James Hahn wins playoff for Wells Fargo title
CHARLOTTE — Selling shoes is nice. Winning golf tournaments is better.
James Hahn, who had missed eight consecutive cuts, earned his second PGA Tour title Sunday with a par on the first playoff hole to defeat Roberto Castro in the Wells Fargo Championship.
Hahn, who a decade ago was selling shoes at Nordstrom in California instead of playing golf, made a 4-footer for par on the par-4 18th at Quail Hollow as Castro, trying to win his first Tour title in his 116th start, scrambled to make bogey after hitting his drive into a creek.
“You just keep believing,” said Hahn, who won his first Tour title in a playoff in the 2015 Northern Trust Open. “Missing eight straight cuts is tough. You start questioning yourself, wonder if you’re good enough, and you look into the future and wonder if you have to sell shoes again. But I have a great team around me and kept believing.”
Hahn closed with a 2-under-par 70 to finish regulation play at 9 under with Castro, who shot 71. Castro was done in by the Green Mile – the moniker for the par-4 16th, par-3 17th and 18th – as he made bogeys on 16 and 17 in regulation and a final bogey on 18 in the playoff.
Justin Rose, playing with Hahn, closed with a 71 to finish at 8 under and alone in third. Phil Mickelson and defending champion Rory McIlroy each came charging with 66s to finish at 7 under and in a tie for fourth with Andrew Loupe (71) and Rickie Fowler (74), who held a one-shot lead after 54 holes.
“I didn't get out of the gate swinging well off the tee, kind of fought that a little bit through the round,” Fowler said. “So yeah, obviously it sucks. It's disappointing knowing where my game was at coming into today. I felt really good about being in the final group and getting the job done.”
Hahn, who won $1.314 million, started making his move with a birdie on the fifth, an eagle from 50 feet on the seventh and another birdie on the eighth. He had to rebound, however, when he three-putted from 33 feet on the final hole in regulation. But he said he gathered himself as soon as he saw his wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Kailee, who is 14 months old, after he finished regulation. The two flew in Saturday night to be with Hahn on Mother’s Day.
“The mind is a powerful thing and it was going bad for a while,” Hahn said of his recent struggles. “Just didn't have the confidence, didn't believe in myself. … So I think the turning point was in New Orleans at the Zurich Championship (last week) that my caddie (Mark Urbanek) and I, we just kind of had a talk that, hey, look, you just have to keep believing in yourself, keep grinding because it's not always going to be like this.
“So I constantly remind myself that I'm good enough and that I belong out here. Was kind of chanting to myself that I can do this, I will do this and I must do this. I mean, this is something that I look in my daughter's eyes and say, hey, I can't give up on you, I have to do this. So having family like that, my wife supporting me, it really gives me that extra fire to keep going.”
Mickelson, derailed by a quadruple-bogey 8 on his final hole in the third round, rebounded with one of his best rounds. He’s again excited about his game and looking forward to playing in some of the biggest tournaments of the year, starting with next week’s Players Championship.
“I hit a lot of good shots over the weekend. Unfortunately, one bad hole yesterday kind of cost me,” said Mickelson, who now has nine top-10s in this tournament but no wins. “But today's round gives me a little bit of momentum heading into The Players. ...
“I drove it much better over the weekend and had a lot of opportunities. I'm putting very well. My game feels very good, but you still, you need that little something to win and to make a mistakes like I made on 18, that's the kind of stuff you just can't do, but I feel like I'm pretty close.
“I’m excited about playing and competing.”
McIlroy, playing for the first time since the Masters, also is looking forward with good thoughts. That includes heading to TPC Sawgrass for the Players, where he missed the cut the first three times he played the tournament but has two ties for eighth and a tie for sixth in his last three starts.
“That was more like it today,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I played better. I made a lot of good swings and putted nicely. Just left myself too much to do after the first three days. … I'm confident going into the next couple weeks. The Players is a place where I do a little bit better each and every year and I’m looking forward to next week with my game rounding into a little bit of form.
“I've gotten a lot more comfortable with Sawgrass. I finally accepted that I can't hit driver as much as I would like there. I've always felt that it was a golf course that handcuffed me a little bit. So the first few years I was quite stubborn and still trying to take on a lot of things instead of accepting the fact that I'm going to have to play the course the way everyone else plays it. ...
“I've learned to at least like the place for that week and accept this is the way I have to play, and the last couple years it's paid off somewhat for me. At least I've improved, and hopefully this year I can go there and improve a little bit again.”
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