Jimmy Walker had the finish in him to make it a three-peat at Waialae.
Unfortunately for the two-time defending Sony Open in Hawaii champion, the start wasn’t quite what he needed as he finished tied for 13th place at 12 under after closing with a 4-under 66 on Sunday.
“I drove it well all week and was really proud of that but just didn’t get the putts to go.”
Jimmy Walker
Two-time defending Sony Open in Hawaii champion
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Walker got hot down the stretch as he has the past two years, closing with 12 birdies over his final 28 holes. The only problem was he put himself too far back of the pack after opening with a 69 and 68 to barely make the weekend cut.
He did extend his streak of consecutive rounds under par at Waialae to 17 but failed to become the first player to win the same PGA tournament three consecutive times since Steve Stricker won the John Deere Classic in 2009, ’10 and ’11.
“I was frustrated that I didn’t putt very well the first two-and-a-half rounds and then finally I saw some go in,” Walker said. “I drove it well all week and was really proud of that but just didn’t get the putts to go.”
The putter was Walker’s golden ticket to consecutive wins in 2014 and ’15. Last year, he had one-putts on nine of his last 11 holes that resulted in seven birdies to win by nine shots.
He closed his first win in Hawaii playing the final 10 holes in 6 under and matched that again on Sunday.
The difference this time is he started much farther behind.
Walker, who started the day trailing the leaders by eight, had just one birdie in his opening round. On Friday, he hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation but still managed just a 68. For the entire week, he ranked 71st in the full-field event in putting.
“I felt like I made everything the last two years and didn’t make anything this year,” Walker said.
He somehow pulled off a 66 after bogeying three of his first four holes, matching the entire number of bogeys he had over the first three rounds.
His missed putts included lengths of 12 feet on the first hole and 9 feet on Nos. 3 and 4 to erase any chances of a miraculous comeback.
“You go out and post 8- or 9- or 10-under and anything can happen and you can do that here,” Walker said. “They had some pins in trickier spots today which is going to make it tough but you can get on a roll if you’re making putts and I didn’t do that to start.”
Walker, who turned 37 on Saturday, finished in the top 15 of both Hawaii events to start 2016.
He finished 16th in the FedEx Cup standings last year after placing seventh the year before and is 25th in the World Golf rankings.
He can improve on those marks, but he might never get the opportunity to join 26 golfers who have won the same event at least three consecutive times. Tiger Woods shares the tour mark of winning the same event four straight times and he did it twice at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines and the Bayhill Classic, an event hosted by Arnold Palmer.
Walker did, however, enjoy his shot at it.
“I had a lot of people yelling ‘three-peat’ at me all week so it was fun,” Walker said. “It was going to be a tough task but I gave it everything I had and didn’t leave anything on the table.”
