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Someday finally came for Abraham Ancer.
It arrived in the steamy Memphis heat Sunday afternoon when Ancer, who had nibbled around the edges of winning on the PGA Tour, won for the first time with his playoff victory against Sam Burns and Hideki Matsuyama in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
The victory did what a series of solid seasons and high finishes had not – it moved him into a different place in the game’s world order. The 30-year-old Ancer arrived in Memphis ranked 23rd in the world and coming off a good performance in the Olympics a week earlier and halfway around the world but he still lacked his defining moment.
Now he has it.
In becoming the third Mexican-born player to win on the PGA Tour (Cesar Sanudo and Victor Regalado are the others), Ancer won against one of the strongest fields of the year and did so by taking advantage of the struggles of others.
“I’m so happy to be lucky.”
Abraham Ancer
Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau will be thinking about how they lost the tournament with 40 and 41, respectively, for the final nine holes while Ancer was brilliant coming in.
Knowing Burns had a short birdie putt to win on the second extra hole, Ancer answered. He flipped the script by holing his birdie putt just before Burns’ putt lipped out.
“I’m so happy to be lucky,” said Ancer, who has four runner-up finishes on tour.
It was more than that.
Ancer has steadily played his way into increasing prominence on the PGA Tour. He’s not the longest nor the strongest but Ancer has a game that’s solid through and through and it seemed only a matter of time before he was the one holding the trophy.
In his 121st tour start, Ancer thought someone else would win until he found himself with a share of the lead on the 16th hole. Then it was his turn.
“I got lucky maybe but there were some instances in tournaments that I thought I did enough to win and didn’t get the win,” Ancer said.
“I had some close calls this year. I didn’t want to think ‘Oh my god, I’m so due.’ I didn’t want to put extra pressure but felt I’d done enough at other events to win and they just didn’t go my way. I just tried to get better with how I play golf.”
Ron Green Jr.