Aaron Rai won the Wyndham Championship after a strange finish.
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Max Greyserman came to the end of a long crazy day, but everything was going his way.
Starting the first day behind Matt Kuchar after nearly shooting a 59 in the second round on Friday evening, Greyserman was out three quarters of the way to Sunday’s finals at the Wyndham Championship thanks to three eagles in the third and fourth rounds. The third came on the 13th hole of the fourth round, his 31st of the day, when he holed a bogey from 91 yards for deuce.
It was seven minutes to 7 pm ET and about 75 minutes until sunset on a day that began at Greyserman at 9:40 a.m. after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby ended Thursday’s play, forcing the third and fourth rounds to be held on Sunday. .
He doubled his lead to four figures as he headed into the tough Sedgefield Country Club course and raced to make the final tee.
Then golf happened.
Greyserman cleared his tee shot on the 14th hole out of bounds, then compounded by playing his 4th shot into the bunker and ending up with a quadruple bogey. Two holes later, after birdieing to regain the lead, he four-putted the 16th green in double.
That opened the door for Aaron Rai. Rai had been leading the race for second all day while Greyserman raced to the front, but when the rookie struggled, the veteran hung on. On the 72nd, after the sun had already set, Rai hit an iron shot from 200 yards into the heart of the green, rolling to just seven feet. He holed a putt to close the door on Greyserman in the fairway and win the Wyndham Championship for his first PGA Tour victory.
Rai’s win won’t be official until Monday morning as Kuchar, who was part of the final round, opted not to finish on Sunday evening and will complete his final hole on Monday. He was the only player not to complete the final round on Sunday.
But Rai’s victory was the result of a strange turnaround for Greyserman that began after he was out on 13 for an eagle.
After teeing off, Greyserman stood on the 14th, a burley 509-yard par-4 that was played as the toughest hole this week, for about 10 minutes while he waited for Kuchar and Chad Ramey to finish the 13th.
When it was time for him to hit, he hit the ball with the driver. As his head rose, his right hand left the skin and pointed to the right. What he saw disgusted him.
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“FORWARD!” the last thing a PGA Tour rookie looking for his first win wants to shout with five holes to play in the tournament.
The first jump was a big one from the cart path, up in the trees on the far right. When it came down, it was out of bounds.
“[He] he’s been waiting there for a long time,” said Trevor Imeleman of CBS, stunned by what he had just witnessed.
With one swing, the two shots he had just taken on the last hole were wiped out and he still had to face the 14th.
Greyserman loaded another pellet and tore it open. This was the seed. The broadcast recorded a 183 mph ball accelerating to the right, but this one was turning left. A lot. The ball just cleared the bunker in the dogleg corner of the fairway but landed in the Bermuda rough. He needed Kuchar’s help to find it.
With 186 yards to the green, there was no chance for Greyserman to drive the ball onto the green. But there was a short cross bunker he had to go through. His friend reminded him that he was 110 yards ahead of it.
Surely he wouldn’t have furthered his mistake by putting it too far?
He broke in. His shoulders slumped as he looked up.
“Oh, he didn’t just do that?” Immelman asked. “You can make a bad mistake on the tee, be a little unlucky on the cartpath, but that mistake there? That’s inexcusable.”
Things kept getting worse as Greyserman’s putt landed to the right, but then went back to the left and into a large sand trap. It was close enough to bring it to the lips in the play when he putt was 74 yards from the hole.
There aren’t many difficult shots in golf.
Greyserman took a short iron and tried to blast his ball up the green. It didn’t make the front and landed short of the green without a roll.
From there, he stabbed his chip shot, caught it on the uphill and continued to run, 10 meters to pass. His three putt, a putt that would have kept his lead safe for 4 shots, just slid off the underside of the cup.
He got into the lead-quadruple-bogey 8 that evaporated.
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On one hole, he went from being four shots up with five holes to play to being tied with four holes to play.
Fortunately for Greyserman, the par-5 15th was playing like the second easiest hole on the course and he was still tied with Rai for the lead.
He fired another shot down the left fairway and hit a perfect 4 iron into the heart of the green in two. He made two birdies to regain the lead by one.
His approach to the next, par-3 16th wasn’t spectacular, but it was safe and green. He was definitely settled now. After all, he had only dropped one shot in the previous three holes.
Greyserman’s approach landed in the middle of the green, but it turned downhill and left him 41 feet, uphill. Not the putt you expect to make, but not one you expect a pro to three-putt.
He drove the birdie three feet four inches, leaving a very low putt. Now the three-putt thoughts had to come in.
That’s exactly what happened. Greyserman was surprised as his putt caught the high lip, missed and fell another three feet.
He noticed and missed that one too. Meltdown was in full swing now. In the previous four holes, he had gone 2-8-4-5. Eagle-Quad-Birdie-Double. Four-shot lead, one shot short.
Meanwhile, Rai called his time. He made four consecutive birdies on the front nine to climb into contention. He added another on 12 but missed potential chances on 13, 16 and 17.
At 18, he finally spent a lot of money, as it was getting dark. The birdie putt after the approach missed the center of the cup when it bent in half. Grayserman watched from the fairway, as Rai was flashed by the leaderboard missing the 18th green, emotionless.
Greyserman’s last ditch effort on the 18th to tie it found the bottom left and it was over.
“He played so well he got away with it,” Grayserman said afterward, summing up his week. “Obviously things happen in golf sometimes that aren’t meant to happen.”
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