Buick Open Wrapup
When did the year of the pig become the year of the first time winner?
Brian Bateman became the eighth first time winner this year after he drained a 12 footer on the 72nd hole at the Buick Open.
The putt on the 18th hole broke up a potential four-way playoff between Woody Austin, Justin Leonard and Jason Gore. That would have been the second consecutive playoff in the recent weeks.
The winner of that latest playoff was the PGA Tour’s second newest winner Hunter Mahan.
Mahan entered the PGA Tour as a much decorated amateur. In 2002, he was the runner-up to Ricky Barnes at the US Amateur. The next year he was the number one ranked amateur player by Golfweek magazine, he then turned professional later that year. 121 starts went by and Mahan did not have a PGA Tour to his name, until two weeks ago when he defeated Jay Williamson on the first playoff hole at the Travelers Championship.
On the other hand, when Bateman turned professional he did not turn heads with his impressive amateur resume or game.
Prior to last week’s win he only had three top-tens in his career and began the tournament 204th on this year’s money list. That all changed when he walked into the winner’s circle at Warwick Hills.
Bateman closed with a 69 on Sunday to overcome the would be playoff thanks to key putts on the closing holes.
He saved par on both the 16th and 17th holes with clutch par putts.
Then on the 18th hole Bateman played the third toughest hole on the course all week perfectly. Similar to how Mahan played his first playoff hole two weeks ago, Bateman hit a center-cut drive then hit his approach to the tucked left pin placement to 12 feet. Austin had a similar putt the group before Bateman but could not convert it as it came up short.
Bateman had no such problem.
His putt rolled in, he tossed his putter into the air and at the moment all worries about trying to qualify via Q-School for the sixth consecutive year vanished and in appeared new opportunities.
Bateman’s win netted him a two year exemption on the PGA Tour which also includes an exemption to his first Masters next year.
This week the PGA Tour travels to Congressional CC for the inaugural AT&T National. AT&T will partner with Tiger Woods to sponsor the event which will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation. Check-in with hookedongolf.com all this week for updates and results.
