LIGONIER, Pa. --Joe Inman was 13 over par in the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday, and then things really started falling apart.
Inman, a three-time Champions Tour winner, took a 10-over 15 on the par-5 18th after hitting five consecutive sand wedges into the water that guards the right side of the green. Inman wasn’t trying to do it on purpose, but Inman kept trying the same shot rather than switching strategies.
The first two shots hit the green where he wanted, only to find a ridge that carried the ball off the green and into the water. Inman also sliced two shots into the lake.
‘I looked to my caddie and said, `How many balls do we have left?’' said Inman, who went through two sleeves of balls on one hole. ‘He said, `One.’ The pressure is on - last ball. So I aimed it farther left and put it over and then chunked it enough that it didn’t have much spin and so it stayed on the green. And then I three-putted for 15.’
Inman said he didn’t get frustrated during the worst hole of his career.
‘I tried on every one of them,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t not trying. And I wasn’t going to quit. I went on and played and I didn’t scream and yell, but I never realized ... can’t understand how that green can be that soft, how that ball comes back that far. The first two balls carried at least six or seven yards past the hole.’
Unfortunately for Inman, No. 18 wasn’t his final hole. He started the final round on No. 10, so he still had nine holes to play before finishing with a 16-over 88. That was only one fewer stroke than 83-year-old Jack Fleck during the first round, though Fleck didn’t hand in his card.
‘I just don’t think I have ever made a double figure on a hole,’ Inman said. ‘I was completely unaware you could fly it five or six yards by the hole and end up in trouble.’
OUT-OF-IT IRWIN:
Maybe Hale Irwin finally met a major he didn’t like.
Irwin has won seven major championships on the Champions Tour, only one fewer than record-holder Jack Nicklaus, but the defending champion was out of contention at the Senior PGA after the first round.
Irwin’s first-round 69 trailed leader Graham Marsh by one shot, but Irwin finished 75-76-77 and in a 46th-place tie. Previously, Irwin had only two rounds as high as 75 in 10 Senior PGA Championships.
Irwin, who turns 60 on Friday, won two Champions Tour events earlier this year, but has only one top-10 finish in six tournaments since winning the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.
Like, Inman, Irwin had trouble on No. 18. He hit two balls into the water for a double-bogey 7 during his final-round 77.
FOGGED IN:
About a dozen players, including two-time Champions Tour winner Des Smyth, arrived before dawn at Laurel Valley Golf Club expecting to tee off around 7 a.m., only to have their tee times pushed back by nearly four hours.
The scheduled 6:55 a.m. EDT start of play was delayed by fog, after a soggy Saturday in which about half the field failed to complete the third round.
Andy Bean, Norm Jarvis and Isao Aoki were to have teed off at 6:55, only to have their start delayed until 10:45.
‘I know there were a few disgruntled guys this morning, but it takes a lot more than that to get me mad,’ Dana Quigley said.
The unexpected wait didn’t seem to bother Smyth. He barely made the cut after going 74-76 in the first two rounds, but finished tied for sixth by going 70-68.
NOTES:@ Mike Reid became the 21st to win the Senior PGA Championship in his first attempt. ... Reid (70-70-70-70) is the first since Miller Barber at the 1982 Suntree Classic to win after shooting the same score every day in a 72-hole tournament. ... For winning, Reid earned $360,000 of the $2 million purse. ... The Senior PGA playoff was the first since 1993, when Tom Wargo defeated Bruce Crampton on the second hole. The last three-man playoff was 1979, when 1955 U.S. Open champion Fleck beat Bob Erickson and Bill Johnston on the third hole.
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