FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Davis Riley shot even-par 70 while playing in the final group Sunday with Scottie Scheffler, and still won the Charles Schwab Challenge by five strokes over the world’s No. 1 player and Keegan Bradley for his first individual victory on the PGA TOUR.
Riley finished at 14-under 266 after rolling in a 6-foot par putt on the final hole at Colonial Country Club. Bradley had a closing 67, and Scheffler shot 71 on a day when he hit only seven of 14 fairways and didn’t have a birdie until the 13th hole.
After beginning the final round with a four-stroke lead, Riley gave up a stroke with a bogey on the second hole when he drove into the right rough and then hit into the bunker. But that was the closest Scheffler — or anybody else — would get with wind gusts of 20 mph and more blowing throughout the day.
win at historic Colonial, which had been completely restored since last year’s tournament, earned him $1.638 million, the traditional winner’s plaid jacket and a fully restored and modernized 1975 Stingray car.
Bradley, who has already won twice this year, was at 10-under after a 4-foot birdie at the 17th hole. But he missed a similar-length chance to save par at No. 18 after his tee shot and approach both ended up in the right rough.
Riley curled in a 27-foot birdie at the 229-yard par-3 No. 4 that is the middle of the famed “Horrible Horseshoe” that is still the toughest three-hole stretch on the course. Scheffler bogeyed there and again at No. 5 after his into the right rough running parallel to the Trinity River.
While Riley closed out the front nine with a 9-foot birdie putt, he was six strokes ahead of Scheffler.
Collin Morikawa, the only player in the field to finish all four rounds under par, was fourth at 8-under after his closing 68.
Scheffler was playing close to his Dallas home. After tying for eighth at Valhalla, Colonial was the 11th top-10 finish in 12 tournaments he has played this year. Before the PGA Championship, he had taken three weeks off for the birth of his first child after back-to-back wins at the Masters and the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, South Carolina.
It was Scheffler’s third consecutive top-three finish at Colonial, even after an opening 72 that was the first time this season he failed to break par in a first round. That also included his first triple-bogey of the season, when his tee shot at the par-3 13th hole went into the pond fronting that raised green.