Stallings leaves it late to win
It wasn’t pretty, but Scott Stallings produced the goods when it mattered to secure the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday.
The American carded a four-under-par 68 at Torrey Pines for a nine-under-par total of 279 to finish one shot ahead of Jason Day, Pat Perez, Marc Leishman, KJ Choi and Graham Delae.
Starting the day three strokes behind overnight leader Gary Woodland, Stallings produced seven birdies – including one on the par-five 18th – to go with three bogeys as he landed his third PGA Tour title and walked away with the winner’s cheque of $1.098 million.
“It’s pretty cool,” the 28-year-old said. “It hasn’t quite set in yet but it’s nice to kind of hold up coming down the stretch.
“I drove it very poorly today. I hit some good ones coming down the stretch but hit a really bad drive at 17 and managed to make a really good par.”
Woodland was tied for the lead with three holes to play and he had a chance to force a play-off, but a double-bogey at the 17th ended his chances and he eventually finished with a two-over 74.
“This will be hard to swallow,” said Woodland, who was tied for 10th with South Africa’s Trevor Immelman, South Korea’s Noh Seung-Yul, Scotland’s Russell Knox, Canadian Brad Fritsch and Justin Thomas.
“I felt like I kind of gave one (PGA Tour win) away today. Drove it well early and just didn’t get anything out of it. I scrambled well late and unfortunately made a bad swing on 17.
“But all in all I’m playing really well. I can take a lot from this week. Scott Stallings played a phenomenal round today. Congrats to him, that’s awesome.”
South Korean KJ Choi had a very good final day as he posted a 66 to finish tied second along with Day (68), Delaet (68), Perez (70) and Leishman (71).
Will MacKenzie, Ryo Ishikawa and Charley Hoffman were another shot off the pace.
It wasn’t quite the final day that organisers had expected after world number one Tiger Woods missed the cut on Friday evening while local hero Phil Mickelson pulled out due to a back injury.
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