It had been eight years since his last PGA Tour victory, and in professional golf eight years is almost forever. So when Emiliano Grillo made a birdie putt at Colonial’s par-3 16th today, he chased after his ball with an undercut that encapsulated the pain and disappointment and doubt experienced between then and now, on the precipice of capturing his second career title.
Ninety minutes later, Grillo was back at the 16th hole, that presumed victory very much in jeopardy and a moment that underlined why it is so damn hard to make a living in a game that trafficks in heartbreak.
But for the second try in as many attempts today, Grillo walked off the par-3 16th with a 2. This time there was no punch to the heavens, instead a muted fist pump and a major exhale after surviving a dramatic stumble, and for that the 30-year-old from Argentina is the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge champ.
“Obviously it’s great. It made everything worth it,” Grillo said after a final-round, two-under 68. “The playing, all the hours practising, the effort from my family. It makes you think when you started playing all the emotions come through your head.”
Starting his day four shots off the lead, Grillo opened with four birdies in his first seven holes to get in the mix, adding a birdie at the 12th to jump alone atop the leaderboard. When he walked off the 16th the first time, he held a two-shot advantage at 10-under, one that didn’t seem in jeopardy with his closest competitors in Adam Schenk and Harry Hall having the hardest time making red figures.
But there is aqueduct to the right of the 18th hole. It is mostly dry, its brook maybe a few centimetres deep… and yet deep enough to almost sink Grillo. Still holding a two-shot advantage, Grillo sliced his drive at the 72nd into the aqueduct, and the channel’s stream caught Grillo’s ball – and the hopes and dreams that rode with it – and didn’t let go.
For seven minutes, Grillo waited for the stream to decant his ball but the stream would not abide. For seven minutes, Grillo studied his options, searching for a question that would keep the final outcome the same. For seven minutes, we were reminded why tournaments of consequence are awarded not after 70 or 71 holes, but a minimum of 72. Grillo ultimately took a drop and played from the cement, his third shot finishing short of the green. The chip never looked good and neither did his save for bogey. There had been just four double-bogeys on the week at the 18th until that moment. There was now a fifth, and a birdie by Schenk at the 16th created a tie at the top.
“I knew, as soon as I saw the ball going right, I was like this is going to be a very long hole,” Grillo said. “I’ve been through that pain of watching the ball just roll 120 yards back.”
“I learned a lot, and you don’t have to play great golf to win on a hard golf course coming down the stretch,” Hall said after his 73. “You’ve just got to hit it in the middle of the green and not do anything stupid.
“I did a few things stupid today.”
RELATED: The clubs Emiliano Grillo used to win the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge
Schenk had a shot at the win in regulation, but his birdie putt at the 18th slid just by the hole, setting up overtime with Grillo after he posted a closing two-over 72. On the first hole of sudden death, both men found the fairway at the 18th, with Grillo again blocking his tee shot to the right only to receive a fortuitous bounce off a hill and back into the short stuff. Grillo’s approach went right but for the second time received a generous hop, this time his ball finishing 30 feet from the pin. Schenk’s approach followed suit on a similar line, hitting and rolling back just inside Grillo’s ball. Both birdie putts missed, sending the playoff to the 16th.
Grillo went first on the par 3, his approach again going right for the third straight swing and again getting a lucky break, his ball ricocheting off a mound that guarded a greenside bunker and onto the green that started to funnel his ball to the pin… and kept funnelling… and funnelled some more, until the ball came to rest five feet from the pin.
“Yeah, the shot wasn’t that great,” Grillo admitted. “Obviously it was a bit right of where I wanted. I took the entire slope and got close.”
Schenk could not match, his tee shot flying the green with some force. Though he played a marvellous pitch to two feet, Grillo decided he’d had enough theatrics for one afternoon, converting the remaining five feet to claim what looked to be his just an hour before.
It is Grillo’s second victory, his aforementioned first coming at the 2015 Frys.com Open in Napa. That was the campaign in which Grillo won PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honours and finished 11th in the FedEx Cup, and a campaign that catapulted him onto the 2017 Presidents Cup team. Since that breakthrough Grillo has had a solid but far from spectacular career, never losing his tour card yet finishing better than 59th on the FedEx Cup standings just once. This week at Colonial showed he has the game and form to be one of the game’s better international players, to be the performer that was promised so many years ago.
“It’s been tough, but it’s worth every second,” Grillo said. “People ask me if I would have done something different, obviously looking back, I wouldn’t. This is just worth it.”
What a moment ❤️
In the midst of preparing for a playoff, @GrilloEmiliano invited two young fans to hit some shots @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/naBLusQyyj
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2023
Yes, this is a game that trafficks in heartbreak. Grillo reminded us it can be a heckuva lot of fun, too, and he didn’t need a win to prove that to us or himself.
