When the sunset in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, on the OHL Classica at Mayakoba, it would be Pat Perez who walked away victorious. This was his second career win and his first since 2009.
Perez, in his third start since his shoulder surgery, was at 8-under heading into the third round. He then shoved his way to near the top of the leaderboard by shooting a 9-under 62 in his third round. That round Perez carded an eagle and nine birdies, to just one bogey on the par-3 10th hole.
Going into his final round, Perez was behind the leader Gary Woodland by one stroke, but that didn’t deter Perez one bit. Perez burst out of the gates, notching three birdies through his first four holes, as Woodland hobbled across the starting line recording two bogies in his first three holes.
Perez then recorded two more birdies on the front nine, and one bogey on the back nine, before turning on cruise control and parring the rest of his holes, to give him a two-stroke victory.
Woodland, the leader through three rounds, seemed poised to nab the trophy heading into the final round, but a weak start left him playing from behind. It wasn’t until the 18th hole that Woodland would finally get to under par on his round. Albeit, Woodland didn’t have a bad weekend. Prior to his final round, Woodland had hit 48 of 54 greens, only missing two greens per round. In his final round, Woodland missed four. This may not seem like a huge jump, but when you lose by two it’s hard to see that statistic as “not a big jump.”
Next week the PGA Tour heads to the Sea Island Resort in Sea Island, Georgia, to take on The RSM Classic. Last year’s winner Kevin Kisner will look to pawn his last start, an 11-over finish at the WGC-HSBC Championships, as a fluke and get off to a strong start this next weekend.
Until then, I’ll leave you on the lighter side.
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