Luke List is finally a PGA Tour winner.
Getty Images
Luke List had to wait nearly two hours to learn his fate after he finished his final round, but the wait was well worth it.
After posting a final-round 66 on Torrey Pines’ South Course, List’s 15-under was enough to force a playoff with Will Zalatoris. And thanks to a wedge from the fairway that finished mere inches from the hole to set up a tap-in birdie, he leaves San Diego a first-time PGA Tour winner.
List got off to a fast start on Saturday as he went out in 32 — including four straight birdies on Nos. 3-6 — on the front nine, and he kept that momentum rolling as he made the turn. He added birdies at 12 and 16, but a costly bogey at 17 looked like it would doom his chances. However, the 37-year-old bounced back with a birdie at the 18th to post 15 under.
“It was nice to finish with a birdie,” List said. “That probably gives me a chance.”
His premonition turned out correct.
Zalatoris and Jason Day looked were the men to beat coming into Saturday’s final round, but neither men could deliver a knockout blow to List as he waited around in the clubhouse.
Day briefly matched List’s clubhouse lead when he holed out for eagle at the 14th, but bogeys on 16 and 17 eventually accounted for his undoing. The former major winner has now gone 76 starts without a win on Tour.
Zalatoris was solid also throughout the day — posting two birdies against just one bogey — but a balky putter ended up being his undoing. The 25-year-old missed several makable birdie looks on the back nine during the final round, none bigger than his eight-footer on the 72nd hole that would have given him his first Tour victory.
“I thought I made it, I just needed a hair more speed,” Zalatoris said. “I’ve seen enough putts through the years coming down that hill to know that that putt just doesn’t go left and it happened to go left.”
In the playoff, List and Zalatoris both blasted their drives into the fairway bunker on the right side of the fairway. But after List laid up just outside Zalatoris in the fairway, his immaculate wedge to tap-in range put the pressure on his opponent to match. And although Zalatoris again gave himself a makable look to extend the playoff, his putt once again slid past the hole to give List his first Tour title.
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish