GREENSBORO, N.C. – Chesson Hadley had two plane tickets: One was headed to New York for the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the possibility of a bounty of riches afforded to the top 125 finishers in the regular-season points standings. The other was headed to Boise, Idaho for the start of the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs where Nos. 126-200 would have to battle with 75 KFT players for one of 25 PGA Tour cards.
“Man, I would love not to have to get on that flight,” Hadley said of the trip to Boise.
For proof look no further than his final round at the Wyndham Championship. Hadley made his first career hole-in-one, celebrated in grand style, went out in 29 at Sedgefield Country Club to tie the low nine-hole score of his career, and birdied the last for 62. None of it surprised Brice Garnett, who locked up his card by finishing No. 122 in the standings.
“Guys are told they’re going to get their job taken from them,” he said, “and they do miraculous things out here. Nobody wants to leave out here. It’s the greatest job in the world.”
And yet for all of Hadley’s miraculous efforts, it didn’t look as if it would be enough. He stood at No. 126, the proverbial biggest loser, when he finished.
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When he was asked what the rollercoaster ride was like by CBS Sports reporter Amanda Balionis, Hadley, who blew a lead in the final holes at the Palmetto Championship in July that would have made his precarious position a moot point, broke into tears.
“It’s emotional because I care. I’m not just out here for fun. This is my job and I love it and I care deeply about it and that’s why I’m emotional,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’m about as pretty of a crier as this leap you’re about to see. Hopefully, Amanda can go ahead and bring me back to something positive because this is going downhill quick.”
When Hadley next met with the assembled media, he pulled himself together and called it what it was, “a good day,” but when asked to describe the difference between Nos. 125 and 126, he looked at the questioner as if asked to describe the difference between living and dying, and said, “That’s your question? How different is it? It would kind of suck, right? To have Congaree happen and then have today happen the way it did, that would suck.”
The difference between a great day and one that “sucks” turned out to be just over one FedEx Cup point. Hadley was left in a strange spot, needing someone still on the course to falter, and lamented that for him to succeed he’d likely have to leapfrog his good friend Scott Stallings, who missed the cut. That turned out not to be the case.
Hadley didn’t get any help from Roger Sloan, who started the week one spot ahead of him in the standings. Sloan made two late birdies and went from being in danger of losing full-exempt status next season to in a playoff for his first win. Rory Sabbatini did Hadley no favors by canning an 8-foot par putt that otherwise would have bumped Hadley to the right side of the cutline.
But Justin Rose, winner of the 2018 FedEx Cup, was feeling charitable. He missed a pair of 6-foot putts at the final two holes. The latter was for bogey and dropped him from No. 119 to No. 126. But it wasn’t over until the final group. Had Branden Grace and Tyler McCumber both bogeyed the last hole, Hadley and Rose would have flipped places. McCumber made a 3-putt bogey but Grace sank a 29-foot birdie putt to jump into the six-man playoff.
And so at the end of the day, Hadley received a call from PGA Tour executive Tom Alter to break the good news. Hadley already was in his car on his way home to Raleigh but he answered and screamed with glee when told that his ticket to the playoffs had been punched. Next stop: New York.
