Tim O’Neal, the Savannah golfer who gained respect in the golf world as a grinder on mini-tours since turning professional in 1997, won the biggest tournament of his PGA Champion’s Tour career on Sunday by shooting 65 in the final round to win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Virginia.
It was O’Neal’s 50th Champion’s Tour start52, Johnson High School graduate who went on to play at Jackson State University in Mississippi, where he was a three-time All-American. He made two birdies on the final three holes – sinking wedge shots to within 10 feet and draining putts under significant pressure as he finished the tournament at 13 under par. O’Neal shot 71-67-65—203 to beat runner-up Ricardo Gonzalez by two strokes.
The victory was well received as his competitors know all the hard work and long journey O’Neal undertook to reach the pinnacle of his career. He had 16 collegiate victories at Jackson State. At the PGA qualifying school in 2000, O’Neal needed a bogey on his final hole to earn his PGA Tour card, but it took a triple to miss. But he never backed down and continued to work on his game.
O’Neal has seven victories in mini-tour events with three victories on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica, in addition to victories on the Golden Bear Tour, EPD Tour and Alps Tour.
He won the Savannah City Amateur title three times – winning the title three years in a row from 1994 to 1996, and he won the Georgia Amateur title in 1997. He played in his first PGA event in 2015, when he qualified for the US Open. at Chambers Bay in Washington.
After the victory, O’Neal was interviewed by John Cook, the former PGA Tour star who now works for Golf Channel.
“I don’t know what to think, it’s been a long season – for me to do it when I had to do it means a lot,” an emotional O’Neal told Cook during the interview. “I guess it was just meant to happen. I’ve been playing well the last few weeks, but I just gave up too many shots. The last 2 days have been really solid and it only takes a week – and it’s is my week.
The decisive victory was a long time coming. Cook mentioned playing his final round of competition with O’Neal and noted that he thought O’Neal was going to get a decisive victory after seeing him play up close.
“I was just playing one shot at a time, I know it’s cliché, but I didn’t look at the scoreboard. I kept telling myself to keep hitting the greens and giving myself birdie tunes,” said O’Neal, who won $700,000 with the win. “And when I had long birdie putts, I was able to fall behind and not have a lot of stress, so it was really helpful to be able to do that.”
Cook noted that O’Neal seemed focused on slowing things down and maintaining a rhythm, and O’Neal said that was the key to his victory.
“I tried to walk slower, do everything a lot slower,” O’Neal said. “I can go fast sometimes and this week I was really focused on what I was trying to do and it turned out to be a good week.”
With this victory, O’Neal moved from 55th to 13th place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings. He is scheduled to compete in the Simmons Bank Championship next week in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at [email protected]. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article was originally published on Savannah Morning News: Savannah’s Tim O’Neal earns decisive victory on PGA Champions Tour
