Sentry TOC: Memorable moments

For the second week in a row, Gary Player came from seven shots back in the final round to win. The previous week he had rallied to win his third Masters title. In the TOC at Rancho La Costa, Calif., Player’s closing 67 and a 79 by third-round leader Seve Ballesteros resulted in a win for the South African.

You’ve got company, Ben. Tiger Woods tied Ben Hogan on the all-time PGA Tour win-streak list with his fifth consecutive victory, but it didn’t come easy. Woods made a 40-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to beat Ernie Els.

Arnold Palmer birdied the final hole to edge Billy Casper by one shot and win his first TOC. With five wins already in ’62, Palmer had his eye on the upcoming U.S. Open, where he would be the hometown hero. “I want that one real bad,” he said. Alas, misfortune and misery lay ahead for Arnie at Oakmont, to say nothing of what Casper would have in store for him four years in the future.

With Jordan Spieth coming off a five-win season and a FedEx Cup championship, the golf world wanted to see what he could do for an encore. All he did was shoot the second-lowest score in the history of the TOC, a 30-under 262, and win by a whopping eight shots.

Arnold Palmer successfully defended his TOC title by defeating Gay Brewer, 69 to 73, in an 18-hole playoff. It was Brewer’s second 18-hole playoff loss in a week. The first one probably hurt a little more, though – Brewer lost to Jack Nicklaus in the Masters.

Those who think Calvin Peete was underappreciated should find this fact interesting: Of his 12 PGA Tour wins, 11 were decided by multiple strokes. His biggest margin was seven shots, but it’s hard to top the dominance he exhibited in the 1986 TOC, where he lopped six shots off the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record, to 267, and won by six. Oh, and he was 42 at the time.

Remember when Steve Elkington used to let his clubs do his tweeting? Actually, there was no such thing as Twitter in 1995, when Elk birdied the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to defeat Bruce Lietzke in the Mercedes Championships. John Huston, who led by four after 54 holes, struggled to a 77 that included a downhill putt that rolled off the seventh green and into a lake. Elk would go on to win his only major, the PGA Championship, later that year.

With five holes to play this looked like anything but a classic, as Justin Thomas was cruising with a five-shot lead. But Hideki Matsuyama cut the deficit to one going to the 17th hole. Thomas responded with the shot of the tournament, an 8-iron from 214 yards to 3 feet. Thomas made the birdie putt and Matsuyama three-putted for bogey, and it was all over but the trophy presentation. Thomas would go on to win four more times in 2017, including the PGA Championship, collect both the PGA and PGA Tour Player of the Year awards and become the FedExCup champion.