STEPHAN JAEGER SECURED his maiden PGA Tour win in dramatic circumstances at the Texas Children’s Houston Open tonight.
Jaeger’s final round 67 was enough to finish at 12-under for the tournament, and ahead of a group at 11-under that included Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Tony Finau.
While Jaeger could ultimately celebrate victory in regulation, it looked to all the world that he would be heading for a play-off after he sent his birdie putt on 18 curling agonisingly to the right of the hole. A typically divine iron meant Scheffler had a putt from just over five feet for birdie and to force a playoff, but he saw his putt slide to the left of the hole. It felt a shocking moment, given Scheffler hadn’t missed from outside of seven feet across the entire weekend.
Scheffler was bidding for a third-straight victory on the Tour, but his long-existing putting problems hinted at their return across the closing holes: he missed a good opportunity for eagle on the par-five 16th having made bogey on the par-three 15th, the same hole on which he made double-bogey on Saturday.
He missed another birdie opportunity from 13 feet on 17, before then miscuing from close range on 18, settling for a tie for second place.
For Jaeger it’s a belated first victory in what was his 135th PGA Tour start, which earns him a winner’s cheque of $1.6 million and a ticket to the Masters, PGA Championship, and all of the remaining signature events on the PGA Tour for 2024. Having made the turn at three-under for his round, Jaeger parred all of the back nine to hang on for victory. He is the fifth player to win for the first time on the Tour this season.
Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti was made to rue a bogey on the 18th hole, which ruled him out of a play-off.
The only Irish player in the field was Padraig Harrington, who missed the cut on Friday.
Only beating Malta by two goals is embarrassing
I’m glad Southgate got the job. He’s a useless pr*** and the best thing you can say about him is he is Allardyce’s sloppy seconds. A sad comment on the quality of English managers.
He is only caretaker manager as there wasn’t enough time to find a long term replacement before these games. Calm down.
@Chocolatito: It’s not embarrassing at all. Malta rarely get hammered by teams, in the last year they’ve only lost by one goal in games against Croatia, Italy and Austria. The reason they got hammered by Scotland was because they had a player unfairly sent off and fell apart from there.
No. It is embarrassing. It’s f***ing embarrassing. Malta’s top player only played today because he got someone else to cover his postman’s round. To be fair. Any team Rooney can get into now has to be shite.
When was the last time Rooney had a good game? If he played for a smaller club there’s no way he’d be playing for England.
They’re gonna win the WC now again
Had England -2 in an accum tks you sh#t head
Ah Ryano ya may aswell have given me your money
Had a big win during the week Al put a lot of it on an accum and the English let me down, typical
Bookie always wins Ryano
Your right Al, keeps ya interested in the boring games .
Nelson haha