Chez Reavie was treading water for most of the day and lost all but one of his six-stroke lead by the 17th hole.
Then the 37-year-old Reavie sank a 14-foot putt on the next-to-last hole and eventually claimed his first PGA Tour victory in almost 11 years by four shots over local favorite Keegan Bradley and Zack Sucher in the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands https://tpc.com/riverhighlands in Cromwell, Conn.
“It means everything,” said Reavie, whose only other PGA Tour victory came as a rookie in the 2008 RBC Canadian Open. “Keegan played great and I kept missing putts, but I stayed patient and finally made that that one at 17. I just tried to stick to my game plan and hit fairways and greens.
“ … I had wrist surgery (in 2013) and came back gradually. I slowly rebuilt my swing and my foundation from the ground up. I knew my time would come, and here we are.”
Reavie, who tied for third last week in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, took the lead with a 63 in the third round and closed with a 69 to record a winning score of 17-punder 263.
Bradley, the 2012 PGA champion, put the pressure on Reavie with four birdies on the first six holes of the back nine, but made a double-bogey 6 on the 17th hole and wound up at 67, while Sucher, the surprise 36-hole leader who was seeking his first PGA Tour victory, also closed with a 67.
Vaughn Taylor birdied the last five holes to cap at 65 and finished five back in third, while Paul Casey of England also shot 65 and wound up one more down in a tie for fourth with Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who had a 66, and Kevin Tway, who finished at 67.
Abraham Ancer of Mexico chipped in for a birdie on the final hole to post a 63 that was low score of the day and was seven strokes behind in a tie for eighth with 10th-ranked Bryson DeChambeau (68) of Clovis, Jason Day of Australia (69), Brian Harman (66) and Roberto Diaz of Mexico (69).
Eighth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA totaled 69 to tie for 15th, seventh-ranked Justin Thomas tied for 36th after a 70, and defending champion Bubba Watson closed with a 71 to tie for 54th, while top-ranked Brooks Koepka and Francesco Molinari of Italy both shot 71 and to finish in a tie for 57th.
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