JACKONVILLLE, Fla. – Brett Quigley had to work a lot harder than he imagined Sunday to win again on the PGA Tour Champions. He recovered from a shocking double bogey with four closing pars for a 1-under 71 and a one-shot victory in the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
The stress from that double bogey on the par-3 14th at Timuquana followed him all the way to the 18th hole, where Quigley had to make a sharp-breaking 7-foot par putt to avoid a playoff with Steven Alker.
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“I was scrambling the whole way in,” Quigley said.
He won his first PGA Tour Champions title more than three years ago in Morocco — in his second start on the 50-and-older circuit. He had to wait 79 starts for the next victory. Quigley finished at 11-under 205 and earned $315,000.
Alker closed with a 68.
Steve Stricker, coming off a week in Rome as an assistant Ryder Cup captain, finished outside the top 10 for the first time this year. He went backward early and could only salvage a 73 to tie for 15th. He still has a commanding lead in the Charles Schwab Cup.
Quigley looked to have this one in hand when Jerry Kelly made consecutive bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes, falling three shots behind.
But on the 14th, Quigley’s tee shot rolled into a bad lie and gave him a difficult chip to a hole cut near the edge of the crowned green that defines this century-old Donald Ross design.
Trying to hood a 50-degree wedge to keep it from rolling back to his feet, the chip went past the cup and kept rolling off the other side of the green. Quigley thought the next chip was perfect until it rolled back off the other side to where he started.
“I could have been there all day,” Quigley said.
He chipped the next one to 4 feet and escaped with double bogey, his lead suddenly down to one shot over Alker and Billy Andrade.
“I wasn’t panicked,” Quigley said. “I was more mad at myself for making it more interesting.”
Quigley missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the next hole, hit a 7-iron that he called his best shot of the round to a difficult pin on the 16th for par, had a two-putt par from just short of the 17th green and then strapped in for one last bit of stress at the end.
He hit a toe-hook drive that left him a 5-iron from the green that he managed to chase up to the front. He rolled that 60-footer to 7 feet and finally could relax when it dropped for par.
The PGA Tour Champions has one event left before the start of its postseason. The victory moved Quigley to No. 11 in the Schwab Cup.