Simpson won the Phoenix Open golf tournament
When birdie in the last two holes of the round pulled Tony Finau into the extra pit match, Webb Simpson then won the Phoenix Open with the same point after a three-meter putt from February 2.
Starting in the group at the end of the day, Finau kept the top of the table at -16, next to it was Simpson at a distance less than one stroke. Through 11 holes, Finau lost a stick in hole 8 and Simpson scored bogey and two birdies to take advantage of leading a stick.
At that time, major champions like Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson scored 65 and 66 sticks, respectively, finishing with the same final score -14. Meanwhile, other candidates such as J.B Holmes, Scott Piercy are in decline and no longer able to compete. Therefore, the road to the coronation became a two-horse race between Finau and Simpson.
On green hole 12, Finau putt the birdie ball from a distance of nearly 5.5 meters from the crater, thus leveling the gap between the two sides. The next four holes, Finau took another three birdsies while Simpson lost one stick at hole 15.
Before kicking off at the penultimate pit, Finau seemed to be about to touch a second trophy at the PGA Tour, after the Puerto Rico Open 2016. However, that prospect faded because Simpson scored two birdies in a row, starting with two putt from the old green 17 pit area and one putt 5.2 meters from the crater end. In the same segment, Finau all reached par, of which the most unfortunate was the birdie phase sliding to the right of the crater 18 even though the putt position was about 2.4 meters.
Reaching -17 after 72 standard holes, the two had to playoff in the final golf course of TPC Scottsdale, and the victory went to Simpson with the third birdie in a row. This is Simpson’s sixth trophy at the PGA Tour and is the golfer’s first coronation since The Players Championship 2018.
The Phoenix Open 2020 championship brought Simpson $ 1,314 million in prize money, while Finau runner-up won $ 795,000. Each of the final T3, including Nate Lashley, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson, received $ 387,000.
Denny McCarthy was the first player to score a birdie at hole 16, par3, 163 yards long on all four Phoenix Opens in the past 17 years, before that being Luke Donald in 2003.
