JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Rocco Mediate missed a 4-foot par putt for victory, then made it from nearly the same distance on the second playoff hole Sunday to beat Bob Estes and win the Constellation Furyk & Friends on the PGA Tour. Champions.
Mediate, who finished with a 7-under 71 at Timuquana Country Club, won for the first time in five years and captured his fifth title on the 50-and-over circuit.
“It’s been forever,” Mediate said. “I struggled a lot. This week has been good for the most part, today at times it wasn’t good. But it’s very satisfying to have another one. Amazing for me. Lots of good things happened.
It was harder work than he wanted.
Mediate was three shots ahead with four holes to play, and two holes later he was tied. His wedge toward the par-5 15th went down a left slope and led to a bogey, while Estes boldly headed to the water-protected green and made birdie.
“I hit the 3-wood perfectly, and when Rocco made a bogey all of a sudden, play started again,” Estes said.
Then Estes made a draw around the tall pines to 5 feet to make birdie tie for the lead. Mediate responded with a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th and was at the front of the green on the par-4 closing hole. But his long putt on the slope was 4 feet away and he missed.
“Hit it exactly like I wanted,” Mediate said. “That’s how it happens.”
Estes was up and down for a par and a 71, and they both finished at 12-under 204.
Mediate, after missing a short putt for the win, suddenly faced a 10-foot par at the 18th in the playoff just to keep going after Estes made an 18-foot par. Mediate nailed that one, then made his 4-foot par on the second extra hole after Estes missed from 15 feet.
Mediate, 61, has now won PGA Tour-sanctioned events in his 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. His first victory was the 1991 Doral-Ryder Open in a playoff against Curtis Strange.
“I started this year and said, ‘I’d like to win at 60.’ And I’ll be damned,” Mediate said.
Estes was seeking his first PGA Tour championship title.
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