Ben Martin played his final four holes at four-under and was able to fend off a big closing push by Kevin Steelman to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open played at the TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, NV by two strokes.
Martin was the overnight leader after he birdied five straight holes on the back nine Saturday and finished with a nine-under-par 62, matching his best score on the tour—set last year in the Zurich Classic —to get to 17-under 196 at TPC Summerlin. The two stroke lead was the first time he had the 54-hole lead for the first time on the PGA Tour.
On Sunday he was one-over after his second bogey of the day came in the par-4 11th and lost the lead momentarily, after Streelman birdied five of six holes starting at the 12th.
Martin started his definitive run at the short 341-yards par-4 15th, where his tee shot reached the green 24 feet right of the hole. His eagle attempt went three feet past the hole, but he dropped his birdie shot move to 17-under.
His key moment came right at the next hole, the 560-yard par-5 16th. After a 313-yards tee shot, Martin went for the green across the water and made it, leaving the ball 46-feet away from the hole. He would read the break perfectly as his putt took the proper left-break at the final four feet and dropped for an eagle and the right-out lead at 19-under.
Streelman had a shot to tie Martin on the 18th and set the clubhouse lead at 19-under, but his putt from just under seven feet missed and he would enter the clubhouse at 18-under after his six-under 65 round.
Martin would play safe the par-3 17, with a two-putt for par after safely reaching the green with his tee shot. Then to close up in style, he made his birdie attempt on the 18th from 19 feet away to earn his first career PGA Tour win by two strokes.
The 27-year-old from South Carolina and former Clemson player became the 11th player to earn his first PGA Tour title at this event. Quite a turnaround, considering he comes from missing the cut at the Frys.com on the season’s opening week where shot 78-79, missing it by 14 strokes.
It was his first win on the PGA Tour after going winless in 55 career starts. He won twice on the Web.com Tour on 2013, winning the United Leasing Championship in a playoff and the Mylan Classic by five strokes.
He earned $1,080,000 for the win and the 500 FedEx Cup points earned are good enough to place him in a tie for first place in the rankings, with last week’s winner Sang Moon Bae, after two tournaments. Last week’s top two finishers, Bae and Steven Bowditch took the opposite way this week and missed the cut.
Russell Knox made a run with four birdies on the back nine, but they came late as he had made the turn at one-over after two bogeys and a double. He finished firing a one-under 70, good enough to earn solo third place at 16-under 268.
Last year's winner, Webb Simpson, briefly challenged when after the 12th hole he went birdie-par-birdie-eagle, and capped it with a nine-foot birdie-putt at the par-4 17th to grab a share of the lead. But he bogeyed the closing hole to finish with a three-under 68 and in a tie for fourth place at 15-under with Jimmy Walker (69) and Brooks Koepka (68).
David Hearn (68), Scott Piercy (69) and Tony Finau (67) tied for seventh place at 14-under-par 270 rounding up the Top 10 finishers.
The PGA Tour will be in Georgia next week for The McGladrey Classic that will be played at the Seaside Course on Sea Island.