Cameron Percy first Champions Tour victory denied in playoff
Cameron Percy – close again but no cigar – file photo courtesy of PGA of America
U.S.-based Victorian Cameron Percy was denied his first PGA Tour Champions victory despite a stunning final round of 64 at the Stifel Charity Classic at the Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis today.
Beginning the day three shots behind the 36-hole leader, Stewart Cink, Percy made the near-perfect start when he eagled the second hole and made the turn in 32, a bogey at the 10th slowed the momentum, but he would add four more birdies in his last seven holes and wait for the three groups behind to finish.
Thomas Bjorn and Alex Cjeka remained alive as possible contenders to Percy’s lead, but when Cjeka bogeyed the final hole, it would see Bjorn and Percy enter a playoff, which Bjorn would win with a birdie at the first extra hole.
“Yeah, just I’m starting to know the courses a bit better so I sort of know where I’m going,” said Percy after his round when asked what he took away from his effort this week. “And I’m putting really nicely from short range, I’m not missing many short putts so that’s really helping.”
Percy has won on the Korn Ferry Tour during his 16-year career in the USA but was denied a PGA Tour victory in his very first season there in 2010 when beaten by a hole-in-one by his opponent in a playoff for the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children event in Las Vegas.
This was, however, Percy’s second playoff loss of this season, his first full season on the PGA Tour Champions, and with the US$184,000, he won today, he now moves to 9th in the Schwab Cup standings with earnings of US$1.15 million.
Mark Hensby 10th and Richard Green 11th were the next best of the Australasians.
