last victory, and he’s playing this year on a Major Medical Extension.
Vegas tied Greyserman at 16 under with a birdie on 15, and he went to the last needing just one more. After he hit his second shot safely on the left side of the green, he needed two putts from 96 feet to seal it. The second one, from 3 feet away, fell in for a winning birdie.
“In my head it doesn’t really seem that it’s been that long, but obviously it’s been seven years,” said Vegas, now a four-time winner on Tour. “You know, it hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure. It’s been a lot of grinding, a lot of dealing with injuries, a lot of headaches, but these are the moments that you get up every day and you work hard, you do all the right things because nothing feels better than this.”
Greyserman watched from the range. He finally showed up there after the final group hit into the 18th green. A camera crew followed, just in case they needed to capture the moment he became a PGA Tour winner. But at 5 p.m. local, he looked on a nearby screen as Vegas celebrated.
But it’s not all bad news for the rookie. He continues to play well. He missed three cuts in a four-event span earlier this summer, but he entered this week with five straight finishes T31 or better. That includes a T21 at the U.S. Open and a T13 at last week’s Barracuda Championship. Now he just won $882,900, but he also greatly improved his FedEx Cup standing. He entered the week 88th, but he’s now projected to jump to 63rd. After the season-ending Wyndham Championship (which Greyserman plans to play) the top 70 make the FedEx Cup Playoffs and are guaranteed Tour cards for next season. Plus, the top 50 after the first playoff stop get into every big-money Signature Event next season.
Now, as for that question you were wondering this whole time: Who won Ping-Pong?
“I got the best of Neal,” Greyserman said. “It was 11-1.”