Innisbrook: Luke Donald Wins PGA Tour Transitions Championship

A special thanks to the Copperheads' Rick Odioso for sending us this information.

 Luke Donald sank a 6’ 7” putt on the first hole of a four-man sudden death playoff to win a wild Transitions Championship Sunday and regain the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings with his fifth PGA TOUR victory.  Donald had been surpassed in the rankings when Rory McElroy won the Honda Classic two weeks ago, but has answered back with his victory today.

Donald, who shot 66 to make up a three-shot deficit on Sunday was joined in the playoff at 13-under by 2010 Transitions Championship winner Jim Furyk, Robert Garrigus and Sang-Moon Bae.  All four hit the green on the playoff hole, the 18^th, but the other three missed their birdie putts, most noticeably Garrigus from 8’1”.  Garrigus had the best round Sunday of those in the playoff with a 64.

The playoff could have had even more participants as four other golfers were just one shot back – Scott Piercy who fired a 62, the lowest final round score in tournament history, Jeff Overton, Ken Duke and Ernie Els who bogeyed the final two holes after taking the lead at 14 under.

All the scores are here.

FINAL ROUND NOTES: The tournament had its second hole-in-one on Sunday and it came in front of the crowd at the Hooters Owl’s Nest at 17.  Kris Blanks, playing with Piercy in the midst of his 62, did the honors…Furyk missed joining K.J. Choi and Retief Goosen as two-time winners of the event.  He got off to a promising start by holing a bunker shot for eagle at the first while Goosen, his playing partner in the final group double bogeyed.  Battling back pain, Goosen still put together a 75…Other players who did well on Sunday were Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose.  These two members of the OWGR top 20 shot 65 and 66 respectively to finish 10^th and 29^th…Perfect scoring conditions for all four days with minimal wind produced a number of low scores during the week, but the winning score of 13-under was in-line with the past two years.  Gary Woodland won in 2011 with 15-under and Furyk’s win in ’10 came at -13…K.J. Choi has barely retained his lead on the tournament’s all-time money list:

             Player                         Money 

1          K.J. Choi                    2,223,821.00

2          Retief Goosen           2,213,689.21

3          Vijay Singh                1,562,650.83

4          Jim Furyk                  1,505,132.95

5          Carl Pettersson         1,300,746.43

6          Luke Donald              1,213,218.00

7          Mark Calcavecchia    1,146,264.44

8          Sean O'Hair                1,086,500.00

9          Gary Woodland          1,022,755.55

10         John Senden                930,899.82