Shriners Hospitals for Children Open: Pampling Wins a Stunner

The world of professional golf is one of the few places on Earth where people can't wait to get older. We're not talking turning 16 to get your driver's license or 21 to get into bars – that's more coming of age than getting older. But after athletes' in other sports have long since retired, the Champions-nee-Senior Tour awaits aging golfers with gobs and gobs of riches.

The trouble for many of those aging golfers is, what to do in the years, sometimes more than 10, until becoming eligible upon turning 50. For many, it's a humbling, embarrassing limp before becoming relevant again.

Which brings us to Rod Pampling, a 47-year-old Australian who just figured out what to do with the next three years of his life: play on the PGA Tour.

Pampling stunningly won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on Sunday, calmly drilling a 32-foot putt on the 18th hole to close out 26-year-old stud Brooks Koepka and 37-year-old former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover.

One of the amazing things about Pampling's win is, he barely could win when he was in his prime – only twice, in fact, in 341 career starts before beginning the week at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.

Now, at the very least, Pampling will play out this season on tour, then get a two-year exemption for his win. It's quite the turnaround for the veteran, who had won not even $600,000 the past four years on tour combined. Yes, that's a lot of money for you and me, but for a golfer? That's a good week. And when you are paying your own expenses while traveling half the year, and you have a family, well, it's really not a lot of cash.

Pampling needed to return to the Web.com Tour a couple of months back just to keep his card. Because in 18 PGA events last season, he made only nine cuts with zero top-25s. That's tough sledding.

The two previous tournaments that Pampling had won were the 2004 International – not even a stroke play event – and the 2006 Arnold Palmer Invitational. After completing his win on Sunday, Pampling said that the victory at Bay Hill more than a decade ago remains his signature moment in golf. But as often is the case, what happens in Vegas can be life-altering.

It's interesting to see how Pampling achieved his 20-under score on the par-71 TPC Summerlin track. He was first in strokes gained tee-to-green and around the green, and second in strokes gained approach the green. More and more we are seeing that the path to the PGA winner's circle does not hinge on what happens in the tee box or the green but what lies in between.

As we often say in this space, if you putt lights-out, that can cure all that ails and decide tournaments. But Pampling was 39th in strokes gained putting, Koepka was ninth and Glover was 10th. None of the next six on the leaderboard even finished in the top-20 in putting. Unless we're talking the likes of Augusta, putting hasn't been deciding golf tournaments as much as we may have thought.

Drive for show? Sure, that still applies. Putt for dough? Not so much.

We'll see if that maxim holds true on the Champions Tour. In three years.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Brooks Koepka

Koepka began the final round tied with Pampling. He is 22nd in the world, a birdie and eagle machine and, really, should have won this tournament. He shot 4-under 67 and had only one bogey, but Pampling on this day was simply better, however hard that is to fathom. It's another piece of evidence of just how deep the tour is. Koepka has more than a bit of Dustin Johnson in him – including the fact that nothing seems to bother him, even losing – so he should continue to rise in the OWGR, perhaps into the top 15 during 2017. And with so many par-breakers on his ledger, Koepka will generally be a terrific DraftKings option on the easier courses.

Lucas Glover

On the one hand, Glover had the lead on the back nine and couldn't hang on, closing with a 2-under for solo third. But this was his second straight top-5, coming off a T5 at the Sanderson Farms, and even though the Mississippi tour stop was opposite field, the veteran had never done that before in successive weeks. So what to make of Glover, who has largely languished since his U.S. Open win in 2009? It's hard to envision a career renaissance, so we'll treat this as an aberration and expect Glover to find his rightful place when fields get meatier. He won't be playing this week at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba.

Aaron Wise

Wise tied for 10th in Vegas and thus will be in the field at Mayakoba. When you check out Wise's page on the PGA Tour website, the 21-year-old South Africa native doesn't have a PGA "wrapper" or even one from the Web.com Tour. Rather, it says "Mackenzie Tour," the Canadian-based outfit that is a rung below the WCT. And even there Wise has played only seven events – however, he won two of them. So who is Aaron Wise and where did he come from? Well, he was the 2016 NCAA individual champion out of Oregon and he's 21. He got a sponsor's invite into the John Deere over the summer and tied for 16th. He got two more to start this season at the Safeway and Sanderson but missed the cut. Just getting all these invites means tournaments want this guy. You can only get seven in a season, however, so Wise will need more efforts like this past week. Again, he's playing against weaker PGA Tour fields right now and still missed two cuts. But he's a fun guy to track and consider. Don't go overboard.

Russell Henley

Henley began Sunday tied for fourth after a lights-out 63 on Saturday. But he promptly returned to being Russell Henley on Sunday, shooting a 1-over 72 to plummet to T24. Henley fans may feel good about following up a T14 in Mississippi with another top-25, and we guess they should. But he's had too many fits and starts the past couple of years for us to get too excited over his prospects. For those who disagree, you'll have to wait. He's not in the OHL field.

Pat Perez

Always a strong player on courses out West, Perez fashioned four rounds in the 60s to tie for seventh. That earned him a tidy $205,700 and 85 FedEx Cup points, taking a big chunk out of the requirements to fulfill his major medical extension. Perez now needs either $427,367 or 314.577 points over 13 tournaments to retain his card. That quest continues this week at Mayakoba, which, for the curious, is on the Eastern side of Mexico. Perez has had mixed results there, MC-69-13 the past three years.

Graeme McDowell

McDowell is the defending OHL champion and he heads there this week as unlikely to win as he was last year. The veteran missed the cut in Vegas and now sits 81st in the world. To be fair, his previous two starts netted a T4 at the British Masters and a T15 at the Alfred Dunhill on the European Tour. Consider McDowell when filling out your DraftKings roster this week, if you must. We'll pass.

Ryo Ishikawa

Ishikawa plays great on the Japan Tour! Ishikawa plays great at the CIMB Classic! Ishikawa flops in Vegas! Sigh. He sure fooled us, thinking that a return from a back injury combined with pretty darn good results would translate into success at TPC Summerlin, where he's had success. Ishikawa flamed out with a Friday trunk-slam. He's in the OHL field, if you're feeling lucky.

Patton Kizzire

Kizzire is Exhibit A of the perils of trying to play fantasy golf. After a runner-up at the season-opening Safeway, the second-year tour player was headed to the Sanderson Farms and the Shriners, where he had two top-4s last year. Strong form? Check! Great course history? Check. So Kizzire promptly misses the cut at both venues. How did Kizzire do at Mayakoba last year? It doesn't matter; he's sitting out this week.

Kevin Na

We read somewhere that Na was called Mr. Las Vegas. He lives there, he's had success at Summerlin. After a 68-75, Na had the weekend off. Na is surely a more surefire golfer than some of the others mentioned above. Maybe we can chalk this up to playing the two previous weeks in Asia (last year, the Shriners was played before the Asia tour stops). It was just an unfortunate break for a golfer who was probably banking on the Shriners for a good week (T2 last year).