“Holy crap!”
So said Adam Long to his wife as he walked off the 72nd hole of the Desert Classic Sunday.
We’ll second that — Holy Crap!
Holy Crap — did this really happen? Did a guy who was the ultimate long-shot just stun Phil Mickelson and grinding Canadian hero Adam Hadwin?
Don’t look for a resume for Adam Long, it’s not long, it’s pretty short.
Holy Crap — we’re talking about the No. 417th ranked player in the world somehow finding a way to beat 43-time winner Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin, a winner on the PGA Tour and the Web.com.
Note that Adam Long aka “Long-Shot” doesn’t have any wins on any tour — not the Web.com, not the Latino-American, not the Mackenzie, none, zero, nada. We’re talking about a guy who has one made PGA Tour cut to his credit. Seriously?
Now we’re talking about Adam Long as the winner of the 2019 Desert Classic on the PGA Tour and it is the biggest Cinderella Story since Craig Perks managed to win The Players.
The day started with Phil at 22-under par, Hadwin at 20 and Cinderella Long at 19.
“It was kinda the Phil and Adam Hadwin show,” Long admitted. “People were really cheering for Phil and a lot of Canadians were out there for Adam. I was just hanging in there.”
Long was right, he was basically an after-thought. Both he and Hadwin were the beneficiaries of a horrible putting exhibition by Mickelson. “I had a terrible putting day, worst I could recall in a while,” Mickelson admitted afterward. Fact is, he missed a bunch of putts inside 10 feet, enough to give him a runaway 44th win. It all started with a missed four-footer for par at the first, a missed six-footer for birdie at the eighth then a missed seven-footer for par at the ninth. There would be more.
Lefty’s putting miseries opened the door for Hadwin, who put up an amazing five front-nine birdies then added another at the 11th to get to 26-under. He had control of the day at that point.
Then Mr. Improbable showed up on the back nine. That would be Long. He pitched in from off the green for birdie at 12, pitched in again from off the green at 15.
Hadwin ran out of birdies and things got interesting at the par five 16th when both the Adams were just short of the par five in two and hit awful chips. Both would end up with pars while Mickelson was staring down an 11-foot eagle putt. Surely Lefty would make up for all the misses and hole this one to get to 26-under and wrestle this thing away from both the Adams. He missed, had to make birdie from five feet and sent everyone to the last two holes tied at 25-under.
Three pars at the 17th send the trio to 18 and once again, Long looked least likely to have a chance to win.
With Mickelson and Hadwin safely in the fairway, Long was in the rough with a tough, downhill, sidehill lie that looked near-impossible to get anywhere near the hole. Fifty feet would have been a great shot. He took one extra club, a six-iron and hit the shot of his life from 175 yards that settled just inside 14 feet. Hadwin missed the green, got up-and-down easily and Mickelson was a half club short from 166 and left himself 37 feet. He barely missed but gave Long a great read.
“It was one of those I just felt like I was going to make it,” said Mr. Improbable. “I got a pretty good read off of Phil’s putt. “I’m in disbelief right now.”
He wasn’t the only one.
Mickelson stared with a stunned look on his face and you could read his lips — he mouthed “Wow.”
Hadwin could do nothing but offer a polite hand clap, not all that enthusiastic.
Long got it to 26-under and snuck in a shot ahead of the Phil and Adam Hadwin Show thanks to a dazzling 65 — two better than Hadwin, four better than Phil.
Holy Crap!
