Scotland’s Russell Knox rocketed into Ryder Cup consideration when he sank a 12-foot par putt at the final hole to beat Jerry Kelly by one stroke and win the Travelers Championship in CT on Sunday. Furyk beat Berger by 16 shots in Round 4 to catch him.
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Furyk made six birdies and an eagle through his first nine holes of his historic round.
Well, to paraphrase one of Jim Carrey’s most memorable roles, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?!” Durant won on the par-5 18th after closing with birdie on the hole in regulation for 9-under 63.
58 has been recorded on two other occasions in tournament golf on a recognised tour, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa’s final round of that score in 2010 the first to break the previous milestone of 58 and just last week Stephan Jaeger recorded that score in the final round of an event on the Web.Com Tour.
Jim Furyk has a place in PGA Tour history all to himself with a new magic number.
Kelly missed a potential birdie putt about two feet to the right of the cup from the front fringe before tapping in his final shot for par.
The 46-year-old was already one of the few players to have hit a 59 on the PGA Tour and he went one shot better with an incredible 12-under-par round on Sunday. He becomes the fifth multiple victor on TOUR this season, joining Jason Day (3), Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, and Adam Scott with two each.
The performance lifted him into a tie for fifth at 11-under, three shots behind Knox. He finished with nine birdies on the day and at 12 under for the tournament, tied with Patrick Rodgers for third place.
On June 2016, at the 2016 U.S Open, Furyk finished in a tie for second, three shots behind Dustin Johnson at one under par.
The 31-year-old Knox rolled in back-to-back birdies on Nos. Any time you can finish off a tournament like that is obviously a big positive, and not necessarily a sigh of relief but just kind of a happy moment I guess you can say because I felt like I played well this whole week and just haven’t gotten anything out of it. “So to hold it on the PGA Tour is phenomenal”, Furyk said. Berger managed to hang onto the lead despite not making a birdie on the front nine.
Knox, just the third worldwide player to win the Travelers title since 1996, shot a closing 68 to finish one stroke ahead of Jerry Kelly. He won $24,505. Sebastian Cappelen (Arkansas Razorbacks) tied for 31st at 11 under and earned $4,128, while Matt Jennings (Henderson State) finished 71st for $1,547. “The hole was in a shadow from one of the grandstands, two feet from the cup”.
It was an exciting finish after Jimenez birdied the last four holes for a 67 to match Durant at 19-under at the TPC Twin Cities course and then birdied the 18 hole in the playoff before Jimenez took the win with the eagle putt.
“You don’t wake up on Sunday morning with an 8:41 tee time thinking that anything exciting is going to happen”, said Furyk. The tournament coincides with the Olympic men’s golf competition in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, which features six of the top 12 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking. The John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., is the next event on the PGA Tour schedule (Aug. 11-14).
Kelly still walked off 18 with a 64 on the day, a cumulative 13-under 267, his best four-round score in his 18 years of coming to Cromwell.
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Furyk, whose swing was once said to look like “an octopus falling out of a tree”, said: “A million and a half rounds played in the history of the PGA Tour and you look at the great names ahead of me”.
