Cameron Champ’s emotional victory celebration with his father and terminally ill grandfather via phone was one of the most moving sports scenes in recent memory. But how the 24-year-old moved his golf ball around Silverado Resort and Spa to earn his second PGA Tour title was pretty special as well.
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Champ led the Safeway Open field in both driving distance (337.1 yards) and scrambling (84.21 percent), quite the effective combination of power and finesse. It’s also a rare statistical feat as pointed out by PGATour.com’s Sean Martin:
https://twitter.com/PGATOURSMartin/status/1178482305184227328
Martin also noted there have now been 12 such instances of a player pulling this off in the past 20 years. Tiger Woods has done it four times, Rory McIlroy twice, and six players, including Champ, once. Pretty good company.
Both of these parts of Champ’s game were on full display on the 72nd hole. Needing a birdie to beat Adam Hadwin, Champ bombed this 369(!)-yard drive down the fairway:
Then after an 8-iron missed the green on his approach to the par 5, Champ hit a beautiful chip to set up his winning putt from four feet.
He also chipped in for par on No. 11:
Champ called the win, “the greatest moment in my golfing career.” But while his touching tribute to PaPa Champ will be tough to top, that kind of touch around the greens to go with the fastest swing on tour all but guarantee more future titles.
PODCAST: Cameron Champ on cracking drivers and managing expectations