It was over. Or so it seemed. With a four-shot lead and only five holes left in the Wyndham Championship, all Max Greyserman had to do was evade a meltdown. Considering he was 21 under par at the time, it seemed an easy task.
But with his first PGA Tour victory in sight, Greyserman couldn’t handle the heat. He melted with a quadruple-bogey Snowman at Sedgefield Country Club’s 14th hole to fall into a tie with Aaron Rai. Back in front one hole later, Greyserman four-putted at 16, missing two 3-foot putts to fall one shot behind.
The 29-year-old Rai, lurking in the shadow on the leaderboard but never at the top throughout the weekend, put the tournament away in the gloaming with a short birdie putt on 18. He shot 64 in the final round.
Rai, born in England, finished at 18-under 262, two ahead of Greyserman, to win the $1.422 million first prize from the $7.9 million purse.
Actually, the tournament isn’t officially over. Matt Kuchar, playing in the final group, elected to mark his tee shot at 18 after a horn suspended play, allowing players to either stop or continue to finish the hole. Rai and Greyserman elected to finish in the near darkness. So, in order to collect a six-figure check, Kuchar must return Monday morning and finish the final hole.
Greyserman, a 29-year-old former Duke player, seemed to have put the victory away by holing an approach that spun back 15 feet or so into the cup for eagle at No. 13.
But on his next shot on the 14th tee he drove out of bounds right, bounding off the cart path then followed with a second tee shot into the left rough. He eventually made a quadruple-bogey 8 to fall into a tie with Rai, who said he didn’t know where he stood until he was on the 18th tee.
“I didn’t really look at the leaderboards as I was going round,” Rai said. “I knew the scores going into the fourth round, but I thought it would be best not to really look at what was going on during the fourth round. I wasn’t aware of what was happening with Max towards the end there.”
Rai squandered a great chance to grab control when he drove into the left rough at the par-15th and made par on a hole he had eagled in each of his previous three rounds. Playing in the group behind Rai, Greyserman reached the green in two shots, then two-putted for a go-ahead birdie.
At 16, Greyserman had a 3-foot putt for par to maintain a one-stroke lead. Instead, he finished the hole behind by one stroke.
On the 18th tee, Rai was asked by playing partner Billy Herschel whether he wanted to know his position on the leaderboard. Not long afterward, Rai’s caddie told him without telling him directly,.
“I asked my caddie on the 18th tee what the situation was, and he knows me pretty well and I trust whatever he says to me. He just said, ‘Just focus on playing a good hole here.'” Rai recalled. “But I also assumed from him saying that that’s probably what it meant. Then when I walked up to the green I did have a look to see the leaderboard, but until that stage I wasn’t aware of what the situation was.”
The top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings after the Wyndham advance to next week’s first round of the Tour’s FedEx Playoffs in Memphis. Despite a field heavy with players ranked outside the top 70, not a single player was able to jump into a playoff spot from their results at Sedgefield.
Both Rai and Greyserman were safely inside the top 70.
Matt Kuchar, the second-round leader, could have jumped from No. 113 and extended his record of playing in the playoffs every year since they were founded in 2007, with a triumph. But Kuchar dropped back with 70 in the third round and made double-bogey on the par-7th on Sunday afternoon to fall out of contention. He needs a par on 18 to tie for 12th.
The 70th spot in the playoffs came down to a battle between Victor Perez and Riley Davis. Perez held onto the last spot by finishing at 272 while No. 71 Davis, failed to gain ground, finishing at
