Abraham Ancer Breaks Through For His First PGA Tour Win at the 2021 WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational (image: PGA Tour)
I t was a final round to remember at TPC Southwind, and after all the drama and excitement, Abraham Ancer has emerged victorious at the 2021 WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational. The Mexican-born golfer rallied in a two hole playoff between Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns to capture his first PGA Tour win, after eight runner-up finishes in his career. His final score was 16-under. He becomes the 4th golfer from Mexico to win on the PGA Tour and with this win, moves up to 6th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Ancer has been a rising star in the golfing world for many years now. He has found success on others tours, winning the Australian Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia in 2018 and the Nova Scotia Open on the Web.com Tour in 2015. Ancer even qualified for the 2019 Presidents Cup, where he held a 3-1-1 record; his only loss being to Tiger Woods. He has retained his PGA Tour card since 2018 and many wondered when he would break through and win for the first time.
PLAYOFF DRAMA BETWEEN ANCER, MATSUYAMA AND BURNS
Ancer was in the second-to-last pairing for his final round with Australian Cameron Smith
and started the day at 14-under. His round consisted of two birdies and a
bogey on the front nine and a single birdie on the back nine, a mild
score relatively speaking, but one that proved to be solid at the end of
the day. Ancer even noted afterwards that he felt a better score was in
him today.
Matsuyama and Barns were paired together, and from the looks of it, were feeding off each others' scoring vibes. Matsuyama started the day nine shots off the lead, but was first in the clubhouse at
16-under. He shot an impressive bogey-free round of 63, including a three-run birdie streak on holes 12 through 14. Similarly, Burns carded a 6-under final round, with four birdies on the front nine and four birdies and a double bogey at the 13th, on the back nine. One of his back nine birdies came on the tough 18th hole and it was good enough to get him into the playoff. But he didn't know it at the time, because at that point, Harris English was leading the tournament at 20-under.
The playoff began back at the 18th hole. Both Ancer, Matsuyama and Burns managed to find the green and give themselves attempts for birdie. All three ended up making pars, but last to go was Matsuyama. Facing a putt to win, Matsuyama nearly holed his
birdie putt, lipping it out of the hole in dramatic fashion.
Back to the 18th tee box, the three of them went for the 2nd playoff hole. Again, all three found the green: Matsuyama slightly farther away this time, but both Ancer and Burns took dead aim and nearly holed their approaches, landing near inches away from each other. Matsuyama again parred. Ancer was next to play. He managed to sink his putt for birdie this time but at the same time gave Burns a nice read for his. However, Burns' putt was off-line and spun around the edge of the hole before lipping out, in the most unfortunate way, giving Ancer the victory.
PAR 3 TROUBLES FOR ENGLISH AND DECHAMBEAU
Although the tournament ended in a playoff, about nine holes prior, the
leaderboard and storylines were quite different. Leading for 54-holes and in the final group, Harris English held a comfortable lead at 20-under at the turn,
with a two stroke lead over playing partner Bryson DeChambeau. Ancer and Burns were two shots behind him.
But things turned for the worse for both English and DeChambeau on the back nine. Shockingly, it seemed to unravel on the par 3s for them. It started with DeChambeau on the par 4 10th hole though, where he found water with his second shot and bogeyed, then followed this up with a triple-bogey on the par 3 11th hole, after again finding water. Bryson would go on to make two more bogeys and finish T8 and +4 for the day.
English's troubles began on the par 3 11th hole, where he carded a double bogey after landing his tee shot short of the green, into the water. After that, his shots started becoming more and more errant throughout the next few holes, but some clutch putting resulted in pars. Then came the par 3 14th hole, where English found the water again and double-bogeyed. Another bogey on the 16th hole and Harris found himself going into the 18th hole at 15-under, one shot behind leaders Ancer, Matsuyama and Burns, who were already back on the range preparing for a playoff no one saw coming. In one last attempt to make it to the playoff, English landed his third shot in prime position on the green, just past the hole; an impressive feat considering only four birdies had been made previously that round. Unfortunately, he missed the putt by mere inches. English would end up finishing solo 4th.
What's interesting to note, however, is that the English/DeChambeau final pairing twice received warnings that they were lagging behind. Harris English spoke about this in his post-round interview. He said he felt rushed and hurried because of the warnings, in particular during his back nine struggles, and that they caused him to rush his pre-shot routine. It wasn't just excuses, to be fair. It was something you could even see during the TV coverage. Although we don't know who was responsible for the delays, DeChambeau in the past has been criticized for his slow play. And that was during a good round for him; things no doubt get slower as you find trouble. Could all this have put English, who honestly appeared calm and collected throughout the entire tournament until that point, in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar position? We'll never know unless more information comes out about it.
TPC SOUTHWIND CLAIMS MORE WATER VICTIMS
For the most part, we saw a benign version of TPC Southwind this week. Low scores were possible and had by many. But during the final round, we got a glimpse of just how tough the course can be. It was during Harris English's tee shot on the par 3 11th hole. Facing an island green, the winds started to gust towards the players. Unfortunately, English hit a high pitching wedge that was completely smothered by the wind, ultimately causing his ball to land short and in the water. It's easy to see now why TPC Southwind ranks first in courses where the most balls are lost in water hazards on tour. That's pretty remarkable considering the courses in the PGA Tour rotation: TPC Sawgrass and PGA National, to mention a few.
HOW DID OUR PICKS DO?
Like we do with every tournament we cover, we like to finish off with how our picks fared. This week we chose Dustin Johnson, Corey Conners and Louis Oosthuizen. Here's how they finished the week:
1) Dustin Johnson: T10 at 11-under
2) Corey Conners: T36 at 2-under
3) Louis Oosthuizen: T17 at 7-under
Not bad at all considering the strength of the field this week. It's worth noting that Oosthuizen on Saturday was in contention for the lead, but a poor performance on his back nine and an equally poor final round dropped him down the leaderboard. Dustin Johnson was also one the four players to birdie the 18th hole during his final round.
That wraps up our coverage for this years edition of the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational. Stay tuned for our coverage next week of the Wyndham Championship, the last regular season event before the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It's sure to be exciting, as many golfers will be making one last push to get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs!
Be sure to check out our preview post for it,
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
