Kizzire wins Sony Open playoff

By
Mo Yoshimoto,

By
Mo Yoshimoto

Published October 4, 2018 04:04 PM

Sony Open in Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii

World No. 105 Patton Kizzire erased a one-shot deficit with 2-under-par 35-33=68 in Sunday’s final round at Waialae Country Club to tie James Hahn on 17-under 263, and then defeated him with an up-and-down par at the par-3 17^th in a tournament-record six-hole playoff.

The 31-year-old, a pre-tourney 66/1 outright, claims his second PGA TOUR title in 66 career events, second this season in seven starts, and his first in sudden death. He’s the first multiple winner this season.

Playing his third consecutive season on TOUR, the Auburn alum has now recorded 12 top-10 finishes with four of those podiums. Along with his two wins, he also recorded runner-up finishes at the 2017 Safeway and the 2016 Shriners, the latter during his rookie campaign.

Kizzire’s 2 TOUR wins:

2018: Sony Open (come from behind, 1-shot deficit)

Shot: 2-under 68

Winning Margin: PLAYOFF

Career Start: 66

Starts Between Wins: 3

2018: OHL Classic (54-hole leader by one)

Shot: 4-under 67

Winning Margin: 1 shot

Career Start: 63

Courses:

Par 71: 1 win (6,987 yards); OHL
Par 70: 1 win (7,044 yards); Sony

Final Leaderboard:

P1- Patton Kizzire 67-64-64-68= 263 (-17)

P2- James Hahn 67-69-65-62= 263 (-17)

3- Tom Hoge 65-65-64-70= 264 (-16)

T4- Webb Simpson 67-70-63-65= 265 (-15)

T4- Brian Stuard 67-66-67-65= 265 (-15)

T4- Brian Harman 64-63-68-70= 265 (-15)

Leader/co-leaders by Round:

R1: Chris Kirk (finished T10): Drops to 0-for-5 as 18-hole leader/co-leader

R1: Zach Johnson (T14): Drops to 1-for-9

R2: Brian Harman (T4): Drops to 0-for-3 as 36-hole leader/co-leader

R3: Tom Hoge (3^rd): Drops to 0-for-1 as 54-hole leader/co-leader

R4: Patton Kizzire (P1): Improves record to 1-0 in sudden death

R4: James Hahn (P2): Drops to 2-1

Kizzire’s Position by Round:

R1: T20

R2: T7

R3: T2

R4: T1

Leaderboard Notes:

James Hahn: Starting the day seven shots back, the 36-year-old’s 8-under 62 (nine birdies, one bogey) was the low round of the week and matched a career low (447 rounds), shot two other times. This marks his first runner-up in 140 career events and his first loss in sudden death. The UC-Berkeley alum’s two TOUR wins – the 2015 Northern Trust Open and 2016 Wells Fargo – both came in extra time, and both were come-from-behind victories. Overall, he now has five top-3 finishes, while this is his first since solo 3^rd at the 2017 AT&T Byron Nelson.

Season Form: P2-T77(last)-T40-T28

Sony Form: P2-T36-T28-T26-T46-T67

Tom Hoge: Making his 76^th career start, the 28-year-old began the day with a one-shot lead over playing competitor Kizzire, seven clear of Hahn, and carded an even-par 34-36=70, one shot short of the playoff. He went out in 1-under (two birdies, one bogey), increasing his margin to two at the break over Kizzire, Hahn, and Harman, but came home in 1-over, overshadowing a final birdie-3 at 12 with a double bogey-6 at 16. The TCU alum was still leading the tournament by one when he arrived to the par-4 16^th, but made double (from the fairway) after short-siding his second into a greenside bunker, taking three to get up-and-down. He missed a 9’1” birdie try at the last to join the playoff. The North Carolina native’s solo 3^rd is a career best however, previously T4 at the 2017 Barracuda.

Season Form: 3-T25-T61-T7-CUT-T37

Sony Form: 3-CUT-T71/MDF

Webb Simpson:

Season Form: T4-WD-T20-T17

Sony Form: T4-T13-T13-T13-T20-T38-T46-T77/MDF-T9

Brian Stuard:

Season Form: T4-T22-T9-T57-T4-T62

Sony Form: T4-T45-CUT-6-T5-T25

Brian Harman:

Season Form: T4-3-T4-8-T5

Sony Form: T4-T20-T13-T13-T32-CUT-T59

Kizzire’s Season:

7 starts

6 made cuts

5 top 25s

4 top 10s

3 top 5s

2 wins

Season Form: 1-T15-T45-1-T4-T10-CUT

Kizzire at the Sony:

2 starts

1 missed cut (2016)

1 top 25

1 top 10

1 top 5

1 win

Updated Top 10 in FEC standings (points):

Kizzire collects 500 FEC points for the victory and bumps two places to 1^st in the FEC standings, 452 points ahead of former-leader Pat Perez (idle). He’s back atop the standings for a third time this season.

1. Patton Kizzire (1,213); UP two

2. Pat Perez (761); DOWN one

3. Dustin Johnson (718); DOWN one

4. Austin Cook (644); UP one

5. Justin Thomas (640); UP one

6. Patrick Cantlay (609); DOWN one

7. Brian Harman (593); UP two

8. Brendan Steele (586); DOWN one

9. Justin Rose (550); DOWN one

10. Tony Finau (474); UP one

Season Leaders in Top-10 Finishes:

Pat Perez: 3

Picking a Winner:

Through 10 events this season:

3 winners were in their 20s

5 were in their 30s (Kizzire: age: 31)

2 were in their 40s

7 (of 10) winners had a top-25 finish the start prior (70.0%):

Kizzire, T15 (Sentry TOC)

7 (of 10) winners this season have emerged out of the FINAL group on Sunday (70.0%), including Kizzire.

3 (of 10) winners had a top-10 finish the start prior (30.0%)

40/1

Average winner’s pre-tourney outright odds (rounded)

6.79%

In the last 103 events on TOUR, the pre-tourney fave/co-fave has won just 7 times. That’s a conversion percentage of just 6.79%.

This Season:

10 tournaments

1 pre-tourney fave/co-fave won:

Justin Thomas: 15/2 (CJ CUP)

Last Season:

47 tournaments

4 pre-tourney fave/co-fave won:

Henrik Stenson: 14/1 Wyndham (co-fave)

Jordan Spieth: 12/1 The Open

Jordan Spieth: 8/1 Travelers

Dustin Johnson: 13/2 WGC-Mexico

This week’s favorite(s):

Spieth (9/2): finished T18 on 11-under 269 (69-68-66-66)

Last week’s winner(s):

Dustin Johnson (idle)

Field Scoring Average:

This was the 53^rd playing of the Sony, all at Waialae CC:

7,044 yards; par 70 (35-35)

R1: 69.208

R2: 69.224

R3: 68.408

R4: 68.171

Total: 68.895

Kizzire: 67-64-64-68 for 12.011 SG: Total

Hahn: 67-69-65-62 for 12.011 SG: Total

How Kizzire Won on Sunday:

After kicking off in 67-64-64, the Sea Island, Georgia, resident began T2, one back of playing competitor and leader Hoge.

He conjured five (of 14) fairways and 11 GIR, losing 0.512 strokes off-the-tee and 0.761 around-the-green, but gaining 2.160 on approach.

The Alabama native opened with nine straight pars, now trailing Hoge by two, but got on the board with a pitch-in eagle-2 at 10 from 55 yards away. He added a lone birdie-2 at 11 (from 13’3”) before a lone bogey-5 at 13. Kizzire posted 1.727 putts per GIR and -0.717 SG: Putting with 27 total putts. He missed two birdie tries at 7 and 8 from inside of 8’0” and also missed a 15’6” birdie try at the par-5 last to win in regulation.

In extra time with Hahn, the duo battled to a draw through four tours of the par-5 18^th (two birdies, two pars), and halved the first playing of the par-3 17^th (third playoff hole) with routine pars.

Back at the 17^th (sixth playoff hole), both players missed the GIR, with Kizzire 22’10” away in the fringe and Hahn 35’3” away in the fairway.

Hahn chipped to 7’9” and lipped-out the par-saver, while Kizzire used the flat stick two times, knocking in the game-winner from 28 inches.

Hahn’s best chance to end the proceeding came at the fourth playing of the 18^th (fifth playoff hole), missing birdie from 5’11”.

Kizzire didn’t really storm to victory during regulation play on Sunday, gaining just 0.171 strokes against the field, but his 68 was the best score in the final two threesomes and it ended up being enough. Hahn’s week-low 62 came out of the sixth-to-last threesome.

Final Threesome’s R4 Stats (ranking of 76 players):

Kizzire:

SG: Off-the-Tee: -0.51 (56^th)

SG: Approach-the-Green: 2.16 (6^th)

SG: Around-the-Green: -0.76 (59^th)

SG: Putting: -0.72 (52^nd)

SG: Total: 0.17 (T34)

Putts: 27 (T9)

Hoge:

SGOTT: 1.48 (2^nd)

SGAPP: -0.73 (54^th)

SGATG: -2.14 (76^th)

SGP: -0.44 (41^st)

SGTTL: -1.83 (T56)

Putts: 33 (T74)

Harman:

SGOTT: 1.04 (9^th)

SGAPP: -0.30 (46^th)

SGATG: -1.60 (72^nd)

SGP: -0.96 (60^th)

SGTTL: -1.83 (T56)

Putts: 32 (T71)

How Kizzire Won the Tournament:

Interestingly, Kizzire was only top-ranked in Par-3 Scoring. Fitting, as he won the tournament on the par-3 17^th.

However, he did toss up a lethal trifecta, ranking 3^rd in SG: Approach and 3^rd in SG: Putting, and 4^th in Proximity to Hole.

Kizzire also ranked 2^nd in Total Putts and Putts per GIR, T4 in Par-4 Scoring, and carded back-to-back 64s in R2 and R3 to get into position.

Kizzire’s Weekly Stats (ranking of 76 players):

Eagles: 1 (T9)

Birdies: 22 (T4)

Bogeys: 5 (T4)

Par-3 Scoring: 2.69 (T1)

Par-4 Scoring: 3.83 (T4)

Par-5 Scoring: 4.50 (T58)

Driving Accuracy: 29/56 (T56) at 51.79%

GIR: 53/72 (T23) at 73.61%

Proximity to Hole: 30’0” (4^th)

Putts per GIR: 1.566 (2^nd)

Total Putts: 107 (T2)

Putts by Round: 28-26-26-27

Scrambling: 13/19 (T19) at 68.42%

All Around: (9^th)

SG: Off-the-Tee: -2.005 (67^th)

SG: Approach-the-Green: 6.858 (3^rd)

SG: Around-the-Green: 0.313 (34^th)

SG: Putting: 6.845 (3^rd)

SG: Tee-to-Green: 5.167 (20^th)

Low Rounds:

R1: Chris Kirk, Zach Johnson (63)

R2: Brian Harman (63)

R3: Webb Simpson (63)

R4: James Hahn (62)

Bogey-free Rounds:

R1: Chris Kirk (63); Zach Johnson (63); Vaughn Taylor (64); Peter Malnati (65); Ryan Blaum (66); Austin Cook (67); Jason Kokrak (67); Justin Thomas (67)

R2: Stewart Cink (64); Russell Knox (64); Rory Sabbatini (65); Adam Schenk (65); Brian Stuard (66); Kevin Mitchell (66); Kevin Tway (66); Kyle Stanley (67)

R3: Tom Hoge (64); James Hahn (66); Jordan Spieth (66)

R4: Austin Cook (66); Jonathan Randolph (66); Matt Jones (69)

Multiple bogey-free rounds: Cook (x2)

Updated Top 10 in OWGR:

With a Strength of Field rating of 311 (down from 324 last year), Kizzire banks 48.00 world-ranking points and jumps 51 spots to a career-high 54^th in OWGR:

3. Jon Rahm

6. Justin Rose

10. Sergio Garcia

Other Notable career-high OWGR’s:

Brian Harman: 20^th (UP three)

Kyle Stanley: 45^th (UP two)

Field Breakdown & Top-10 Finishes:

OWGR field average: 295^th

OWGR average for top-10 finishers: 153^rd

4 of the Top 25 in OWGR were in the field

1 finished in the top 10

15 of the Top 50 OWGR

3 finished in the top 10

No. 23 Brian Harman (T4)

No. 44 Webb Simpson (T4)

No. 47 Kyle Stanley (T10)

Overall, 13 players finished in the top 10.

Other Top 10s:

No. 55 Gary Woodland (T7)

No. 80 Russell Knox (T10)

No. 82 James Hahn (P2)

No. 105 Patton Kizzire (P1)

No. 118 Ollie Schniederjans (T7)

No. 189 Chris Kirk (T10)

No. 220 Brian Stuard (T4)

No. 225 Ben Martin (T7)

No. 376 Ryan Blaum (T10)

No. 392 Tom Hoge (3^rd)

Other Notables:

No. 2 Jordan Spieth (T18); top-ranked, pre-tourney fave

No. 4 Justin Thomas (T14); defender

No. 12 Marc Leishman (T47)

TOUR Rookies &/or First-Timers:

TOUR Rookies: 22

Top-10 finishes: 0

Austin Cook: For the third time this season in six starts (Win, RSM; T22, Sentry TOC), the 26-year-old claimed/shared top-rookie honors with T18 on 11-under 269 (67-71-65-66). Through 10 events, he’s also the only rookie to win thus far.

Season Form: T18-T22-1-T50-T20-T25

FEC Rank: 4^th (UP one)

OWGR: 118^th (UP 10); career high

Talor Gooch: For the second time this season six starts (T16, Shriners), the 26-year-old claimed/shared top-rookie honors with T18 on 11-under 269 (64-66-70-69).

Season Form: T18-CUT-T41-T16-T30-T54

FEC Rank: 69^th (UP 15)

OWGR: 198^th (UP 13)

First-Timers: 31

Top-10 finishes: 0

Cook and Gooch were also top debutants.

Consecutive Top 10s on TOUR:

Justin Rose (1-T10-T2-T10-T10)

Brian Harman (T4-3-T4-8-T5)

Chris Kirk (T10-T4)

Dustin Johnson (1-T2)

Alex Cejka (T9-P2)