Three careers, three very, very different golf careers converged Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.
Three men in very different places in the golf universe put their skills on the line over the final 18 holes at the Shriners Hospitals For Children gathering and what transpired probably wasn’t supposed to happen in a normal universe.
But who ever said golf was a normal universe?
The most abnormal happening that came out of last week was that Rod Pampling wasn’t even supposed to be in the field. With days getting shorter, there were supposed to be 132 men teeing it up rather than 144. A PGA Tour clerical error didn’t shrink the field, it was discovered too late and Pampling got in.
The 54-hole leader was Lucas Glover, a major champion who has fallen on tough times. At age 36 he was in total need of a victory to revive his faltering career. A 65 on Saturday propelled him to the 54-hole lead.
Brooks Koepka, age 26 and a hot rising star was just a shot back, it looked like it was his for the taking come Sunday.
Pampling, age 47, hadn’t won in 10 years, his best days seemed far in his rear view mirror.
This convergence brought these three men into the final grouping.
Pampling had 432 PGA Tour starts, Glover 431 and Koepka a measly 64.
Koepka was easily the best player on paper, ranked a lofty 22nd in the world compared to Glover at 227 and Pampling in a dark hole at No. 451.
On paper, this was Koepka’s tournament to lose. The only problem is that these events are decided on grass and not on paper.
Glover had plenty of momentum after back-to-back 65s but when you go from U.S. Open champ to No. 227 in the world, that’s a lot of missed putts along the way and the putter has been the enemy that has driven Glover from the limelight.
Pampling lost his card and found himself “grinding it out on the Web Tour,” as he described his season on the Web.com in 2016.
Along that journey, he got used to competing against very young players.
If there ever was an underdog over the final 18 holes of a tour event, Pampling was the guy.
It’s a long way from shaking hands with the late, great Arnold Palmer to No. 451 in the world. A long way from Bay Hill champion to virtual golf oblivion.
Pampling looked to be a goner after he started the final nine with bogeys on the 10th and 12th holes. But then he showed what grit, determination and a hot putter could produce.
The old Aussie rolled in a 12-footer for a bounce-back birdie at 13, made it from 18-feet for another at 14 then slid in a 10-footer for three straight at 15. He got in a world of rough and tree trouble at the par five 16th but got it up and down from 114-yards out for par.
Pure grit.
He did this all while the former U.S. Open champ and world’s No. 22 gave it their best shots.
Pampling’s 32-footer for birdie to close it out was nothing but pure, dead-in-the-hole.
As big as the victory was, he acknowledged it wasn’t his biggest career moment. He said that came at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Classic 10 years ago.
Pampling was also proud to be part of what he called “the wheel” of Australian players with wins over the past two years.
In the end, he was truly a winner by accident.
Whoever screwed up at PGA Tour headquarters and failed to shrink the field to 132, needs to get a huge “thank-you” gift from Pampling.
