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Matthieu Pavon birdied the 72nd gap to win the Farmers Insurance coverage Open
Orlando Ramirez/Getty Photographs
Matthieu Pavon made the one mistake he couldn’t.
Main the Farmers Insurance coverage Open by one with six holes to go within the closing spherical, Pavon, a PGA Tour rookie making his third begin as a member, airmailed the 14th inexperienced.
What’s past the 14th inexperienced at Torrey Pines South, you ask? Nothing good in the event you’re enjoying golf.
After the inexperienced is a steep embankment of tough that’s significantly shorter than the remainder of the five-inch tough across the two-time U.S. Open host. When you hit the purple penalty space line, it doesn’t take lengthy for a golf ball to grow to be misplaced within the bluffs of the Torrey Pines State Pure Reserve. That’s the place Pavon’s ball gave the impression to be headed.
Nevertheless, the following time CBS’s cameras minimize to Pavon, he was standing over his third shot. Someway, the ball hung up within the intermediate minimize of tough.
On a tough course just like the South course, it was the type of break that separates winners and losers, and that’s what it did. Pavon managed to pitch his third at 14 to a foot, then made a 24-foot par save at 16 earlier than lastly muscling a 3rd shot on the 72nd gap from the deep tough to only eight toes to seal the Farmers Insurance coverage Open title.
“I can’t thank the PGA Tour sufficient to offer us the chance to return from Europe and compete right here in America towards the perfect gamers on the planet,” Pavon mentioned. “That’s all the time been the dream for me. I acquired lastly a shot and I took it.”
Pavon appeared on the verge of blowing his lead when he missed a brief par putt on 17 and drove right into a bunker on 18. He laid up within the tough after which in some way willed his method over the pond on the well-known par-5 finisher and made the putt to protect a one-shot win over Nicolai Hojgaard after he birdied the 72nd too.
Along with his first PGA Tour win, Pavon turns into the primary winner who earned membership from the High 10 of final yr’s DP World Tour standings after the class was added for this season. Pavon additionally nabbed his first DP World Tour win final fall on the Acciona Open de España. He then birdied his closing 4 holes on the DP World Tour Championship to complete T5 and leap up 5 spots within the standings, sufficient to earn one of many 10 playing cards awarded to high finishers on the European Tour with no different PGA Tour standing.
There’s 1 factor lacking from the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance, and it harm Rasmus Hojgaard
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Pavon’s win can also be the primary PGA Tour title by a participant from France. The win will put Pavon in prime place to symbolize his nation at dwelling at this summer season’s Olympics in Paris.
Pavon was battling for a lot of the day with Hojgaard and Stephan Jaeger, who, like Pavon and the remainder of the golfers within the high 9 heading into the ultimate spherical, was trying to find his first PGA Tour win.
The Frenchman took the solo lead after Jaeger’s bogey on 12 and by no means relinquished it the remainder of the day. His quick miss on the 71st opened up numerous potentialities as he performed the ultimate gap with only a one-shot lead over Hogjaard, who reached the 72nd inexperienced in two by the point Pavon stepped as much as his third.
However from 143 yards, Pavon’s third benefited from a rain-softened closing inexperienced because it landed in the course of the placing floor after which took the slope again towards the outlet. His closing putt simply barely dripped over the sting to slam the door.
“I used to be so pumped at the moment, I do know I had the power to raise that ball up on the inexperienced,” he mentioned. “I type of aimed to the center of the inexperienced figuring out the face would shut slightly bit as a result of it’s fairly deep and thick. That ball got here out like a butterfly and it actually feed the slope on the inexperienced and left myself a nine-footer or one thing. That was the best time to show I’ve the center to complete that event and I did it so I’m so comfortable about that final gap.”
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