Sometimes all you need to win a golf tournament is a par. That’s what worked for Retief Goosen on Sunday in winning the second annual Galleri Classic during a soggy final round at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.
Fighting just for a good finish after a sluggish start to his final round, Goosen turned into the last man standing on a day when he had been a forgotten figure for much of the rainy final 18 holes.
With Steven Alker putting together a stunning bogey-bogey finish, Goosen survived hitting his approach into the lake on the par-5 18th hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course by rolling in an eight-foot par putt. Alker, still with a chance to win, also hit into the lake in front of the island green with his second shot but failed to get up and down.
“I wouldn’t call it thrilling.” Goosen laughed about the frenetic finish. “I mean, it was more of a disaster for me and Stevie to get to the last hole and the last couple of holes.”
The wild finish allowed Goosen to post a bogey-free 3-under 69 Sunday for a three-day total of 13-under 203. Alker’s 70 dropped him to 12-under for the week, tied with Alex Cejka and overnight leader Ricardo Gonzalez for second place. It also allowed Goosen to rally from three shots back with nine holes to play.
“I was just trying to hang in there and say to myself, you know what, let’s just play solid and at least get a top-5 or something,” said Goosen, who hit just 10 greens in regulation on the day but was eight for eight scrambling. “Then suddenly everybody started sort of coming back and that’s when, after I made the birdie on 15, I was like I have a chance to win this.”
Cejka, at one time tied at 14-under with Alker and Gonzalez, finished with a 70 that included bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes. Gonzalez struggled with all parts of his game on the back nine from errant drives to key missed putts but still posted a 71 with two birdies and three bogeys in his final six holes.
“I kind of hit the shots I wanted and went with them,” Alker said of the closing holes. “Yeah, just putting wasn’t — just didn’t make some putts I should have, the three-putt on 17 there. So felt fine, my long game felt good, just didn’t get it done.”
The crowd in the grandstands surrounding the 18th green gave a subdued reaction as Goosen sank the winning putt, not because they weren’t happy for him, but they were still trying to do the math of exactly what happened.
“I think he just won” one spectator said with the man standing next to him saying “Nope, it’s a playoff.”
But Goosen was the winner as he politely doffed his cap to the crowd before Rodriguez and Alker finished the hole.
Alker made seven straight pars to start his back nine and was tied for the lead at various points with Cejka, Gonzalez and defending champion David Toms. But as the other golfers fell back, Alker seemed in control of the tournament.
A birdie by Goosen on the 15th brought him to within one shot of the lead. Alker then three-putted the par-3 17th for a bogey, rolling a 30-foot putt downhill 10 feet past the cup and missing the putt coming back. Goosen managed to make a short, twisting putt on the hole for a par after finding a bunker off the tee.
“That little four-foot slider or whatever I had there too wasn’t an easy putt,” Goosen said of the par save. “Going down 18, I just thought birdie, birdie definitely to have a chance to win or in a playoff.”
Both golfers drove into the light rough to the right of the fairway, then hit approach shots into the water on the famed 18th with its island green. Goosen’s 4-iron shot from 231 yards to the flag never came close to hitting the green.
“I just completely thinned it,” Goosen said.
But Alker then chose to go for the green in two rather than lay up and reach the green in three. Alker’s 5-iron barely cleared the lake and bounced back into the water.
“It was just a really good solid 5-iron. I had a super lie, could almost hit driver off the lie in the semi-rough there, that’s how good the lie was,” Alker said. “If I hit rescue, then I flush it and it’s gone through the green. So just got a little high on the face, a little grassy. It got over. I kind of flew the front, but just got maybe a little unlucky.”
Goosen admitted he was surprised that Alker went for the green in two, not even watching Alker’s second shot and not knowing the ball had gone in the lake until he reached his own fourth shot.
Alker hit a poor chip from the front of the island green and two-putted from 30 feet for a bogey. Goosen managed a strong pitch shot to eight feet, then rolled in the putt for a par to close out Alker.
For Goosen, the former two-time U.S. Open champion on the regular tour, Sunday was his third PGA Champions Tour title and his first in two years. But the day had a frustrating feel to it as he grinded for pars in the middle of the round as the heaviest rain of the weekend hit the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Goosen said the rain made the holes play longer, but he was still missing birdie chances.
“It rained hard but there wasn’t any wind which makes it a little easier,” Goosen said. “Yesterday a few showers, you’re walking like this (leaning forward). At least it was just coming straight down. I think it was a little bit easier playing in the rain today because there was no wind.”