Chalmers Survives Seven-Hole Playoff to Win Australian PGA


After closing with a brilliant 8-under 64 at the RACV Royal Pines course in Queensland to overcome a seven-stroke deficit in the final round, Greg Chalmers had to play seven more holes before finally being declared the winner of the Australian PGA.

Chalmers' final-round heroics took him into a tie in regulation with fellow Aussies Wade Ormsby and Adam Scott at 11-under 277. Both Ormsby and Scott, the defending champion, closed with 71s.

In the extra session - all played on the par-4 18th - Ormsby, who had sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the last hole in regulation to make the playoff, was eliminated when both Scott and Chalmers birdied and he made par.

Back and forth Chalmers and Scott went, with the left-handed Chalmers struggling to find the fairway and Scott, with his normally sure long-handled putter, having a tough time on the greens.

Finally, on the seventh trip down the 18th Chalmers two-putted for par and Scott three-putted, giving Chalmers another victory in the event he won in 2011.

"It was an epic day," Chalmers said. "It would [have been] a very slim chance I'd be sitting here at this point today, with the quality of guys leading the tournament."

Chalmers was pleased with how his 64 went. "I got away to a fast start … All of a sudden I was minus-3 through four, and started to have a really good vibe about the day. And when you get in front of a golf course like that, particularly on a tough day, you just keep trying to give yourself chances, and I made some nice putts coming down the stretch.

"I thought, there's a low score out there somewhere; you just needed to do everything right," he said. "In all honesty, if I'd two-putted the second and third hole, we're not sitting here. If you've got freaky things like 60-footers going in, then you start to get an inkling that momentum's going your way, so I took more chances, and they paid off, and I felt very good with my flat stick this week."

As for the marathon extra session, he added, "I didn't have the greatest control; fatigue was starting to show up and when I get tired I tend to get a little more hands into my golf swing, and it's a lot harder to control where the ball goes. I would have loved to play the playoff about two hours earlier, when I was playing really nicely.

"Today it all fell my way, it all went in and I felt very good about how I was stroking the ball. I just thought, if I can get it on the green and hang on with my ball striking, good things could happen."

For all the scores, visit http://www.pga.org.au/tourns/pga-tour/event/leaderboard?season=2014&tour=pga&id=1077.