Kirk edges Cole in playoff for PGA Honda Basic victory
Chris Kirk birdied the primary playoff gap to beat Eric Cole on the Honda Basic on Sunday, ending a close to eight-year title drought along with his fifth US PGA Tour triumph.
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It was an emotional win for the 37-year-old American, whose final victory at Colonial in 2015 was adopted by time away from the sport in 2019 to take care of melancholy and alcohol misuse.
He took a two-shot lead into the ultimate spherical and carded a one-under-par 69, shaking off a bogey on the 72nd gap with a birdie once they returned once more to 18 for the primary gap of the playoff.
There Kirk spun his strategy inside a foot of the pin whereas Cole was in a greenside bunker and missed a 10-foot birdie try to increase the playoff.
“I simply have a lot to be glad about,” Kirk stated. “I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful for my sobriety. I’m so grateful for my household. I’m so grateful for everybody that’s supported me all through the previous three or 4 years particularly.”
Cole, who’s a US tour rookie this season on the age of 34 — and with 56 skilled wins behind him on the Minor League Golf Tour mini-tour — carded a final-round 67 on the par-70 PGA Nationwide course in Palm Seaside Gardens, Florida, the place he joined Kirk in ending with a 72-hole whole of 14-under par 266.
He and Kirk dueled all day and completed two strokes in entrance of third-placed Tyler Duncan, who carded a 66 for 268.
Kirk acquired off to a fast begin, rolling in a 17-foot birdie putt on the opening gap.
After a bogey on the second he acquired up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the third and rolled in a 34-foot birdie on the eighth to take a two-shot lead.
Cole had saved in contact with birdies on the third, fourth and fifth — the place he snaked in a 70-foot putt.
He was within the water for a bogey on the sixth, however after a birdie at 11 pulled him again inside one stroke he grabbed the outright lead on the thirteenth as he rapped in a seven-foot birdie putt whereas Kirk bogeyed.
Cole gave again a stroke with a bogey at 15, the place he wanted two photographs to get out of a greenside bunker, and Kirk regained the solo lead with a 19-foot birdie on the sixteenth.
– Cole hangs robust –
Kirk couldn’t shut it out at 18, nonetheless, as his second shot from the golf green discovered the water and he was unable to transform a 16-foot par-saving putt.
“I used to be clearly very, very nervous at present having not received in so lengthy,” Kirk stated.
“Coming down the stretch, I felt good. Clearly that putt on 16 was large and was in an amazing place on 18, simply made a nasty swing on the flawed time.”
Cole, who’s the son of former PGA Tour participant Bobby Cole and former LPGA participant Laura Baugh, known as it a “nice week general.”
“I felt like I hung fairly robust, and I used to be actually happy with that,” he stated.
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