Did Adam Schenk think he’d be lifting his first PGA Tour trophy this year?
“No, I really didn’t,” Schenk admitted.
Do you blame him? The 33-year-old Schenk, a veteran of eight seasons on the PGA Tour, missed 13 of his last 16 cuts to close the regular season and entered this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship ranked No. 134 in the FedExCup, very much in danger of losing his PGA Tour card for the first time.
His season had been so frustrating that by the time Schenk showed up at Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton, Bermuda, the second-to-last stop of the fall, he’d been using several different putting grips, even resorting to stroking putts with just his right hand.
“I still always had a little bit of the belief,” Schenk continued, “but when I was missing seven of eight cuts in a row, it’s kind of hard to keep the belief alive a little bit.”
He’ll have no problem now, as Schenk, in his 243rd career start on the PGA Tour, is finally a champion. In relentless winds that blew his competitors off course left and right, Schenk recorded only two bogeys in his final 56 holes. He had one on Sunday, as he shot even-par 71, getting up and down at the last to finish at 12 under, one shot clear of runner-up Chandler Phillips.
With co-54-hole leader Braden Thornberry ejecting early en route to a final-round 80, Schenk clung to a narrow lead – or co-lead with Vince Whaley, who birdied four of his first six holes before dropping back – for much of the day. By the time Schenk bogeyed the par-4 15th, missing a 10-footer for par, he still led by a shot over Frankie Capan III. Capan bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 to end his threat, eventually tying for third with Whaley and three others. Phillips birdied the par-5 17th to get back to 11 under, and he’d par the 18th to take the clubhouse lead.
“It’s hard as hell, man,” Phillips said afterward of the 30 mph winds and up to 45 mph gusts. “I love playing in the wind, but this was the most I’ve ever played in.”
Phillips needed help, but Schenk never gave it.
He hit back-to-back long-irons on the par-5 17th, his second shot, a layup, barely getting 6 feet in the air. Then he wedged to 5 feet, and though he lipped out the birdie putt, Schenk wouldn’t complain about par on a hole that saw 18 bogeys or worse on Sunday. At the par-4 finishing hole, Schenk flew the green with his approach from the fairway, but he took putter from the fairway cut and lagged it to 5 feet, this time finding the bottom of the cup.
For Schenk, who had spent an hour Saturday night hitting short putts on his hotel-room carpet, it was immediate relief.
“Relief that it was so difficult ... relief that it’s over with,” Schenk said, “and to finally get it done because it just seems like at some point or another, I’ve been so close so many times, eventually you get it done or you don’t, and I’m only going to have so many more of these opportunities, especially if I would have lost in a four-, five-man playoff and still end up having to go to Q-School. Like that was just a massive putt for me to make, a massive putt to have go in.”
Before Sunday, Schenk hadn’t won anywhere since the 2017 Lincoln Land Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. He graduated to the PGA Tour that year, then needed the KFT Finals to keep his PGA Tour card following his rookie season. But Schenk has now rattled off seven straight seasons finishing inside the fully-exempt cutoff in the FedExCup. Of course, Sunday’s victory means Schenk need not worry about the points list, at least in terms of keeping his job, for two additional years.
“It’s life changing I get two more years on the PGA Tour,” Schenk added. “I feel like I’m playing the best golf of my life that I ever played.”
Phillips will rise from No. 139 to No. 92 in points, meaning he’s likely locked up his full card for next year. Whaley, Alex Smalley and Max McGreevy, all T-3, can boast the same; McGreevy entered the week No. 100 and is now No. 89. Takumi Kanaya, the other T-3, will enter next week’s RSM Classic at No. 99 while Capan is No. 124, a spot inside the top-125 cutoff for conditional status.
“I’m happy just to be inside the top 100 now,” Phillips said. “I know I’ve got one week left, but at least I’m not going into next week in the same position I was this week, looking at it like, God, I’ve got to win to have a job out here.”
No one, however, was happier than Schenk.
“I’m going to have a hangover tomorrow,” Schenk said, “and I don’t drink that much.”