Welcome to the Monday Finish where we salute one win drought being broken and commiserate with another one that just got a little longer and more heartbreaking. Here’s five observations from the Quicken Loans National where Kyle Stanley outlasted Charles Howell III in a sudden death playoff after both men made a Sunday charge. 1. When Kyle Stanley opened his Sunday with a bogey you’d be hard pressed to believe he would be the man holding the trophy at the end of the day. While he’d fashioned a nice little season thus far with four top-10s including a T4 at THE PLAYERS and T6 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Stanley had been out of the winner’s circle for over five years. When he claimed the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open he looked set to be a young star but it did not work out that way. Sharing tine on the web.com Tour came soon after and he’d been without a top-10 on TOUR for two years before this season. But he was able to beat out some nerves down the stretch, finding five birdies and then most notably making a clutch up and down for par on the 17th hole Sunday. He was clearly emotional after his journey back. 2. The youth brigade rolls on. Stanley, at 29, makes it 20 wins this season for players in their 20s. Golf used to be about biding your time in your 20s, learning the ropes (unless your name was Tiger Woods) and gaining the experience necessary to surge ahead in your 30s – the prime years. 20 is well and truly the new 30. There is no fear amongst the youth on the TOUR. They see each other win and are fired up to replicate. It’s great to see such depth… the future of the game is certainly bright. 3. It was interesting to see TPC Potomac take over as the toughest test (in relation to par) this season. The winning score of 7-under becomes the highest winning mark of the season and just the second in single digits under par after Sergio Garcia’s 9-under at the Masters. Just two weeks after the usually brutal U.S. Open was won at 16-under we saw a return to pars being crucial. Just 25 players ended the week under par with super hard greens and tight driving lines and tough rough a real feature. 4. Charles Howell III now has 294 starts since his last win at the 2007 Genesis Open. He has had 47 top-10s in that span and has banked $18,917,871.60. On this occasion, he was returning from a nine-week injury layoff (rib) and appeared set for the drought breaking win when he rolled in an eagle on the drivable par-4 14th hole. But his last hole birdie look just slid by and when his par attempt on the first hole of sudden death on the same green did the same Stanley shut the door on him. Of course his relative success means the situation is not too heartbreaking – but you still have to feel for him. Particularly as this Augusta born 28-year-old hasn’t played the Masters since 2012, and would have booked a return with a win. 5. Howell III did however book a place at the upcoming Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on July 20-23. It will be his first time back since 2012. As the first PGA TOUR event of the Open Qualifying Series, the Quicken Loans determined Open Championship berths for the top four players finishing in the top 12 who weren’t otherwise exempt. Winner Stanley and Howell III were joined by Scotland’s Martin Laird and Sung Kang, who got the nod out of an eight-way tie for fifth thanks to his superior world ranking. The hard luck story was certainly Spencer Levin. He could have booked a spot if his eight-foot par putt on 18 had of gone down. Instead it horseshoed out dramatically for a costly bogey. Levin will get another chance at next week’s Greenbrier Classic. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kyle Stanley moved from 38th to 14th in the FedExCup standings, ranking inside the top-15 in the standings for the 24th week in his career. This marked the first time Stanley has ranked inside the top-15 of the FedExCup standings since week #28 of the 2012 PGA TOUR season. Stanley finished 31st that year, narrowly missing the TOUR Championship. He has yet to make it to Atlanta in his career. 2. Stanley becomes the fifth player to rank first in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and go on to win this season. He outperformed the field by +1.467 strokes per round. Stanley gained strokes on 43 of 56 tee shots this week. Stanley’s SG: Off-the-Tee performance was his third best performance in an event of his career and the second best by a winner on TOUR this season behind Justin Thomas at the Sony Open. The winner ranked tied third in Driving Accuracy hitting 71.4% of his fairways compared to the field average of 56.8%. Stanley led the field for Greens in Regulation for the fourth time in his career and the second time in his last three events on TOUR. Stanley has hit 157 of 216 GIR’s (72.7%) in his last three starts. 3. Stanley was able to overcome an average putting performance to win. He ranked 52nd in Strokes Gained: Putting losing -0.276 strokes per round to the field. It marks just the second time this season a player has lost strokes in SG: Putting and gone on to win (Jason Dufner – the Memorial). 4. Rickie Fowler’s nine birdies in the final round represented a career high, and his T3 finish was his seventh top-10 finish of the season, including his win at The Honda Classic. It was also his third top-five finish in his last four starts. 5. Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Curtis Luck finished in an eight-way tie for fifth, marking his first top-10 finish in six professional starts on TOUR. It gets him into next week’s Greenbrier Classic. Now with 112 Non-Member points Luck is chasing 319 points to score special temporary membership but more likely now sits on the cusp of getting a start in the web.com Tour playoffs later this season. He needs to beat the 200th ranked player in the FedExCup to get a start. He currently would be ranked 170th with seven weeks left. Top Three Videos 1. How would you react if your military father showed up on the 18th green with Rickie Fowler? 2. Martin Laird looked stuffed after a wayward drive on the 14th. But you should never give up … 3. Keegan Bradley with the walk off eagle. He literally walks off!
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