For most of the final day at the Charles Schwab Challenge, it looked like Englishman Harry Hall would produce a wire-to-wire victory… only for the PGA Tour rookie to stumble over the final eight holes. Then it was Emiliano Grillo, who held a two-shot lead only to double-bogey his 72nd hole. Then it was Adam Schenk, who hung around and had a chance to win it on the last hole in regulation with a 15-foot birdie try, only to come up just short with the putt. That led to a two-way playoff between Grillo and Schenk, won by the 30-year-old from Argentina on the second extra hole, ending a trying day at venerable Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
None of the top four players on the leaderboard played the back nine under par during the final round, but it was a birdie at the 176-metre, par-3 16th hole that gave Grillo his second PGA Tour win and first in nearly eight years. The swing that set up the victory was a 9-iron tee shot that landed on the right fringe and took a nice kick left, trickling down to four feet, eight inches. The club Grillo used was a Callaway Apex TCB iron with True Temper Project X 6.0 shafts.
There was little doubt Grillo would make the putt as he was on the mark all week with his Odyssey White Hot OG #5 midsize mallet with a Stroke Lab shaft. Grillo ranked second in strokes gained/putting, picking up 7.439 strokes on the field for the week.
It wasn’t difficult to think of Grillo as an afterthought for most of the day. While Hall was the media darling of the week, wearing a Ben Hogan-style cap at Colonial, a course known as Hogan’s Alley, Grillo was asked just two questions all week until the last day with his answers totalling just 98 words. Despite a horrendous double-bogey at the final hole, Grillo used a pair of timely birdies on the back nine to build a two-shot cushion that allowed him to withstand the hiccup, including a 20-footer at the 16th – which clearly is now his favourite hole in golf.
What Emiliano Grillo had in the bag at the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge:
Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X
Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (Mitsubishi Tensei Blue 60S), 9 degrees
3-wood: Callaway Rogue, 15 degrees
5-wood: Callaway Paradym, 18 degrees
Irons (4-9): Callaway Apex TCB; (PW): Callaway Mack Daddy 3
Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy Forged (50 degrees); Cobra King (54, 60 degrees)
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
