Biggest Winners and Losers from the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
If you caught the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, you were treated to a pretty good show of early 2014-15 season play.
Ben Martin, who held the 54-hole lead, was challenged down the stretch at TPC Summerlin en route to an exciting finish.
While there was one official winner in Las Vegas, there were a number of others who found themselves on the good side of the ledge. So, too, there were a bounty of losers. You'll find the notable ones here.
Click through for the full breakdown of winners and losers.
Winner: Kevin Streelman's Putter
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Kevin Streelman's putter nearly won him the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in very similar fashion to the way he captured the Travelers Championship last year. In that tournament, he used his Odyssey White Hot Pro 2-Ball Blade to roll in a tour-record seven birdies in a row.
At TPC Summerlin, Streelman birdied six of the final seven holes and came up just short.
While Streelman himself wasn't a winner, he did a heck of a job with the flatstick, picking up 4.69 strokes, thanks to his work on the greens.
Loser: Everyone Expecting Ben Martin to Falter
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Entering the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Ben Martin had never won a PGA Tour event. You'd have to expect, then, that there were plenty of fans expecting the South Carolinian to falter.
After bogeying the 11th hole in his final round, Martin fell to one over par for the round, and it looked like he could be faltering on the back nine as Kevin Streelman pulled even.
Martin, however, was steady, birdieing the 15th and eagling the 16th holes. He added a birdie at the 18th for good measure, beating Streelman by two strokes.
Asked after his third round what he planned to do during the final round: "Just go out tomorrow with the same mindset, head down, and try to keep making birdies," per The Associated Press.
Martin kept his head down and is now a PGA Tour winner.
Winner: A Pair of Rookies
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Leading money winner on the Web.com Tour last year, Adam Hadwin and fellow PGA Tour rookie, Tony Finau did pretty well for themselves in their second events of the PGA Tour season.
Neither of the rookies have a total of 15 starts on the PGA Tour. Hadwin tied for 53rd at last week's Frys.com Open. Finau tied for 12th last week.
Both players built on their performances at the Frys.com with impressive work this week in Las Vegas. Hadwin fired a final-round eight-under 63 to leap inside the top 10. Finau fired a final-round 67 to finish tied for seventh.
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Loser: Billy Horschel
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Pre-tournament favorite, Billy Horschel fired rounds of 71 and 72 to miss the cut by three strokes.
Horschel hadn't teed it up since his Tour Championship/FedEx Cup victory at East Lake, September 14, and his return to competition wasn't a triumphant one. He only hit 55.56 percent of greens in regulation for his second round, which simply didn't give him enough looks at birdie on a course where a golfer needed to shoot under par to make the cut.
Horschel likely took some time off after his torrid late-season run, so a bit of rust is understandable. Still, when the tournament favorite fails to make the cut, he has to be labeled as a loser for the week.
Winners: Moving Day Martin, Walker
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It's one of professional golf's great platitudes: Getting hot on Saturday to vault up the leaderboard and position yourself for Sunday is a sure path to victory.
At the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Saturday, Jimmy Walker and Ben Martin did some serious moving.
Walker fired a nine-bogey, nine-under 62 Saturday to move into the third position on the leaderboard to start the final round.
Martin also carded a 62, making 10 birdies on the day. On the strength of the performance, he began his final round with a three-stroke lead.
Loser: Sang-Moon Bae
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After winning the Frys.com Open last week, perhaps Sang-Moon Bae is entitled to something of a letdown.
It was the putter, which was so hot at the Frys.com, that let Bae down this week. He lost 3.12 strokes to the field with the putter over his two rounds of play.
The South Korean missed the cut in Las Vegas. Befuddled by TPC Summerlin's greens, he was unable to take any momentum from his victory in his previous start.
Winner: The Shriners
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Who wouldn't love these guys? The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, otherwise known as the Shriners are an appendant body to Freemasonry.
According to the organization's website:
"Shriners Hospitals for Children® were founded in 1922 with the goal of providing expert medical care for children with no financial burden to the patients or their families.
Today that philanthropic effort supports the health care system's 22 facilities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, treating children up to 18 years of age who have orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate.
Our advanced care is provided in a family-centered environment that is focused on maximizing a child’s quality of life, regardless of the family’s ability to pay.
"
While all the charities the PGA Tour's events benefit are great, not all have members who wear fezs and hug giant bears, like you see above.
Stats are courtesy of PGATour.com.
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