A final round that Phil Mickelson hoped would be a cakewalk through the North Florida pines turned into a pitched back-nine battle on Sunday against an unrelenting Miguel Angel Jimenez.
But Mickelson, the reigning PGA champion, birdied two of his last four holes to turn back the challenge to win his third PGA Tour Champions event in four starts.
Mickelson pulled away from a tie with Jimenez and closed out a 68 with an 8-foot birdie putt at the last to beat Jimenez by two shots at 15-under-par 201 to win the Constellation Furyk & Friends at the Timuquana Country Club.
Jimenez, who hit 11 fairways and 15 greens and shot 68 (Mickelson managed to hit only six fairways), barely missed a 40-foot birdie attempt at No. 18 before Mickelson added the exclamation point.
“He played some really good golf,” Mickelson said of the Spaniard, who has won 10 PGA Tour Champions events and finished among the top 10 in 53 percent of his 110 career starts. “It was a tough day.”
Steve Flesch birdied two of his last three holes, including a 30-foot putt at No. 18, for solo third at 10 under.
Tournament host Jim Furyk (69), Ernie Els (71) and Cameron Beckman (68) tied for fourth at 9 under. Bernhard Langer, who held onto first place in the Schwab Cup points race, shot 68 to tie for seventh at 8 under with U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker (70), Steven Alker (70) and Matt Gogel (73).
Mickelson, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has won six majors and 45 PGA Tour events but said the pride of winning this tournament has everything to do with a friendship he has had with Furyk since they were 16 and butting heads in junior golf.
“I think to be able to win a tournament that Jim and (Furyk’s wife) Tabitha have started and the way I look up to them and respect them and the hard work they’ve put into making this tournament unique and special … it’s fun for me to come out on top,” he said.
Mickelson shot 67 in the second round for a two-shot lead and said he felt an even lower round coming. He appeared prophetic when he birdied the first three holes to take a three-shot lead over Gogel.
However, Mickelson double-bogeyed the par-4 fifth hole after blocking his drive left and losing the ball in the trees, and Jimenez birdied for a three-shot swing to come within one. That’s where it stayed until Jimenez birdied Nos. 13 and 14 on 6-foot putts to tie Mickelson at 13-under.
But Mickelson two-putted for birdie at the par-5 15th (he was 9 under on the par-5s this week) and Jimenez finally made a mistake, coming up short of the green with his second shot and hitting a poor chip, 15 feet below the hole. He missed the birdie attempt and Mickelson never lost his lead again.
“I had opportunities there on the golf course,” said Jimenez, who has five consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour Champions and rose to fifth on the Schwab Cup standings. “I’ve been playing solid, playing well. I was close. That’s the game, you know? He’s playing very well.”
Mickelson saved a good par at the par-4 16th after his drive found the left trees for the second day in a row. He had to punch out but hit a deft pitch shot to within 3 feet and made the putt. Jimenez, on the other hand, had a cruel break – his birdie attempt off the fringe with a putter hit the bottom of the flagstick and trickled 4 feet away. He made the putt, but it was an opportunity lost.
Both players two-putted the par-3 17th hole for par before Mickelson closed it out at the last.
“It’s a good start. I’m having fun,” Mickelson said of his forays onto the PGA Tour Champions. “I’m enjoying being around the guys, I’m enjoying the golf courses, how I can be a little bit more aggressive. Like when I made a mistake on No. 5, I can still recover. You do that on the regular tour, you just get eaten alive. So I like how you don’t have to be perfect and I can get away with a shot or two here or there.”
Mickelson earned $300,000 and moved to 24th on the PGA Tour Champions Schwab Cup points race. There is one more event left in the tour’s regular season, next week’s SAS Championship in Cary, North Carolina.
The playoffs will end with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at the Phoenix Country Club, Nov. 11-14.
Successful debut
The week marked a successful debut as a tournament host for Furyk, winner of 17 PGA Tour titles who launched the event at Timuquana, the 98-year-old Donald Ross-designed course across the St. Johns River from his Jacksonville home that was best-known previously as the training ground for future 13-time Tour winner David Duval.
Postcard Florida weather on the weekend and a field that included World Golf Hall of Fame members Mickelson, Els, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Langer and Davis Love III, plus both 2021 Ryder Cup captains, with European captain Padraig Harrington joining Stricker. Crowds were estimated in excess of 10,000 on Saturday and slightly less on Sunday, with the Jacksonville Jaguars playing at home, just 7 miles away.
The event is under a five-year contract with the title sponsor and the club.
Article originally appeared on: Golfweek.usatoday.com