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Golf, man. It is the strangest sport in the world. Imagine a team that wasn't even supposed to be in the NBA or NFL playoffs going on to win a first-round series. That would pretty much never happen, right? It happened on the PGA Tour this week as Rod Pampling took home the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at 20 under.

Pampling was not supposed to be part of the 156-golfer field because the field was not supposed to consist of 156 golfers. Because of the waning daylight hours at this time of year, a couple dozen golfers were supposed to be lopped off this week's field.

For some reason, there was a miscommunication and 156 golfers were part of the draw. What started as a tournament management error turned into a dream week for the Australian, who hadn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2006 Bay Hill Invitational.

He shot a 65 on Sunday to win and birdied the last hole as a punctuation mark. It wasn't a short birdie either. Pampling banged home a long one with arms raised before it even fell in the cup to push him two clear of Brooks Koepka, who had a birdie putt of his own for what he thought would tie Pampling.

No such luck for Koepka as Pampling put his lead out of reach on the 72nd hole.

Pampling, who shot a 60 in Round 1 and narrowly missed a 59 on the final hole Thursday, made eight birdies in the final round. It was a master class in how to close a tournament after his game sagged a little in Rounds 2 and 3 with a 68-71 on an easy course.

"Just the belief in what we've been doing all week," Pampling said of what carried him across the finish line. "Just the fact that you can go out and you can shoot 60, you know you're playing good. And the fact that we played in the afternoon the last two days before. So kind of a little bit consistent conditions.

"And just down the stretch, I got the ball to the hole with the putts which I hadn't down the last two days. So thankfully I learned my lesson. You still learn sometimes out here."

Pampling closed in style with not only the birdie at the last but with birdies at four of his last six holes to re-take a lead he had lost on Saturday.

"The quality of golf in that last group was good," said Lucas Glover, who played with Pampling and finished third. "Rod putted unbelievable after missing a short putt on 12, so kudos to him for regrouping and making the putts he made. He played great ... we just had fun. We actually did. We had a good time and a lot of chatter and laughing and good golf."

It was great golf for Pampling, who finished second in the field in approach shots and first from tee to green.

Now he's exempt for two years, starting 2017 in Hawaii at the Tournament of Champions and playing in the 2017 Masters. That's a life-changing day for a 47-year-old grinder who won a tournament while most everyone was not paying attention to golf.

"It's awesome. You know, you dream of it," said Pampling after his round. "It happened a couple of times, obviously a long time ago. But thankfully I can still remember those, and it's exactly the same. It's just an amazing feelin,g and it's just what we work so hard for, and it was just nice to finish off with a bomb like that. It makes it even more special."