Rocco Mediate secured his first tournament victory on PGA Tour Champions in three years in winning the Sanford International 2019 at the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on September 22nd.
The 56 year-old from Greensburg, Pennsylvania wasn’t among the leading candidates in the betting going into the tournament, with odds of around 40/1 being generally available. Rocco Mediate’s reward in terms of prize money was $270,000 of the $1,800,000 purse.
It was the 13th professional win of Mediate’s career, including four on the PGA Champions Tour, but his first since winning the Senior PGA Championship in 2016.
“It was just one of those days everything kind of went really good,” Mediate said. “When I was bad, I got it up and down. When I was good, I made putts. You have to do this crazy stuff.”
“Putted my you-know-what off today, but I hit a lot of good shots, too. I hit a lot of greens, kept my head together and here we are the last couple holes.”
Going into the tournament, Bernhard Langer was the 8/1 bookmakers favourite with 888Sport, with Scott McCarron and Jerry Kelly both available at 9/1 on the betting lines. Retief Goosen (the South African rookie on the PGA Tour Champions this season) and Woody Austin were next up at 12/1, followed by David Toms at 14/1 and Brandt Jobe at 16/1. Needless to say that bookmakers do have betting offers for new customers, who are welcome to take advantage of such odds and other competitive probabilities in future bets.
As with most of the tournaments on the PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and Champions Tour), the Sanford International was played over three rounds (54 holes). The course at the Minnehaha Country Club (established on the outskirts of Sioux Falls in 1905) is a Par 70 with a total course yardage of 6,729.
Mediate shot a final round 64 for a total 9-under 201 to win by two shots from Ken Duke, Colin Montgomerie and Bob Estes. Mediate birdied the last two holes to edge out Duke. Mediate was already in the clubhouse when Duke, who was tied for the lead going to the last, took four shots to reach the final green to make double bogey and close his round with a 69.
Jay Haas and Steve Flesch each finished 6-under in a tie for fifth. Scott McCarron tied for seventh after shooting a final round 67 and still leads the way for the Charles Schwab Cup. There are only two tournaments remaining before the Schwab Cup play-offs (which consist of a series of three tournaments).
As indicated by the result of the Sanford International, there’s always plenty of value to be had betting on PGA Tour Champions, so in such a competitive market it’s certainly worth checking out the wealth of betting offers for new and existing customers available over the remaining tournaments.
Image credit – Jamiehales [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
Anna Rawson and me. Just look at her. You can tell she’s in love.
Hale Irwin and myself. One of these two people doesn’t suck at golf…
Rocco Mediate and TK. Rocco is a stud (who isn’t scared of Tiger, US OPEN 2008) and very nice to talk to.
Alternate titles:
“If Freddy could putt, he might have a 2nd green jacket”
“If Tiger could putt, he might have his 5th green jacket”
“The ‘Phil Slam’ is only two major wins away”
Remember when everyone called Lefty “The best player to not have won a major?” Those days are long gone.
Phil took his TWO drivers and won is 2nd Masters with a well played 69. There’s a rumor floating around the web that one apparently isn’t on the USGA conforming list. More info on that later. His only bogey of the day was on 18 when it didn’t matter since he had a 3 stroke lead.
Nuggets
Rocco Mediate was in the hunt until he carded a 10 on #12 en route to a meltdown 80.
Fred Couples was very close to winning and would have been the oldest Masters champ had he done so. If only he could have made some putts today he and Eat would be happy.
Press Room
Press to Fred Couples: “Is there an optimum age for golf”
Freddy: “For Tiger it’s 16 and on…”
Press to Phil: “What do you think of the lengthening of Augusta National”
Phil: “I like it.” DOH!
Press to Phil: (paraphrasing) “Like Arnold and Jack you are trading Masters championships with Tiger.”
Phil: (paraphrasing) “I’m not interested in trading.”
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
