GREENSBORO — From teetering dangerously on the cut line to later looking on in agony as the fate of his tenuous tournament lead hung in the balance, what a ride for Jim Herman.
Complete with planting a kiss on the Sam Snead Cup.
Herman capped a sublime weekend performance with a stellar 7-under-par 63 on Sunday to win the Wyndham Championship by one shot on Billy Horschel, who slid a 9-foot birdie putt past the cup on the 18th hole in an attempt to force a playoff.
That allowed Herman to exhale in sweet relief and finally enjoy the spoils of rounds of 61 and 63 he delivered back-to-back in charging to victory at Sedgefield Country Club. He overcame a four-shot deficit during the course of Sunday’s round.
After rubbing his forehead repeatedly and drinking from a water bottle nervously as Horschel played the last hole, Herman’s 21-under total of 259 stood alone atop the leader board, and he celebrated by lifting the shiny winner’s trophy for a smooch.
“Very satisfying,” he said. “These two rounds, pretty special. Some of the best golf I’ve ever played in my life, obviously, goodness gracious. You don’t expect 61 or 63 on a regular basis, but when you need it, there was nowhere else to go but deep.”
He left the weekend with just one bogey across the course of the tournament’s final 36 holes, and rode the low numbers he produced as Horschel faded at the finish and a host of other contenders fell short, including third-round leader Si Woo Kim.
It became the third career PGA Tour win for the 42-year-old Herman, whose best result of the season had been a tie for 27th place at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. Last weekend, he face-planted at the PGA Championship with a final round of 5-over that stuck him tied for 77th.
Here at the Wyndham, Herman had to catch fire late in Friday’s second round — and did so by mounting a run of four birdies during his last six holes that day — just to avoid the cut and reach the weekend.
“Going to be a quick week if this doesn’t get turned around,” he remembered remarking to caddie Jeremy Young, after spraying a series of drives and missing the Sedgefield fairways four times early in Thursday’s opening round.
“This was out of the blue,” Herman said, considering the sweeping transformation he found. “Pretty regular 36 holes going into the weekend. Just getting through to the weekend was obviously what you’re looking to do, then you never know what can happen on the weekends.”
The victory vaulted him from 192 to 54 in the rankings for the FedExCup Playoffs. The Tour’s top 125 players advance to The Northern Trust later this week and the first stop in golf’s postseason.
Five shots back of the lead entering Saturday and then four shots shy of the leading Kim when Sunday began, Herman kept coming. A pair of birdies and a 59-foot eagle putt drained from downtown jump-started his scoring across the first five holes in the final round.
At the end, when Herman stuck his approach from 127 yards to inside of 4 feet on No. 17, he was in prime position to supply what emerged as the decisive birdie. Horschel bogeyed No. 16, dropping to 20-under, and moments later Herman sank his short putt on No. 17 to vault ahead to stay at 21-under.
“To stuff it in there on (No.) 17 was huge,” Herman said. “To make the birdie and you’ve got a one-shot lead, I still didn’t feel like that was going to be enough. I thought there was going to be a playoff.”
Horschel carded a 65 for the second day in a row and finished at 20-under 260. Kim, Webb Simpson, Doc Redman and Kevin Kisner checked in at 18-under. Harold Varner III and Zach Johnson were 17-under.
“With a one-shot lead and you’ve got three fairly makeable birdie holes,” Horschel said of Sunday’s closing stretch, “you’re thinking I know I need to at least make one, maybe two to get it done. Just wasn’t able to happen. It’s a little disappointing.”
Kim, the 2016 Wyndham champion, arrived Sunday at 18-under for the tournament and two strokes ahead of the closest pursuers among the packed field of contenders. He faltered out of the gate, with wayward drives proving particularly costly.
He tumbled from the lead when he made double bogey on No. 6, after losing his tee shot in a hazard of thick stuff. Another errant drive two holes later left him with a bogey that dumped him four shots off the lead, while Horschel was rolling along at 20-under, having played the first eight holes at 5-under par.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Herman wins Wyndham Championship with weekend rally to remember
