Winning on the PGA Tour is what Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey dreamed about when he held a factory job making hot water tanks.
Gainey never imagined his first win would unfold the way it did Sunday in Georgia.
Seven shots behind going into the final round of the McGladrey Classic, Gainey had a long putt on No. 18 for a 59. After he tapped in for a 60, he wait two hours while David Toms, Jim Furyk and tournament host Davis Love III tried to catch him.
None of them could.
Gainey shot the lowest round on the PGA Tour this year, broke the course record at Sea Island, on St. Simons Island, Ga., and took a one-shot win over Toms.
“Oh, man,” Gainey said. “I tell you, you’re out here on the PGA Tour. You’re playing with the best players in the world. …Now I can sit here and say I’ve won the McGladrey Classic here at Sea Island, and I’m very proud to be in this tournament and very proud to win. And wow, it’s been a whirlwind day.
“I didn’t know having 24 putts and shooting 60 would be like this,” he said. “So I’m pretty stoked about it.”
Furyk was subdued.
He went 55 holes without a bogey, a streak that ended on the 18th when he needed a birdie to force a playoff. From the fairway, Furyk pushed an 8-iron right of the green and had to settle for a 69.
“I think what I’m most disappointed about is when it came down the stretch, hitting the ball pretty much as good as I can, I made really, really poor swings at 17 and 18 with a 7-iron and 8-iron,” Furyk said. “So to play those two holes and not get one good look at it for birdie was disappointing.”
Love’s hopes of winning in front of the home crowd — he has lived at Sea Island since he was 14 — ended with a tee shot into the water for double bogey on the 16th.
The 37-year-old Gainey finished at 16-under 264 and won $720,000. He be in Tournament of Champions in January in Hawaii, and he is exempt on tour through the 2014 season.
ELSEWHERE
Norway’s Suzann Pettersen defeated Scotland’s Catriona Matthew with a 5-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to win the HanaBank Championship in Incheon, South Korea. … Bo Van Pelt closed with a 4-under 68 for a two-shot win over fellow American Jason Dufner in the European PGA Tour’s Perth International in Australia. … Russell Henley shot a 5-under 65 and won the Web.com Tour’s Jacksonville (Fla.) Open by beating B.J. Staten in a playoff. Up this week is the tour championship in McKinney, Texas, near Dallas, for the top 60 on the money list. That includes Olympia’s Andres Gonzales (No. 12) and University Place’s Michael Putnam (No. 30). The top 25 advance to the 2013 PGA Tour.
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