(Photo credit score: Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Dicky Pride could not have discovered a extra becoming match to win.
Pride shot a 7-under-par 65 within the last spherical, then beat Irishman Padraig Harrington with a par on the primary playoff gap to prevail on the Dick’s Open on Sunday in Endicott, N.Y.
‘Well, luckily they’ve named the match after me now already,’ Pride jokes. ‘It’s the Dick’s Open, so I ought to win it, proper?’
Harrington had gained his final three begins on the sporting items store-sponsored occasion (2022, 2023, 2024). He did not compete final 12 months however returned to En-Joie Golf Course and took a one-shot lead heading into the ultimate spherical after Pride led by means of 18 holes because of a gap 63.
Pride soared again into the lead with birdies at Nos. 3 and 5-8 on his entrance 9 Sunday. After three birdies and a bogey on the again 9, he reached 18-under 198 for the week. But Harrington pressured a playoff by making a tying birdie at No. 18 to conclude his 66.
Pride had a clean experience because the pair replayed the par-4 18th gap, whereas Harrington went from tough to tough on his first two pictures. Harrington reached the inexperienced in three, however after Pride’s two-putt par Harrington watched his personal par try to increase the playoff slide previous the precise of the opening.
‘it is all the time onerous once you’re enjoying a golf course that it is advisable get momentum,’ Harrington mentioned. ‘It was there available, however once you’re main or in or across the lead, you are a bit defensive.
‘I felt Dicky simply utterly outplayed me right through. He performed nice. It would have been a travesty if he misplaced. It doesn’t suggest I wasn’t desirous to win, however he performed nice. He hit all of the pictures, putted nice, hit it shut all day.’
For Pride, it marks his second PGA Tour Champions title and his first in 5 years after he gained the Mitsubishi Electric Classic in 2021. Pride, 56, was all the time knowledgeable journeyman who collected one win on the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) and one title on the PGA Tour.
Pride has performed at En-Joie because it was a fixture on the PGA Tour schedule because the host of the B.C. Open a long time in the past.
‘It’s very emotional,’ Pride mentioned. ‘We’ve been coming right here a very long time, I’ve had two (University of Alabama) teammates win the B.C. Open, Spike McRoy and Jason Bohn, in order that they have been teammates, we have been all teammates in school. It’s only a actually particular place. We all the time love coming again. My youngsters have been driving the (En-Joie Park) carousel since they have been this large. We actually all the time love this occasion and this neighborhood.’
Matt Gogel shot 65 with 4 birdies on every 9 to complete third at 17 underneath, one shot out of the playoff. J.J. Henry additionally posted 65 to take fourth place at 16 underneath. Tim O’Neal (65), Bo Van Pelt (66) and Sweden’s Freddie Jacobson (66) tied for fifth at 15 underneath.
–Field Level Media