Purdy shoots 65 for breakthrough at Nelson
IRVING, Texas -- Unless the talk was about the "Big 173" instead of the Big Five, no one had any reason to suspect Ted Purdy would be celebrating his first PGA Tour victory with tournament host Byron Nelson.
Purdy had never finished higher than Tiger Woods in any event since college. He was in awe of Vijay Singh and the rest of the world's five best players. He viewed his best results on tour as failures.
All that changed Sunday afternoon with a flawless round of golf. Purdy had a birdie putt on every hole, closed with a 5-under 65 and won the Byron Nelson Championship by one shot over Sean O'Hair.
"It's just euphoric," Purdy said. "Under the circumstances, it's the best round of golf I ever played. I guess on Sunday, to win a tournament, that's how you do it."
For all the hype over the Big Five playing together for only the third time this year, it came down to a 31-year-old who had toiled for six years on the Asian Tour and was trying to recover from the heartache of two runner-up finishes last year on the PGA Tour.
"I won on the PGA," said Purdy, who finished at 15-under 265. "That's been my dream my whole life."
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O'Hair, who started the day ahead by one, was within one shot of the lead until he hit into a bunker at No. 14 and failed to save par. He birdied two of the last three holes for a 68 and earned $669,600, assuring the Q-school grad his card for next year and showing that he has the game to achieve greater things.
"I played my guts out today," O'Hair said. "Now that I've got a taste of this, my feelings are, 'Let's go win a few tournaments.' I'm not going to put a bunch of pressure on myself after this week. I played great. I'm just going to work my butt off and hopefully, I'll be in this situation a lot more."
Purdy built a three-shot lead with a two-putt birdie on the 16th hole, too much ground for O'Hair to make up. His 65 matched the lowest final round by a winner at the Byron Nelson Championship since it moved to Las Colinas in 1986.
Vijay Singh finished strong as always, with an ace on 195-yard 17th hole with a 7-iron, and a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 65. He tied for third, going over $5 million for the third consecutive year.
"Vijay is playing unbelievable, but I beat him," Purdy said with a laugh.
He beat them all.
Woods was long gone, missing the cut for the first time in seven years and 142 events. So was Retief Goosen.
Singh needed to finish alone in third to replace Tiger Woods at No. 1 in the world, although they could swap positions the next two weeks when neither are playing.
Bob Tway (67) and Doug Barron (69) also tied for third, with each dropping a shot over the final two holes. British Open champion Todd Hamilton, who played a practice round with O'Hair early in the week and was paired with him in the final round, had consecutive double bogeys to start the back nine and closed with a 74.
Purdy showed promise last year with two runner-up finishes that haunted him.
At the MCI Heritage, he blew a four-shot lead in the final round and then lost in a five-hole playoff to Stewart Cink. Then at the B.C. Open, he had a 3-foot par putt to force a playoff to Jonathan Byrd and missed it badly to the left.
"I don't think I would have been able to pull it off today without having those previous failures," Purdy said.
He was close to perfect under steamy, sunny skies on the outskirts of Dallas. Purdy holed birdie putts of 25 feet on No. 6 to take the lead and 30 feet on No. 8 to take control. Down the stretch, he wasn't close to making a mistake.
O'Hair thought this might be his day.
Along with his wife, their parents and his 3-month-old child, his mother and sister flew in from Florida for the final round to watch what they all expected to one day see -- the kid with a polished swing winning on the PGA Tour.
The only one missing was his father, Marc O'Hair, with whom Sean severed ties two years ago after the father pushed him relentlessly to be a star, even making him run a mile for every bogey he made.
O'Hair held up nicely under the pressure, scrambling out of bunkers and the rough, just not enough.
Ernie Els (No. 3) birdied four of his last five holes for a 66 to tie for 10th, while the other member of the Big Five still around on the weekend, Phil Mickelson (No. 4), shot a 67 and tied for 14th.
Divots
- This might have been the first time Mark Hensby had breakfast after playing a round. Hensby and Jason Hartwick were the first group off Sunday and were done at 9:42 a.m. -- a round that lasted 2 hours, 23 minutes. Hensby had a 71, Hartwick a 70. "It's fun to play that fast," Hensby said. "You can still play quickly and try."
- The pin on the par-3 17th moved from its traditional Sunday placement just beyond the water, to the back left and away from trouble.
- Nick Price closed with a 67 and tied for sixth, his first top 10 on the PGA Tour since he tied for seventh last year in the Byron Nelson Championship.
