Ligonier, Pa. – Mike Reid was on the wrong end of one of championship golf’s worst collapses. This time he benefited from not one but two improbable breakdowns minutes apart for a Senior PGA victory even he didn’t think was possible.
Reid, down by three shots with one hole to play, forced himself into a three-way playoff with Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate with a long eagle putt on No. 18, then birdied 18 again on the only playoff hole for his first tournament win since 1990.
All day, the senior tour major was Quigley’s to win, then Pate’s. Somehow, Reid won.
“I’m as shocked as anybody,” said Reid, 50, a former Cherry Creek High School student who wasn’t eligible for the Champions Tour until last year and hadn’t won since the 1990 Casio World Open in Japan.
Pate, absent from tournament golf for more than 20 years until last year, missed an 8-footer for birdie that would have forced a second playoff hole. Quigley was out of it after hitting his second shot into the water on the 515-yard, par-5 playoff hole.
What rallied Reid was the memory of Payne Stewart’s comeback in the 1989 PGA Championship to steal a title Reid seemingly had won.
As Stewart birdied four of the last five holes, Reid took a bogey on No. 16 and a double bogey on No. 17 and lost by one shot.
That year, Reid led the Masters with four holes to play but also couldn’t hold on.
Reminded of that PGA collapse, Reid’s eyes welled in tears.
“I had control of that tournament and by all rights, I should have won,” Reid said. “And today it was Dana Quigley and Jerry Pate, they had control and should have won. … Fate takes a hand, and I can’t explain it. My putt went in, Jerry’s missed and I’m feeling like I stole something.”
That Reid even made the playoff was remarkable, even though he was the only player to break par in all four rounds.
Reid, nicknamed Radar for his accuracy off the tee, trailed Quigley by six shots with eight to play and Pate by three shots with only the 18th left. But Reid dropped a 20-footer for an eagle 3 to finish off a back-nine 32 and a final round 2-under 70 while Pate, who was playing with Reid, bogeyed by three-putting from 18 feet.
Pate, up by a shot over Quigley going into the final hole of regulation, tried to play No. 18 safe. He laid up with his second shot on the par-5 hole rather than cutting over the water that guards the right side of the green.
The strategy seemed to work as Pate landed his 92-yard pitch shot onto the left side of the green. But he lagged his first putt, and his 3-foot par putt skidded to the right of the hole.
Quigley, playing his 259th consecutive Champions Tour event, led Pate by three shots with eight to play after he eagled No. 10 and by two shots with four to play. But Quigley took a bogey on the par-3 17th by hitting into a bunker and missing his par putt from 6 feet. Pate took the lead by hitting his tee shot on the par-3 17th to within a foot, then tapping in for birdie.
