Memphis, Tenn.: Abraham Anser of Mexico won the FedEx St. Jude Invitational for his first PGA Tour title on Sunday, defeating Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns with a 6-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole of a playoff.
Anser won the World Golf Championship event at TPC Southland on the same line after a 5 1/2-foot putt from Burns when Anser lipped out.
It’s real, said Anser, the 30-year-old Oklahoma player who was born in McAllen, Texas. I thought I had missed so many shots in the last nine, but you never know.
Anser, who finished second at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, played more aggressively on a second extra trip to a par-4 18th.
I went to it and the shot played perfectly in my mind and it turned out exactly like I had painted it, he said.
Harris English, the leader after each of the first three rounds, stumbled on the last nine to give Anser, Burns and Matsuyama a chance.
Anser closed with 2-under 68 to match Matsuyama and Burns at 16-under 264. Matsuyama scored 63 and Burns made 64. The 2013 champion English, at TPC Southwind, was one stroke back after 73.
On the first extra hole, Anser, Burns and Matsuyama, after losing in the bronze-medal playoff at the Tokyo Olympics, made good runs in the birdie. Matsuyama had made the shortest attempt from 20 feet and it almost went off in the cup before he was knocked out.
English were looking for a fifth title of their career and third this season, but lost their last nine. Two strokes ahead at 20 under on the turn, he played the last nine in 5 overs without a 13-foot birdie putt at 18.
Bryson DeChambeau, who finished eighth at 12 under, scored 74 after a third-round 63, two strokes behind English. He missed the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19.
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