Berger pips Morikawa as PGA Tour action resumes

From pgatour.com

First, Daniel Berger put on the plaid jacket that has been awarded to each winner at Colonial since the early 1950s. Then he received a belt buckle, befitting Fort Worth’s motto as “Where the West Begins.”

The big cheque followed. As did the Leonard Trophy, the 42-inch, 55-pound piece of hardware that probably requires a remodel of every recipient’s trophy case.

Berger stood on the 18th green at Colonial Country Club on Sunday afternoon, the newest champion of the Charles Schwab Challenge thanks to his one-hole playoff win over Collin Morikawa.

He held the trophy high in the air. A handful of photographers snapped his picture.

Near the clubhouse, a couple of people clapped. Other than that … well, it’s how it will be for a few weeks now. While the taste of victory is always sweet, this one Sunday was definitely a unique flavour.

“A little different for sure,” Berger said, “but in the end, I was holding the trophy – and that’s all that matters to me.”

Unusual circumstances

In this most unusual of weeks for the PGA Tour, Colonial found a winner who somehow managed to stay hot during the three-month long suspension of this season.

Berger’s last three starts before the conoravirus pandemic changed everything?

A T9 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a T5 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a T4 at The Honda Classic. Scoring-wise, he rolled into Cowtown with 24 consecutive rounds under par.

In retrospect, we should’ve seen this coming.

But, given a field with so many big names, including the world’s top-five, it might’ve been easy to overlook a guy ranked 107th in the world and 45th in the FedExCup, and whose last Tour win came three years ago.

Then, a wrist injury that developed in 2018 and eventually put him on a Major Medical Extension entering this season.

Staying hot

But he obviously found something before the break, and he didn’t lose it while back home in Jupiter, Florida.

Entering the day two shots off the lead, he made his move with three birdies in his first eight holes, including both par 3s on the front side. He never wavered from his mindset starting out Sunday.

“I just kept telling myself, why not me today?” Berger said.

Despite the new environment, the testing protocols, the social distancing rules and the lack of fans due to safety and health concerns, Berger never felt really out of sorts this week.

He had rented a house in the neighborhood and could basically walk to the course. His uncle came into town and cooked his breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

He did not venture out anywhere else. If he wasn’t at the course, he was at the house. Nowhere else.

“I thought about the virus very few times this week,” he said.

‘Be safe’

“You know, it’s been such a big part of our lives for the last two months, and I feel like I just tried to do everything I can to be safe, and that’s all you really can do.

“You wash your hands, you don’t touch your face, you wear a mask when you can, you social distance, and obviously we got tested early in the week, so I knew I was healthy before I got here.

“We had the temperature readings before we got on-site every single day. I knew that all of the employees and staff that were here were doing the same thing. I felt completely safe.”

His game was completely safe, too – especially after his one hiccup of the day at the par-4 ninth when he found a greenside bunker and couldn’t get up-and-down.

Bogey-free

On the back nine, Berger was bogey-free while sprinkling in a couple of birdies … including the pivotal one at the par-4 18th with a 10-1/2 foot putt.

Sunday’s win comes against the deepest field in tournament history – and it sends a message that Berger is healthy now and ready to get reclaim some of the territory he had carved out on golf’s landscape before his wrist problems.

“There was so many times today where I could have given it up or let the pressure get to me,” Berger said.

“But I hung in there and I played practically some of the best golf I’ve played the last six years the last five holes today.”

Also read: Stop-start US pro golf season prepares for second chapter