Ranking the 10 Best Final Rounds of the 2014 PGA Tour Season
A great final round in a golf tournament can come in the form of a sizzlingly low score, an exciting battle with pursuers before holding them off, an admirable performance under the pressure of a major championship or a player staying the course to get that elusive first win.
All of those criteria went into the creation of this ranking of the 10 best final rounds on the PGA Tour this year.
I think this list cuts across a wide swath of what went on this season on the PGA Tour: a talented kid like Chesson Hadley getting his first win, Rory McIlroy roaring through the summer and Matt Kuchar getting a stunning win, to name a few.
You may agree, disagree or have others you think would have been better fits.
10. Chesson Hadley: Puerto Rico Open
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Thirteen was definitely a lucky number for Chesson Hadley at the Puerto Rico Open last March.
In his 13th appearance on the PGA Tour, Hadley birdied the final two holes on Sunday afternoon to finish with a 67 and win his first tour event.
The win, which came as a result of his first three rounds of 68-65-67, was the first win by a rookie since Jordan Spieth won the John Deere Classic in July of 2013.
Hadley made six birdies and one bogey in his final round.
9. Nick Taylor: Sanderson Farms
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Nick Taylor was a highly touted college player who struggled when he started playing on the Web.com Tour last summer.
A change in putter allowed him to make a surge at the end of the season, shooting a final-round 63 in the Web.com Tour Championship. That gave him a 21st-place finish and earned him a PGA Tour card for the 2014-15 season.
Six weeks later, he became the first winner on the PGA Tour from Canada since Mike Weir won the Masters in 2007.
Taylor birdied five of his first eight holes on the way to a 66 at the Country Club of Jackson to win the Sanderson Farms Championship. He one-putted 10 of the first 16 greens and took just 24 putts in the first 17 holes.
8. Tim Clark: Canadian Open
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Tim Clark hadn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2010 Players Championship.
He had been an average player since then, but when he did win again, he did so with style.
Clark fought back from a three-shot deficit to begin the day by making five birdies on his last eight holes and squeezed by Jim Furyk by a shot in the Canadian Open.
It was a rainy-day 65 at Royal Montreal for Clark and the second time he won the Canadian Open.
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7. Brendon Todd: Byron Nelson Championship
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Brendon Todd is very proud of his short game and knows that much of his success on the PGA Tour will come as a result of that part of his game.
The Byron Nelson Championship in May was a perfect example of that. He put up a closing round of 66 on that Sunday in his 77th career PGA Tour start and picked up his first victory.
For the entire tournament, he needed just 99 putts.
"It was a dream week for me on the golf course," Todd told The Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "Felt like I absolutely scored my pants off. It was just a short game display. I have a great short game, and even I'll say it was special this week."
Todd went back to the Web.com Tour twice in the last five years to earn his way back onto the PGA Tour, and the win earned him a spot for two years.
6. Rory McIlroy: World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational
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This was another final round that wasn't super low, but because of how Rory McIlory played that round, it will be remembered.
McIlroy was coming off of a British Open championship and had the PGA Championship at Valhalla on his to-do list. But at Firestone Country Club, the young Northern Irishman hit the ball maybe as well as he ever has, leading the field in driving with an average of 317 yards.
He actually came into the final round looking at a three-stroke deficit. But he started his round with three birdies, endured a rain delay of an hour and 15 minutes and shot 66 to take over the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.
5. Matt Kuchar: RBC Heritage
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Matt Kuchar has made a very comfortable living racking up top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour.
He seemed destined for another one heading into the final round of the RBC Heritage Classic at Harbour Town.
Kuchar trailed Luke Donald by four shots but blistered the front nine in 30, a run that included seven birdies in his first 10 holes.
Kuchar's first birdie of the day, on 17, was a costly one because it forced him to make birdie on 18 for a chance at a playoff.
His approach shot found the greenside bunker on 18 and then proceeded to hole out, giving him a 64 for the day and a one-shot dramatic victory.
4. Jason Day: World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play
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Jason Day had a chance to win the Masters in 2013, and great things were expected of him as the 2014 season began.
And he lived up to those expectations, winning the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in February.
That win came over Victor Dubuisson, the Frenchman who pulled off two unbelievable shots from the desert to extend the finals match in extra holes. Both times Day responded and eventually won the match on the 23rd hole of the day.
While Dubuisson's two desert par saves gained much of the attention that day, an even more impressive number was that Day never trailed over the final 53 holes of the event. That's a pretty good feat considering how unpredictable match play can be.
3. Martin Kaymer: U.S. Open
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There wasn't a whole lot of drama involved in Martin Kaymer's final round of 69 at Pinehurst No. 2 in June.
He had taken care of that in the first two rounds with a pair of 65s. That gave him a nice working margin as he went about the business of going wire-to-wire in a U.S. Open.
That's only been done seven times in the 114 years the nation's championship has been contested.
And he did all of that on a Donald Ross classic that was playing very difficult. He was the only player in the final eight groups to break par, and he won by eight shots over Rickie Fowler and Erik Compton.
2. Rory McIlroy: Open Championship
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OK, so Rory McIlroy's final round in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool wasn't one of those super-low efforts that jumps out to golf fans.
But that 71 was a monumental round for a guy who hadn't had much of a record on links courses and just a couple years ago wasn't all that fond of them.
He eagled two of the final three holes in the third round to stake himself to a six-shot lead going into Sunday. Then, he withstood every challenge to eventually win by two over Sergio Garcia.
The victory left him only a Masters victory away from completing the career grand slam at the age of 25.
1. Jordan Spieth: Australian Open
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We've seen flashes of the brilliant golf Jordan Spieth is capable of, but in the final round of the Australian Open, those weren't flashes; that was a brilliant display of golf for 18 holes.
Spieth went out in 31 and came home with four birdies in the last five holes for a 32. And that adds up to a tidy 63.
"I didn't think the round was out there, but the putts just kept going in," Spieth said per CBS Sports. "It's the best round I've ever played, the best win I've ever had. It's pretty awesome."
He beat the No. 1 player in the world, Rory McIlroy, by 15 shots and Adam Scott by nine.
Many years before Spieth was even born, another player posted a 63 in the final round to win a U.S. Open: Johnny Miller at Oakmont Country Club in 1973.
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