For the third straight year, a current or former member of the University of Georgia golf team won the Web.com Tour Stadion Classic at UGA.
This one was a little different, however.
Brendon Todd matched the exploits of 2011 winner Russell Henley and 2012 champion Hudson Swafford, but did not have the considerable home course advantage his predecessors enjoyed.
The UGA course was renovated by Davis Love’s design group just as Todd was completing his college career with the Bulldogs in 2007. Both Henley and Swafford played their entire careers in Athens on Love’s re-designed layout, which featured fairly extensive changes to the putting surfaces.
How Todd scored his victory also did not follow the same route taken by his fellow ex-Bulldogs.
Henley was tied for the lead after 54 holes in 2011 and took control the final day to score a 2-stroke victory. Swafford trailed by five shots heading to the final round last year, but erased that deficit with a course-record 62 to win by one.
Todd, an Atlanta resident since graduating in ’07, won the tournament without having to hit a shot the final day. Heavy rains that saturated the UGA course over the weekend made it unplayable for the scheduled fourth round, reducing the event to 54 holes.
Thanks to a 69 in nasty conditions in Saturday’s third round, Todd held the lead at that stage, and wound up with his second Web.com win when the tournament was called before the first group was scheduled to tee off Sunday.
“Any time you play hard and get the lead in a golf tournament and come out with the win, you’re going to be happy however it happens,” Todd said after he was declared the winner. “I was ready to play today, but after playing in all the water yesterday, it didn’t really seem feasible that we could go out and play a fair round today.”
Todd shared the first round lead at 5-under 66 and was one back after 36 holes following a second round 70. He played the third round attuned to the fact that it might be the final round, and was one of just six players to score in the 60s in damp, chilly weather on a long, soggy golf course.
“My approach today was to treat it like a one-day shootout, because we didn’t know what the weather’s going to have for us,” he said after taking the lead following the third round. “I knew there wouldn’t be anything bad that could come from leading after today. I was basically playing to win it today.”
Todd earned $108,000 from the purse of $600,000 and moved from 37th to 4th on the money list at $143,528. The top 25 on the final list earn spots on the PGA Tour in 2014. But their position among the 50 players who will gain their PGA Tour cards from the new method of qualifying will be determined in four Web.com events played after the end of the regular season.
Since turning pro in 2007, Todd has endured the highs and lows that come with the life of a tour player. After a successful college career which included a national championship in 2005 and several individual honors, Todd was an immediate success as a pro, winning on both the Tar Heel and Hooters Tours within a few months of graduation.
Todd was twice a medalist in the four stages of his first attempt at PGA Tour qualifying, and earned a spot on the Nationwide Tour in his initial effort. His rookie season in 2008 continued that success, as he won a tournament in Utah and placed 19th on the money list to move up to the PGA Tour in ’09.
Like most PGA Tour rookies, Todd struggled to gain a foothold, but midway through the
’09 season he recorded his best finish, tying for 12th in Memphis to earn the biggest check of his young pro career.
That proved to be the last time for quite a while that Todd would enjoy a profitable payday. He did not make a cut the rest of the 2009 season, missing his last 12 in a row.
Back on the Nationwide (now Web.com) Tour in 2010, he made 13 starts and missed 13 cuts. He retained his tour status for 2011 and began the year as he ended the previous one, missing his first three cuts to run his string to 28.
Todd finally ended his missed cut streak with a tie for 18th in Valdosta, made the cut again the next week in Athens and recorded a top-10 finish in Greenville, S.C., to cap a stretch of five straight made cuts. He then missed the cut in 11 of his next 12 starts before closing out the season with four straight made cuts, including his second top 10 of the year.
Through his travails that stretched over three seasons, Todd maintained a positive attitude and closed out 2011 in the best manner possible, capturing medalist honors in the finals of qualifying to earn a return to the PGA Tour in 2012.
Although he missed more cuts (18) than he made (11), Todd enjoyed enough productive weeks – highlighted by a tie for 9th at Pebble Beach — to earn almost $475,000. On the PGA Tour, however, that was only good enough for 150th on the money list, which left him with the bare minimum status on that tour for the 2013 season.
Todd has gotten into only three of the first 19 tournaments on the PGA Tour this year (making the cut in two), and probably won’t get into many more the rest of the season. But with three strong showings in his other four Web.com Tour starts, Todd is in position to earn his PGA Tour card for next year and can afford to skip a Web.com event or two when the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour arises.
Things did not get off to a very promising start for Todd in the Stadion Classic, as he bogeyed two of his first four holes in the opening round. He closed the round with a bogey at the par-4 ninth, but also managed eight birdies for a 66, including six in a 7-hole stretch beginning at the 14th – his fifth hole of the day. The only hole of the seven he failed to birdie was the par-5 17th, the easiest hole among that group.
The second of his early bogeys came at the par-3 13th after hitting his tee shot in the water. But he got up-and-down for bogey and said, “I got going after that. I made everything I looked at from there until the ninth, when I three-putted.
“That was a lot different from what I’ve been feeling the last few weeks.”
Todd had the lead when he completed his round, but wound up sharing first place at the end of the day when Argentina’s Rafael Echenique and South Korea’s Whee Kim matched his score in the afternoon. New Zealand’s Tim Wilkinson, South Africa’s Brendan Pappas and American Michael Putnam were next at 67.
Putnam and Scotland’s Russell Knox shared the second round lead at 135, with Todd and Wilkinson among four players tied at 136. Todd birdied three of his first six holes, but a double bogey at the par-3 16th after his tee shot plugged in a greenside bunker offset birdies at 15 and 17, and he settled for a 70.
Given the weather conditions Saturday and the dismal forecast for Sunday, the third round was played with the knowledge that it would likely be the final round.
While most of the contenders dropped back (the other seven players in the final three groups shot 73 or higher), Todd and Wilkinson became the two main competitors, with Wilkinson holding a two-shot advantage for most of the front nine.
Wilkinson, playing in the next-to-last pairing along with Todd, fell into a tie when he bogeyed the 10th and Todd birdied the par-5 12th. Wilkinson regained his lead with a birdie at the 13th, but birdies at 15 and 17 gave Todd a lead heading to the long par-4 18th, where both closed with bogeys.
“That was a little disappointing,” Todd said of his three-putt bogey to finish. “But I made a couple of nice birdies there coming in to make that not sting as much.”
A birdie putt of some 18 feet at the 17th proved to be the key one for Todd, who birdied all three par 5s the final day.
It wasn’t the first time Todd was the 54-hole leader in Athens. In his first start of 2008 as a Nationwide Tour rookie, Todd led the Athens Regional Foundation Classic at Jennings Mill going to the final round, but shot 80 and dropped into a tie for 25th at 286. He also struggled in the final round the next year at Jennings Mill after being in contention with 18 holes to play.
“It’s a little redemption because I had played a bad final round in ’08,” Todd said after his victory. “It was nice to come back here and get the win.
“I wanted to see how good I could play and maybe build a good lead, but I don’t really acre how I win.”
Nick Rousey, a Monday qualifier, shot a final round 66 and placed 3rd at 207, followed by Brazil’s Alexander Rocha, who holed out for eagle on the 18th for a 68 and 4th place at 208.
Ryuji Imada, the winner of the final PGA Tour event at TPC Sugarloaf in 2008 and a member of Georgia’s 1999 NCAA Championship team, tied for 8th at 210. Kevin Kisner, Todd’s teammate on the Bulldogs’ 2005 championship squad and a Web.com winner earlier this year, tied for 13th at 211.