Winner: Robert Streb
Around the wider world of golf: Lee-Anne Pace won the monsoon-shortened Blue Bay LPGA event; Michael Allen won the AT&T Championship (and Bernhard Langer locked up the Charles Schwab Cup) on the Champions Tour; Emilio Domínguez and Rafael Echenique won the Bridgestone America's Golf Cup on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica; Antonio Murdaca won the Asia-Pacific Amateur and will get the magic ticket to Augusta National next year; Thorbjørn Olesen won the ISPS HANDA Perth International on the ET; Anirban Lahiri won the Venetian Macau Open on the Asian Tour; and Shiho Oyama won the Nobuta Group Masters GC Ladies on the JLPGA.
Robert Streb knows what it means to come up just a bit short. He's been a runner-up before and he's missed the FedExCup Playoffs twice by one spot, just for starters. So it probably wasn't a surprise to him when he had to go to a playoff at the McGladrey Classic instead of winning straight out.
Of course, he finished an hour and a half before his competitors in that playoff, so maybe he didn't expect the playoff at all. The commentators certainly didn't expect him to fare well, having had to wait for so long. And he was up against 2 more experienced players -- Brendon de Jonge, who hadn't won before but has been due for some time, and 2-time winner Will MacKenzie, who hadn't won in several years.
But Streb demonstrated why golf keeps us all coming back for more. In this case, that unquenchable dream of winning we all have came true for him -- and he did it with a 63 in the final round, followed by a birdie on the second playoff hole. In return he got a treasure trove of goodies, including a 2-year Tour card (always nice when you've got a baby on the way) and the ever-tempting trip to the Masters next April.
I won't bore you with details you already know; the perks of a Tour win are pretty much common knowledge, as is the potential world-altering commercial opportunities that go with it. Instead, I'll just give Robert his well-deserved Limerick Summary and let him get on with his celebration. Way to go, @therealstrebber !
There’s hope and despair in a playoff;
The win is so close and yet way off.
For Streb, hope’s eternal—
He’s off that infernal
Schneid… plus there’s a life-changing payoff! The photo came from the tournament upshot page at PGATOUR.com.
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