As the sun rose on Quail Hollow, James Hahn sat in the third spot, and as it set on Quail Hollow, he emerged victorious at the Wells Fargo Championship with a two under-par, 70. After finishing tied for 17th at the Waste Management Open in Scottsdale, Arizona, Hahn hit a rough patch where he would miss eight straight cuts over just less than three months.
However, golf is a funny game. It can leave you feeling any possible emotion under the sun; but one thing’s for sure, it’s hard to stay away from the game, because all it takes is one weekend to turn things around and in James Hahn’s case, it paid off big time.
Hahn started the day at seven under-par and played a brilliant first nine going three under-par thanks to an eagle on the par five seventh, but it was the back nine where he would stumble. He bogeyed hole 12 and then birdied 15 to get back to even par, but a three putt 18th would drop him a stroke which left the door open for Roberto Castro to have a chance to take Hahn to a playoff on a hole he just struggled with. Castro sank his 6’ 1” putt and they headed back to the 18th tee where Hahn would land in fair play and Castro in the creek left of the fairway.
Castro dropped but wasn’t able to leave himself much of a lie. With the ball above his feet, he struck his next shot a bit further than he had hoped as it found the group of fans behind the 18th green.
The ball ended up hitting a spectator in the face and landed into a different spectator’s open shoe. Luckily for Castro he was able to remove the ball from the shoe and got up and down for bogey but the damage had been done. Hahn’s second shot landed in the middle of the green which left him an easy two-putt to seal his second PGA Tour victory.
Some other notable finishes were Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy who both posted six under-par, 66’s and Jason Gore who posted a seven under-par, 65 after shooting an 83 the day prior.
Slated next on the PGA Tour is The Player’s Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida.
