Greg Chalmers wins PGA marathon over Adam Scott

BY BRENDAN JAMES AT RACV ROYAL PINES RESORT, GOLD COAST

Adam Scott had four birdie putt attempts to win the Australian PGA Championship … and it took three putts to lose it.

The beneficiary of that three-putt was Greg Chalmers, who earlier in the afternoon set the clubhouse lead at 11 under after shooting a course record 64 around the RACV Royal Pines Resort layout.

Greg Chalmers walks in his birdie putt on the 18th hole that put him at the top of the leaderboard.
PHOTO: Getty Images.

Having begun the final round seven shots behind the leaders, the 41-year-old kick-started his round by holing a 55-foot birdie putt at the par-3 2^nd hole. More birdies followed at the 3^rd, 4th, 8^th and 10^th holes, with two more jumping onto the card at the back nine par-5s at the 12^th and 15^th holes. On the 18^th, he calmly rolled in another birdie, this time from 12 feet for his 64.

“I honestly didn't think … it would be a very slim chance I'd be sitting here at this point today with the quality of the guys leading the Tournament and doing well,” Chalmers said.

“But I got away to a fast start, I holed a 50-footer or about 60-footer on the 2nd hole for birdie and I did the same again on the next hole. Then I holed a 10-footer, I hit a wedge into 10 feet on the 4^th and made birdie there and all of a sudden I was three-under through four.

“Things just progressed from there and I got a lot of momentum going. I birdied the holes you probably should birdie, the par 5s and it turns out we were in a play-off.”

Chalmers then waited for more than an hour before Scott and South Australian Wade Ormsby joined him in a play-off for the title.

As Chalmers grabbed a bite to eat and then hit some wedge shots on the practice range, Ormsby, in he penultimate group, and Scott, in the final group, had only outside chances to move head of Chalmers.

Scott left birdie attempts at the 13^th and 14^th short of the cup. At the par-5 15^th, Scott missed the fairway right and was forced to hit a high iron approach shot over trees towards the green. It finished short of the putting surface but he chipped it close and tapped in for birdie to move into a share of the lead with Chalmers.

Royal Pines’ par-5s provided rich pickings for Scott, who played them in 15 under for four rounds. Interestingly of the 15 birdies and one eagle he had over the four rounds, they all came on par-5s, with the exception of just two holes in the second round – the par-4 4^th and 8^th holes.

Wade Ormsby punches the air as his birdie putt drops on the 18th to join the play-off. PHOTO: Getty Images

Up ahead, his mate Ormsby bounced back from bogies at the 11^th and 14^th holes with a birdie at the par-5 15^th to be just one shot behind Chalmers. He made pars at the 16^th and 17^th, before nailing a 25-foot birdie at his final hole to join Chalmers in the house at 11 under

Scott arrived at the 72^nd hole needing a birdie to win, a par to tie. Taking driver from the tee, he smashed his tee shot into the bunker left of the fairway and, with adrenalin flowing freely through the veins, he blasted his wedge approach long of the flag and into the fringe at the back of the green. From there he chipped down to less than a metre a cleaned up for par to send the Championship into a three-way play-off.

What followed was an intriguing sudden death marathon – an Australasian PGA Tour record record seven holes – before Chalmers got his hands on the Joe Kirkwood Trophy for the second time, after having won the 2011 PGA Championship in a play-off over Robert Allenby and Marcus Fraser.

At the first play-off hole, Chalmers and Ormsby both missed their long birdie attempts, then it was left to, statistically, the worst putter in the field to hole his putt for the championship. As he had done many times over the weekend, he missed his putt left of the hole. It’s not harsh to brand Scott the worst putter either, when you consider he had more putts than anyone else in the field (125), which was 23 more putts than Chalmers (102), who finished on the same score.

The trio headed back to the 18^th tee. This time, having found the right fairway bunker from the tee, Ormsby played a gem from 160 metres, bringing the greenside gallery to its feet as his ball came to rest three feet from the hole. Chalmers missed the green left with his approach and then Scott bounced his approach next to the hole and it finished eight feet behind the cup. Chalmers saved his par and seconds later, Scott ran his putt over the left lip to leave Ormsby a putt for the Championship. But, he, too, rolled his rock to the left of the cup. It was back to the tee.

Ormsby was eliminated at the next play-off hole when Chalmers and Scott both converted their birdie attempts from 18 and 12 feet respectively.

Greg Chalmers shakes hands with Adam Scott after clinching the victory. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Scott and Chalmers continued their marathon for another four holes, with Scott having three more attempts to win the Championship. On each occasion his birdie putt slid by the hole, twice to the left, and once to the right.

While Scott was missing putts, a fatigued Chalmers was struggling to find the fairway but he showed great tenacity in keeping himself in the play-off with terrific iron shots and mistake-free putting.

In the end, on the seventh play-off hole, it was a Scott three-putt that handed Chalmers the title and his 11^th professional victory.

“Well, I just wasn't sure Scottie was ever going to hit a loose shot. I was trying to drive it in the fairway [laughs], I kept driving it in every bunker. My caddy was getting worn out raking bunkers,” the champion said.

“But look, I didn't have the greatest control, fatigue was starting to show up and when I get tired I tend to get a little more hands into my golf swing and it's a lot harder to control where the ball goes.

“I would have loved to have played the play-off about two hours earlier; when I was playing really nicely.

“But just to keep hanging in there. I just thought I've got to – I really wanted to force somebody to make birdie if I could and I made the nice little 15 footer to save par at one point to stay in the play-off as it turned out.

“I thought if I'm going to lose this, I want to lose to a birdie and it's a shame sometimes that that doesn't work out that way, that someone makes birdie and makes something spectacular but I'm very pleased to be the champion again.”

Chalmers is the only player in the history of golf in this country to win two Australian PGA and Open titles as well as the Australian Amateur Championship. The victory also brings to an end a whirlwind couple of months where his schedule has seen him travelling the globe, chasing starts in tournaments.

In a disappointing year in the United States, Chalmers lost his PGA Tour card and now has only conditional status. Looking for as many starts as he could get, he flew from his US home in Dallas, Texas, to Perth (for the Perth International in late October), then to Malaysia, through London back to Dallas then to Jackson, Mississippi, back to Dallas, to Cancun in Mexico and to Melbourne last month for the Masters. He then played the Australian Open, where he led through 36 holes before fading to finish fourth.

His victory at Royal Pines saw him catapult to the top of the Australasian PGA Tour Order of Merit, which will gain him at least three extra starts in the United States including the World Golf Championship Cadillac Championship at Doral in Florida.

For Chalmers, he knows where he needs to improve his game to gain full benefit from this victory.

“Well, I need to drive it better. I wish I drove it like him (Scott),” Chalmers laughed.

“Look, what happens is my attitude, if you're talking about my mental approach, one of my weaknesses, if you want to get into it, is that when I play in the States I don't play to win.

“I'm 41 and I've been doing it a long time but I still experience I just like to do well rather than, you know what, when I come here, I come here to try and win the golf tournament and I get really focused on that.

“Because of that I've finished fourth at the Australian Open and I finished – a victory here, so that's an attitude that needs to change.

Adam Scott misses a putt during the play-off.
PHOTO: Getty Images

“Every golfer, every single one of us has some kind of challenge and that's my biggest challenge, is trying to take this kind of attitude over there.”

For Scott, the loss was a bitter disappointment but he refused to blame his putting for the outcome.

“In a play off it is a lottery,” he said. “This one went on and on and on. The story of the week – I didn't make any putts. I had so many looks.

“When you have putts to win the tournament you have to make them. I bet Wade feels exactly the same – he had a five or six footer to win the tournament.

“I have been in that position before and I have made them before. I know the feeling. You might not get another chance so when you have them to win you have to make them. But I just didn't get them in close enough where it was a sure thing to make.

“It needed to be spot on so you would have thought I would have got one of the five in there.”

The World No.3 said he needed to get his iron shots closer to the hole to leave more realistic birdie chances.

“I didn't hit it close enough today to the hole. It wasn't like I missed 10 footers all day long. When you hit it outside 25 feet, there is almost the same chance you are going to three putt as two putt on tour. You have to hit it closer,” he said.

“Sometimes in windy conditions you don't. I putted a lot from 30 and 40 feet today and two-putting is actually gaining shot on the field. On days like today somehow you have to get in there closer and stay patient.”

Scott will now take an extended break from the game as he prepares for his wife to give birth to their first child in February. He says he won’t return to the PGA Tour until the Honda Classic on February 26.

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