Brett Quigley steadied himself over his final four holes and held on for his second PGA Tour Champions title at the Constellation Furyk & Friends on Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla.
Quigley entered the day with a one-stroke lead and shot a 1-under 71 at Timuquana Country Club to finish at 11-under 205, edging New Zealand’s Steven Alker by a shot.
Quigley double bogeyed the par-3 14th hole to drop back to 11 under after making birdies at Nos. 1, 3 and 10. But he converted four straight pars to finish his round, and that was all that was necessary to hang on.
The 54-year-old hooked his tee shot at the par-4 18th but still reached the green in two. He described his first putt there as “horrible.”
“I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, a 6-footer left to right a cup? Could you leave yourself a worse putt?'” Quigley said. “I just stood over it, like, ‘You know what, I’ve done it before.'”
His obstacle at the 14th hole was a horrible lie in the rough.
“I mean, honestly, I could have been there all day,” Quigley said. “I had such a horrible lie to start with, then I thought I made the third shot and it goes right over the green again. I’m like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ No, I wasn’t panicked, I was just more mad at myself for making (the end of the tournament) more interesting.”
Quigley’s previous win came in February 2020 in Morocco.
Alker shot a final-round 68, making his move late with four birdies and a bogey over a six-hole stretch at Nos. 10-15. After winning last year’s Charles Schwab Cup in his first full season on the 50-and-older circuit, Alker was hunting for his second win of 2023.
“The game’s just started coming around,” Alker said. “Ball-striking has been the best the last few weeks it’s been for a while, so tidy that up. This week was just a few more putts here and there, an up-and-down, it was that kind of week. So nice putt there by Quigs on the last, that was a huge up-and-down, so credit to him.”
Like Quigley, Glen Day also double bogeyed the 14th hole to add to a colorful card that included eight birdies and two bogeys. His 68 earned him sole possession of third place at 9 under.
Ernie Els of South Africa (69) and Jerry Kelly (73) tied for fourth at 8 under.
–Field Level Media
