There was a three-ball on Sunday containing the top three players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings and they had the task of overhauling the leading pair of Robert Karlsson and Charlie Wi.
They set about their task on the final day of the Boeing Classic as they reeled in their charges to finish out with a late birdie run from defending champion Stephen Ames clinching victory on -11 while his travelling partners Els and Alker would tie with Karlsson for a tie in second spot on -10.
Darren Clarke had his best round of the week and his two-under saw him finish off on level par and tied for 44th position.
Karlsson had a strong lead overnight from Wi but the pair went on to have matching three-over-par final rounds as the chasing pack were charging. A damaging front nine for the heretofore blemish-free Swede saw a run of four bogeys from the third hole that was compounded with another on the par-5 eighth hole.
He rallied with back-to-back birdies on his final two holes of the week but would come up just one stroke shy of the victor, Ames after his five-under final day. Four under rounds for Alker and Els would see them join Karlsson in second spot with Els carding seven birdies on his final day challenge.
“Obviously very special. I think any win is special at this stage of our careers,” remarked Ames after securing an unlikely victory. “Today was unexpected because I was seven back going into the day and I didn’t expect everybody else to falter like they did coming in. That’s golf, that does happen, and I took advantage of it and made it happen. It was a nice win.”
Asked if he could have expected this outcome at the beginning of Sunday he commented, “No, absolutely not. At that stage when you’re seven back and you’re going I guess the next goal probably was to try and finish top-5. Obviously, the company that I was keeping with today, Ernie and Steven Alker, obviously renowned winners on the Tour this year and last year. I think it was just going to be a good battle. It ended up being my group the ones that we were playing against. It was unfortunate Ernie was in the (indiscernible) on 17, but at this time it was a gift for me.”
Twice winner of the Boeing Classic and one of four Golf Hall of Famers in this week’s field, Bernhard Langer, who turns 67 later this month went to finish strong with a birdie-eagle final two holes to sneak inside the top ten on six-under-par for the week. Ames’ victory consolidated his second spot on the Charles Schwab cup standings and trims leader Els’ advantage to just over 35k in the season long race after 18 of 28 events in the calendar.
Next up for the Champion’s Tour is north of the border for the Rogers Charity Classic. Calgary in Alberta, Canada is the destination as Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club plays host from the 16th to the 18th of August. Ken Duke is defending champion on a course which last year saw Darren Clarke finish just three shots back on a tie for fourth. Clarke will look to use this as motivation to challenge again next week as we move to the back half of the season.
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