Day 46: AUS PGA FINAL: Chalmers Beats Scott, Wins Epic 7-Hole Playoff

Greg Chalmers is the ultimate journeyman in golf in all sense of the word. He has journeyed all over the world, on the European Tour, the U.S. PGA TOUR and here at home in Australia and Oceania to play the game he loves. Born a Sydneysider, he came north to the Gold Coast and to beat two fellow Aussies, one from Adelaide in South Australia, Wade Ormsby, and the other the beloved local Queensland Hero, Adam Scott, in an epic 7-hole playoff. It was a seven-hour day at the office for Chalmers, who teed off at 10:37 am, a good hour ahead of Scott in the final group, shot a spectacular 64 (better the next best score of the day by four strokes), waited around for an hour or so for the playoff, which was all played repeatedly on the par-4 18th hole, that would not end, and in the end outlasted the World No. 3 player and won the Australian PGA Championship by 5:30 pm.

As fate would have it, I never made it out to walk the back nine with the leaders as planned today. I ventured an hour north for a morning JPT tour of Brisbane’s city sights and when I reached the RACV Royal Pines resort Adam Scott was bogeying the tricky, Graham Marsh- designed, short par-4 eighth hole. By the time I settled down for a quick lunch in front of the TV in the media lounge, Adam had rebounded with a birdie at the ninth while Chalmers was 6-under in his Sunday best round through 14 holes. Two holes later after an Ormsby bogey at the 11th the eventual playoff threesome were tied for the lead at 10-under par.

After watching Chalmers approach shot on the 18th hole I ventured out just in time to watch him drain the 10-footer for a dramatic finishing birdie for a new course record of 10-under par 64.  Ormsby and Scott would each go one-under the rest of the way in their rounds with two birdies and a bogey to match Chalmers clubhouse 11-under total of 273. Ormsby would match Chalmers’ dramatics draining a 20-foot birde putt of his own on the 18th green.

After hearing Chalmers flash interview outside the scoring trailer I went back to the 18th green to see American Scott Stallings walking off after making a birdie of his own and posting a 70 to finish three strokes out of the playoff. With only three groups remaining to finish I decided to settle in behind the back left greenside bunker to watch the conclusion of the final event of the Australian Trifecta (Masters, Open, PGA). I use to do this a lot when I was a spotter and liked to watch the player parade marching into the last hole. Little did I know there would be a playoff as I expected, like everyone else, that Adam Scott would light up the Gold Coast and win back-to-back PGA Championships. Plus the playoff would be an extended Australian style “Kangaroo (Groundhog)-Day,” it kept hopping over and over again. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

Boo Weekley finished with a par to post a 2-over par 74, four strokes out of the playoff. After opening with a morning 66 on the rain-shortened Thursday round, Boo was a little inconsistent but his solo 6th place finish was his best of the Australian Trifecta. Boo met Australia and Australia lovingly booed him an admiring and friendly welcome and good-bye. Ormsby’s dramatics were next and then the stage set for Scott to win with a dramatic birdie of his own but that did not happen. Instead he bunkered his drive left and missed his chip-in to settle for a par and a playoff appearance with Chalmers and Ormsby.

The shadows moving across the green tell the story of the epic playoff, said to be the longest in Australasian tour history. The fact that it happened all on a single hole is not to be understated either.

Scott and Ormsby missed makeable putts in Round 1 of the 7-round title fight.

Round 2 was fateful for Chalmers in that he missed the green and chipped knowing Scott had a 7-footer and Ormsby a 5-footer for potential winning birdies. If either or both made, Chalmers would likely be out. Chalmers chip was poor, stopping 12 feet short and maintaining his honor to putt for par before the other two gave their birdie putts a go. Chalmers, still hot with the putter that led to his 8-birdie, bogey-less masterful round, drained the par-saving putt that saved his hopes or rather his caddie’s hope. As Chalmers would confess later—”I started to shake my caddy’s hand and he wouldn’t. He said, no, no, we’ll just wait and see. I thought we were done. I thought there’s no way both are going to miss.”  They did with Scott rimming the hole and Ormsby completely missing it.

Round 3 was fateful for Ormsby as he exited left to birdies first by Chalmers, then by Scott, after tow good chances in the earlier rounds to make a birdie and win the PGA Championship.

The next two rounds would have Chalmers on the ropes with Scott unable to hole the knockout putt. In Round 4 Chalmers made a great recovery from the woods left while Scott missed a 20-foot birde putt after a huge drive down the middle of the fairway. For the record, Scott hit the fairway six of seven times in the playoff with his driver bunkering right only once.

In Round 5 Chalmers bunkered his drive left and Scott rimmed another tournament ending 12-footer. For the record, Chalmers only hit one fairway in seven playoff drives, in Round 3, when he sank the birdie putt to force Scott to make his.

Round 6 had both competitors bunkered off the tee, Chalmers left and Scott right. Scott 2-putted from off the green and Chalmers surprisingly missed a 15-footer for the win.

Round 7, of course, had Chalmers 2-putting from 50 feet after a bunkered right drive, and surprisingly, Scott three putting from 18 feet when everyone thought he would make it for the win.

Chalmers, the journeyman around the world, had another major victory at home, another PGA Championship to match his two Australian Open Championships. Maybe he is really not a journeyman but wants us to think he is. After all his second Open victory in 2011, came by holding off late charges by John Senden and Tiger Woods.

Another winner this week was golf course architect Graham Marsh. His new front nine, redesigned in a tight 9-month window after the February European Tour Ladies Masters, was well received by the players, sponsors and golf fans alike. As mentioned above his tricky par-4 eighth hole factored into the dramatic Sunday finish and there is no doubt his redesigned back nine will do the same in next year’s PGA Championship. Adam Scott’s drive that rolled through the left fairway bunker back into the fairway in Round 2 of the playoff will likely not happen next year. Later that same year he defeated Robert Allenby and Marcus Fraser in a sudden death playoff to win his first PGA Championship.

With this victory, even though he lost his PGA TOUR status last year finishing 132nd in FedEx points, we will see him in the World Golf Championships (WGC) at Doral and Firestone, and the Open Championship at St. Andrews, earned by virtue of his finish in the Australian Open.

Based on his champion’s interview comments, we might see a new Greg Chalmers as well: “Look, what happens is my attitude, if you’re talking about my mental approach, one of my weaknesses, if you want to get into it, is that when I play in the (United) States (on the PGA TOUR) I don’t play to win. I’m 41 and I’ve been doing it a long time… I just like to do well rather than, you know what, when I come here, I come here to try and win the golf tournament and I get really focused on that… so that’s an attitude that needs to change.”

Here’s a guy that is brutally honest with himself, accepting of himself and in so doing can change himself, whether to continue winning here in Australia or next year on the U.S. PGA TOUR in a WGC.

With an epic playoff finish in Queensland at the RACV Royal Pines Resort I think there is one thing that need changing for sure and that is the Queensland Events and Tourism logo: Queensland—It’s LIVE!

I think it should be: Queensland—It’s LIVE and EXCITING!

Here is the question I posed to champion golfer Greg Chalmers in his post-win interview:

Q. I think Adam rimmed his, Ormsby missed, but what were you thinking at that time? Did you think you were done and did it re-energise you?

GREG CHALMERS: Yeah, I started to shake my caddy’s hand and he wouldn’t. He said, no, no, we’ll just wait and see. I thought we were done. I thought there’s no way both are going to miss. I certainly thought Wade’s putt was uphill, I thought it was a putt that most of us would make but I also understand that you’re nervous and sometimes it’s really hard to control what the putter does and how the ball rolls.

I was very fortunate I think that I made that putt, I read it right and I think it broke about a cup to the right, which is a good putt for me, for a leftie. I just kind of pushed it up against the break and it broke in the hole and before you know it, it was still going.

I would have liked to hit a better second shot. I fatted it out of the bunker I think; that’s what happens. I hit a little fat and went left in the rough.

Sadly this is the last golf tournament on the Australasia PGA schedule. What an Australian Trifecta it was!

After playing the Championship Course here at RACV Royal Pines in the morning I drive back to Sydney to catch a flight to Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. What a great month and a half in Australia!

Exciting conclusion to the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort… Congratulations to Greg Chalmers!!!   (Facebook Link, Andy Reistetter, 12/14/14)

On to the “Golf Journey to New Zealand!”