JERSEY CITY, N.J. – It took him 34 years, or as he put it, “all my existence,” but Chesson Hadley finally made a hole-in-one on Sunday, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to do it.
“Everybody always gives me so much crap about it,” he said during his pre-tournament interview ahead of the Northern Trust. “It’s not like I’m not good enough to make a one or wasn’t good enough to make a one. It just wasn’t my time yet, but I did it in a PGA Tour event on the very last round when I most needed something, and I guess not many of them could probably say that. So that was pretty cool.”
Indeed, it was. Hadley aced the par-3 16th at Sedgefield Country Club during the final round of the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. It sparked a first-nine 29 and nifty 62 and when Justin Rose made bogey at the last, Hadley edged him by 1.2 FedEx Cup points to finish No. 125 in the regular-season FedEx Cup point standings. It meant he kept his card and qualified for the Northern Trust, the first of the three playoff events, which begins Thursday at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey.
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“The whole day was kind of magical from the start, from the hole-in-one to the finish,” Hadley said. “I’m very blessed to be here right now, that’s for sure.”
The Georgia Tech alum was a rambling, blubbering wreck in his post-round interview conducted by CBS’s Amanda Balionis. With his fate still hanging in doubt – he was No. 126 at the time – Hadley choked up and fought back tears as he showed viewers how much he loves his job. Asked about his emotional interview and turning on the water works, Hadley said he didn’t cry when he blew a four-stroke lead earlier in the summer at the Palmetto Classic. That was a bittersweet moment, but the last time he wept at a golf tournament he figured was during junior golf.
“That’s not true. When I earned my card back in ’17, I remember getting emotional in New York after I won, but I tapped in, and then I kind of went off to the side and like – I mean, the round was over, but I knew I’d locked my card up and I was going back there,” he said. “So, I was emotional then.”
The always affable Hadley brought moments of levity to his press conference, especially when he reversed roles and began asking a reporter? “What did you think of my crying?” he asked. “What about the crying specifically? Was I a good crier? Could I be better? How can I get better at it since you’re asking about it? I’m messing with you. I’m totally hijacking you.”
Hadley was driving him home to Raleigh, N.C., when he was informed he had officially secured the last spot in the FedEd Cup playoffs and would be fully exempt for next season. He squealed with glee that he could cancel his travel plans for Boise, Idaho, and the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. To hear Hadley tell it, Kevin Kisner, who survived a six-man playoff, wasn’t the only winner at the Wyndham Championship.
“I felt like I beat Kevin, honestly,” he said. “I felt like I won the golf tournament.”
Hadley celebrated with some good wine he’d been saving for a special occasion and had a couple of days to enjoy a big sigh of relief. Now, it’s back to the grindstone to see if he can extend his off-season another week with an equally strong performance. He’ll need one to bump into the top 70, and advance to play next week at the BMW Championship.
“I’m playing with house money. I’m on credit at the casino, and I can just kind of let it go,” he said. “I think I need to set a new goal to – I probably need to figure out exactly what I need to finish to get inside the top 70, so I need to set a new goal, figure out kind of where I need to finish, and just kind of look at the leaderboards and kind of get motivated and figure out a way to get to that number and obviously try and win the golf tournament.
“I feel like, when my back’s against the wall, I’ve done pretty well…you’ve got to tap into a little bit of a reserve or something that you have in there that you might not necessarily tap into all the time.”