KAPALUA, Hawaii – Harris English was that player who always wanted the ball for the last shot. His trouble the past couple of years was getting off the bench and into the game.
English completed his turnaround from a winless drought of seven-plus years on the PGA Tour with a victory he believed was long overdue, making a six-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole against Joaquin Niemann to win the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday at Kapalua Resort.
He had the ball. And he was clutch.
The 31-year-old former Baylor School and University of Georgia golf star ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine to catch Niemann. Needing a birdie on the 18th hole of the Plantation Course, English hit a 3-iron so pure from a downhill lie that it rolled out to 10 feet from the cup for an eagle putt that he narrowly missed, settling for a 4-under-par 69 to force extra holes.
In the playoff, he lagged a long putt from off the front of the green to six feet for the winner, again on No. 18.