RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Harrison Frazar won his first PGA Tour Champions title Sunday when he birdied the 18th hole for a 3-under 69 to force a playoff with Richard Green, and then made an 8-foot birdie on the first extra hole at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
Frazar wasn’t the only winner. Steve Stricker clinched his first Charles Schwab Cup title with two postseason events still to be played, even though he skipped the tournament.
Green also closed with a 69, helped by a 10-foot par putt on the 15th and an 8-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole. But he failed to birdie the 516-yard closing hole at the Country Club of Richmond, opening the door for Frazar and Brett Quigley in the final group.
Quigley birdied the 16th and 17th, and he had a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole that he left inches short for a 71 to finish alone in third, one shot behind.
Frazar didn’t make his first birdie until the 11th hole, but he hit a superb wedge from 75 yards to short range for birdie on the 16th, and he two-putted for birdie from 40 feet on the 18th.
Frazar and Green finished at 11-under 205.
Returning to the 18th for the playoff, both players missed the fairway. Green whiffed on his fairway metal, but it caromed out of the trees into the fairway and he hit his third to 30 feet. Frazar cleared the cross bunkers, and his long pitch spun back to 8 feet below the hole.
He clenched his fist when he saw it drop for birdie. His first PGA Tour Champions victory came 12 years after his lone win on the PGA Tour at the St. Jude Classic.
“Emotions are all-time high right now,” Frazar said. “I’m so happy and so proud at what I’ve done. This means a bunch. You wonder if you can really do it. You wonder if you’ve still got it. To see that putt go in the hole, gosh, what a feeling.”
Stricker has been so dominant on the PGA Tour Champions, winning six times and three majors, that he built a lead of just under $2 million going into the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.
With only 1,756,000 points available over the last two events, Stricker leads Steven Alker by 1,909,065. Stricker plans to play at least one of the next two events.
The top 54 players in the Schwab Cup standings advance to the next playoff event in two weeks. Four players moved into the top 54 on Sunday — Shane Bertsch, John Huston, Rocco Mediate and Charlie Wi.
