It’s been 11 years, 4,292 days if you want to be exact since Charles Howell III won a PGA Tour event.
On Sunday at Sea Island, the veteran player overcame the worst of starts then kept grinding while at least a half-dozen players made a run at winning the RSM Classic.
In the end, on the 74th hole, it was Howell holing a gem of a 14-foot putt to end his long, difficult winning drought.
Howell birdied 15, 16 and 17 then nearly ended it all with a putt at 18 that sniffed the hole but ended up just missing, sending him into a playoff with Patrick Rodgers after both finished regulation play at 19-under par. Rodgers, who barely made the 36-hole cut and went into the weekend 12 shots behind Howell, posted a sizzling Sunday 62 after his Saturday 61.
Both parred the first playoff hole, the par four 18th then with the sun getting low at Sea Island, Howell lined up a 14-footer for birdie then made sure he got it to the hole and he did better than that. The ball fell into the cup sending Howell’s wife and children running to celebrate with him.
His start was not what championships are made of. He went bogey-double and was three-over after two and turned one-over, letting Rodgers, Webb Simpson, Cameron Champ, Bryan Blaum and Luke List into the hunt. But those three birdies down the stretch got him in the house with 67 to tie Rodgers.
Tears ran down Howell’s face as he tried to gather his emotions after the long-awaited third victory.
“I don’t even know,” he said when asked what he was feeling.
“I just haven’t been able to pull it off for so long,” he said. His children surrounded him, one of his boys crying. “They get what’s going on,” Howell pointed out. “I failed a lot of times.”
But there was no failure on a balmy Georgia lowland afternoon.
Howell jumped to the top of the FedEx Cup race heading into next season. He punched a ticket to the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii and he’ll return to The Masters in his home town for the first time since 2012.
It was his time, finally, after more than a decade of frustration.
