David Lingmerth Stays Patient For First PGA Tour Win
- Dan Hauser
- 8 Jun, 2015
At times late in the day Sunday, you had to wonder if David Lingmerth was thinking “what do I have to do to win this thing?”
He fired a 3-under 69 and found himself in a tie in the clubhouse with Justin Rose, who was standing on the 18th tee. His chances of winning in regulation seemed to look even better when Rose shanked his 2nd shot out the fairway bunker on 18, hitting a spectator. Despite being 55 yards out and needed a par to even force a playoff, somehow Rose managed to get up and down and send it to extras.
Then on the first playoff hole, Lingmerth appeared to have the advantage when he was looking at a 10-footer for par and what he thought the win, while Rose was 20 feet out. Rose hit a winding putt that somehow managed to drop on the right side and all of a sudden that 10 footer was just to extend the playoff.
”I was thinking to myself that I’d probably have a putt to win the tournament right there,” he said. ”And then he drops it in … and this big, huge roar. Crazy feeling. So I took a few moments just to let the crowd and myself calm down because I knew how big that next putt was going to be. I’ve been in a few playoffs. You win some, you lose some. But I didn’t feel that it was my turn to lose this time. I was telling myself that I was going to make that putt.”
He went on to make the putt and extend the playoff. This continued for 2 more holes and when Lingmerth was finally shaking tournament host Jack Nicklaus’ hand after winning on the third playoff hole, he had survived the longest playoff in tournament history for his first PGA Tour win.
“Playoffs are exciting and my heart was beating, but I think I handled it pretty well,” Lingmerth said
As if your first PGA Tour win isn’t special enough, Lingmerth’s has a little more significance to it than normal. Yesterday was both his father’s birthday and his parents anniversary. That, in addition to the three year exemption as well as invites to the PGA Championship, Masters, and WGC events make it one special day.
The one thing Lingmerth wasn’t guaranteed with the win yesterday was a spot in the U.S. Open in two weeks. Despite all the golf he played yesterday he was up early this morning for a 36-hole sectional qualifier.
“We kind of joked about it a little bit, me and my caddie all day, about the qualifying tomorrow,” Lingmerth said yesterday. “And he was saying, why do we have to play extra holes, we’re going to play 36 tomorrow.”
Lingmerth failed to advance out of his qualifier today in Columbus, Despite that, he can now call himself a winner on the PGA Tour, and nobody can take that away from him.
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
