Eighteen holes wasn’t enough as Joshua McCarthy and Sahith Theegala put together the best back-and-forth final-round competition of the season. On the first playoff hole iat East Lake Golf Club, McCarthy recorded a birdie and Theegala could only par, giving McCarthy his second victory of the season at the tour’s penultimate regular-season event.
Both golfers finished with 15-under 195s, six shots better than anyone else. McCarthy went into the final round with a one-shot lead over Theegala. There were six lead changes on the day.
McCarthy birdied 13 to take a one-shot lead. On 15, Theegala put a ball in the water and bogeyed, while McCarthy had par to make it a two-shot lead. On 16, McCarthy bogeyed and Theegala birdied to even things back up again. Theegala went up by one with a birdie on 17. McCarthy sent it to a playoff with birdie on 18.
Theegala had the best final-round score with a 5-under 65, while McCarthy was one of three Waves with a 4-under 66.
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Leaderboard: 1. Joshua McCarthy 195 (66-63-66); 2. Sahith Theegala 195 (61-69-65); 3. Joe Highsmith 201 (66-66-69); T4. Andrew Putnam 202 (70-66-66); T4. Austin Murphy 202 (66-67-69); T6. Roy Cootes 203 (71-66-66); T6. Clay Feagler 203 (66-69-68); 8. William Mouw 205 (68-68-69); 9. Frederick Wedel 209 (67-71-71); 10. Johnny Mac Arthur 210 (73-70-67); 11. RJ Manke 211 (73-67-71); 12. Cody McManus 212 (73-69-70); 13. Kevin DeHuff 214 (73-68-73); 14. Derek Hitchner 215 (72-73-70); 15. Josh Anderson 218 (71-75-72); 16. Joey Vrzich 222 (76-71-75).
- After not doing much in the first four tournaments, McCarthy is on a remarkable run and has posted five straight top-threes, including wins here and at PGA West. He’s risen to #3 on the season leaderboard.
- One oddity was how much movement there was between this tournament and the previous one at Torrey Pines. The players who saw the best improvement were Murphy (16th to a season-best T-4th), Highsmith (T-10th to 3rd), Feagler (12th to T-6th) and Theegala (7th to 2nd). Going the wrong way were Hitchner (1st to 14th), McManus (2nd to 12th), Manke (T-3rd to 11th) and Anderson (T-8th to 15th).
- All three rounds played pretty consistently. The third-round scoring average was 69.2 and the overall tournament average was 69.1 at the par-70 course. Nine golfers went below par in the final round.
- This tournament had very few eagles, just three, and Mac Arthur had the only one in the final round.
- The Waves stay in Georgia for the final tournament of the regular season. It’ll be a tough one, as it takes place at the home of The Masters, Augusta National.
- The Tour Championship will follow. It will be a match-play event and only 12 of the 16 will qualify. The biggest spots to watch are for 12th and 13th place in the standings (Murphy leads Vrzich by two shots) and for 4th and 5th (for the last first-round bye, Feagler leads Mouw by two shots).
ROGER SPORTS & GAMES 