This year at the Kaulig Companies Championship, 72 holes weren't enough golf to find a champion.
Miguel Angel Jimenez defeated Steven Alker on the second playoff hole to win on Firestone Country Club’s South Course for the first time in his career.
Jimenez and Alker entered Sunday’s final round tied for the lead at 8 under par for the tournament. After the final 18 holes of the Kaulig Companies Championship, the pair was still tied, prompting an unlikely sudden-death playoff.
After both golfers made par on the first playoff hole, a replay of the 18th hole, Jimenez defeated Alker with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
The victory for Jimenez didn’t always appear to be in sight. Jimenez trailed by two shots for much of the back nine. On the 15th hole, Alker made a bogey, and Jimenez capitalized with a par to bring his deficit to just a stroke before disaster nearly struck.
Jimenez put his tee shot in the left rough off the 16th tee and was forced to lay up to about 90 yards from the pin. On his third shot, he nearly put his ball into the pond protecting the putting surface on “The Monster.” Jimenez was able to scramble for his par while Alker made a birdie to push his lead back to two shots with two holes left to play.
From that point on, it was Jimenez who was able to step up and hit the shots required to win the tournament. This wasn’t a situation where Alker did much wrong; rather, Jimenez did nearly everything correctly with little-to-no margin for error.
“We keep fighting,” Jimenez says. “Then he made a birdie on 16, coming back two shots, and then talked to my caddie before, and I said we need to make birdie-birdie to have any chance. I make a nice birdie on the 17th, hit a beautiful shot by the hole more or less, and I make a great putt there. On the 18th, I hit a beautiful driver, beautiful second shot there and holed that putt. That was important, left to right. I said OK, don't be short, hit it firm, and I hit it. That's what I had to do to finish birdie-birdie.”
Alker made par on both 17 and 18, not needing to be aggressive to remain in contention. He held serve, but Jimenez’s aggressiveness paid off to force the playoff.
“He made the plays,” Alker says. “I thought I made the putt on 17 in regulation, and that would have given me just that little two-shot cushion. Yeah, he made the plays coming down the stretch. You look back and you go jeez, a bogey here or there, you know what I mean? I think Firestone got me. I think I had two bogeys every day. Just can't do that around here.”
On the first playoff hole, both players made par. Jimenez’s came after hitting the green in regulation, while Alker needed to scramble from off the green after his second shot hit a tree to the left of the green and dropped into the fairway. He hit a masterful chip before knocking down a pressure-filled putt.
On the second playoff hole, the third consecutive time the pair played the 18th hole, Jimenez found the fairway with his tee shot while Alker was in trouble. His tee shot was right of the cart path, but he hit a masterful punch shot with his 6-iron from about 180 yards out that put him on the green. Alker would go on to miss his birdie look, setting the stage for Jimenez to make birdie and walk off with the trophy.
This win is the fourth of the season for Jimenez, and he became the first player aged 60 or older to win four times in a single season on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
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