Two weeks ago in Bermuda, Brendon Todd won for the first time in five years. He won in a runaway by four shots.
On Monday, things got tense early on a beautiful Mayakoba morning.
The Mayakoba Classic went to a Monday finish, as predicted. Rain wiped out Thursday’s first round and upended the schedule. Most of the field finished on Sunday but the players in contention for victory were still on the course when darkness ended play, including the final group of Todd, Vaughn Taylor and Harris English.
The final group of Todd, Vaughn Taylor and Harris English had just hit their tee shots on the short par three 15th at the El Cameleon course, then marked their shots for a return at 7:30 a.m. restart. Todd and Vaughn were tied at 20-under, English was 19-under. Todd stood over a 20-footer for birdie while Vaughn was forced to save part from short of the green.
Todd calmly holed his birdie for a one-shot lead and it would prove to be huge.
As good as his putt was at 15, his three-footer for a sand save at 18 was ugly. He missed and gave hope to Taylor and the others who were in at 19-under, including local favorite Carlos Ortiz.
Fate smile on Todd, however. He made a great par putt at 17 then got the break of the morning when his drive at the difficult 18th found the rough but his lie was very manageable. He would face two more huge hurdles over the final 10 minutes of the morning. His approach was short and left of the hole, again, he drew a decent lie in the greenside rough. He pitched to just outside three feet then watched as Vaughn settled in over a 13-foot birdie attempt that would force a playoff.
Vaugh hit a near-perfect putt but it stopped one agonizing turn from going in. Todd dodged that bullet then calmly rolled in his par putt for back-to-back victories on the PGA Tour.
“It’s hard,” Todd said of the finale. Understatement of the day. “I had to dig deep and rely on what I’ve been doing all week,” he said as he exhaled mightily after holing that nervous final putt.
“It’s incredible,” he continued. “I’m overcome with emotion.”
He should be. He’s gone from the PGA Tour outhouse to the penthouse in a matter of weeks. After the long winless run, he’s now two-for-two and no one else can make that claim.
Just another Manic Monday.
