Gary Woodland - Shooting for the Stars at the Phoenix Open

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Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Daniel Berger, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau were names high on the leaderboard on Sunday for the Phoenix Open final round. Phil Mickelson is also a multiple winner of this event from previous years. 

Then Gary Woodland made 64, tying him for round of the week.  His score was "seven shots better than Rahm, Mickelson, Fowler and DeChambeau combined"  [ref CBS Sports]. 

Chez Reavie had led for much of the round.  He birdied the 17th and 18th holes (a 21 ft putt) forcing sudden-death playoff.  Reavie's bogey on what was now their 73rd hole of the week meant Woodland won by par, on the third consecutive playoff for the event.

Woodland's wife, Gabby, brought his baby son, Jaxson, out to the 18th green at Woodland's victory.

"He's a miracle and puts this in perspective really good," Woodland told Peter Kostis of CBS Sports as he held his son.  "It was obviously a long year for us. I'm very happy wanting to be holding him and to be where I'm at right now."

For reasons including personal grief and loss, the previous 12 months had been "the toughest year of my life by far" for Woodland,  so this win could not have come along at a better time for him.

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The Phoenix Open has long been one of the most popular professional golfing events. The four day attendance is usually around half a million spectators.  This year it broke new records, with 720,000 attending. 

Sobel of ESPN has described it as, "At a party in the desert, a golf tournament broke out".  The crowds start lining up from 4.00 a.m. and drinking begins soon after they enter. 

"There's a fine line between huge crowds respectfully enjoying the tournament and being discourteous to the guys trying to win it -- and as you can imagine, that line is being crossed now more than ever. As one player texted me after Saturday's third round: "It's gotten way more out of control the last couple of years." From spectators yelling while players are putting to streaking across fairways and into bunkers, the party becomes a major buzzkill when the patrons become the story." Sobel, ESPN, 6/2/18.

 

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