The sudden-death playoff at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic on Sunday produced a first-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions. The tournament also saw four golfers play their way into the next round.
Richard Green and Harrison Frazar finished tied at 11 under after 54 holes at the Country Club of Virginia in the first of three Charles Schwab Cup playoff events to force a playoff.
Green has three professional wins on the DP World Tour. Frazar’s lone win came in 2011 in the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational, an event that featured golfers from the PGA Tour, LPGA, Champions and the then-Nationwide Tour.
A left-hander from Australia, Green shot rounds of 67-69-69 and reached the clubhouse first. He then played the waiting game. Frazar went 65-71-69, missing an eagle try on the par-5 18th that would’ve won it outright. He made the ensuing birdie putt from about three feet to force the extra golf.
In the playoff, Frazar drained an 10-footer for birdie on the 18th hole, pumping his fist in celebration.
“It’s been a long time, long time coming,” an emotional Frazar said after his victory. “You think your career’s over and, you know, through faith and through friends and through people who believe in you, you know, you decide to pick it up again because you feel like there’s a void. And the void is this: The void is competing, the void is missing that win. It’s the nerves, it’s all the stuff. It’s scary, but it’s fun. You can never replace it. So yeah, it’s emotional. You just don’t know if you’re ever going to get there again, and when you do, it feels good.”
Frazar was 33rd and jumped to 13th in the points race among the 72 who made the postseason. Green was 24th and improved 10 spots to 14th. Both golfers, however, are too far back to win the season-long title. Steve Stricker, who skipped the Dominion, has a commanding lead in the points, so much so that only five others have a mathematical chance at catching him for the season title: Steven Alker, Bernhard Langer, Stephen Ames, David Toms and Ernie Els.
Els had the best finish Sunday among that group, tying for seventh. Ames tied for 20th, Alker and Langer tied for 25th and Toms tied for 35th.
Who’s in, who’s out?
Only the top 54 advance to the TimberTech Championship in two weeks.
Shane Bertsch (56 to 50), John Huston (55 to 52), Rocco Mediate (59 to 53) and Charli Wi (57 to 54) played their win in but the season is now over for Matt Gogel (51 to 55), David Branshaw (52 to 57), Woody Austin (54 to 58), Kirk Triplett (53 to 59).
Other notables not advancing: Fred Couples, who was 63rd in the points and chose to skip the Dominion, slipped to 64th; David Duval, who rallied in the regular-season finale to get the 71st spot, climbed to No. 66 but it wasn’t enough to advance; Jim Furyk, who started the week in the 72nd and final position, shot a first-round 76 before withdrawing due to injury.
What’s next?
There’s a week off on the circuit before the 54-hole TimberTech Championship, Nov. 3-5, at the Old Course at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Florida.
From there, the top 36 move on to the 72-hole, no-cut, season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, Nov. 9-12, at Phoenix Country Club.