Thirty-seven year old journeyman Luke List just won his first PGA Tour title at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines near San Diego after 207 tries on the big Tour. He did it in dramatic fashion by shooting a six-under par 66 and coming from five strokes behind on the final round today to tie another winless, but young and up-and-coming player, 25-year-old Will Zalatoris.
In the sudden-death playoff, on the par-five 18th hole as the 1st hole, both players drove into the right bunker, with their balls only inches apart. Both laid up on their second shots in the fairway, leaving each with about a hundred-yard wedge shot to the green that is dangerously fronted by a small lake and the pin placed near the front side of the green. List played first and hit a beauty, leaving himself a kick-in birdie putt from about a foot. Zalatoris then hit his 3rd shot to about 8 feet putting straight uphill. But he barely missed left. Previously, on his 72nd hole from about the same place, and with a chance to win, he had missed his birdie putt left, forcing the playoff.
Besides the big cash of over a million dollars, List will now enjoy the benefits of winning on the PGA Tour by playing in the Masters this year and having a two-year exemption on Tour so that he doesn’t have to worry about losing playing privileges.
If he can keep putting like he did this week, sweet-swinging, cool-hand Luke may soon get into the winners circle more often. For, he has a terrible record on Tour with his putting, with his best year being 148th place. But this week he the was #1 best putter from less than fifteen feet from the cup.
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