HUMBLE, Texas (AP) ― D.A. Points came back from a long rain delay and made four pars, the last one giving him a one-shot victory in the Houston Open and a trip to the Masters.
With a putter he once borrowed from his mother and never returned, Points rolled in a putt from just outside 12 feet on the final hole to polish off a 6-under 66 and avoid a sudden-death playoff with Masters-bound Henrik Stenson and Billy Horschel.
It was quite a turnaround for Points, whose only other PGA Tour win was at Pebble Beach two years ago with actor Billy Murray along for the laughs.
D.A. Points celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the Houston Open on Sunday. (AP-Yonhap News)
He started the year by missing the cut seven times in nine tournaments. He arrived at Redstone Golf Club having not broken 70 in last nine rounds. But he stayed in the hunt after opening with a 64, and he kept his calm when he returned to the golf course after a rain delay of nearly three hours.
“Thank you for staying,” Points said to the sparse gallery in the bleachers as he walked off the green.
Stenson birdied his last two holes for a 66 before the storms rolled across Houston, and while he came up one shot short, he moved up to No. 42 in the world ranking to earn an invitation to the Masters. Horschel was on the 18th tee when play was halted, and then had to wait some more for his turn to hit on the tough driving hole. He split the middle, found the green and two-putted for par to join Stenson in the clubhouse lead.
They waited around for a playoff that wasn’t necessary when Points saved par on his last two holes.
“I’ve been having a really tough year,” Points said. “To have a putt to win, you want that starting out every week. I would have liked for it to have been closer.”
CHOI RULES: Korea’s Choi Ho-sung survived a nervous three-hour storm delay on his last hole before winning the Indonesia PGA Championship by two strokes. The 40-year-old, who was one shot behind the overnight leader, returned to the course after the long wait and birdied the last hole. (AP-Yonhap News)
Points picked up his final birdie on the par-5 13th when the hole got in the way of his chip and kept the ball from running well past. It instead stopped 3 feet away.
Then, he made it hard on himself.
His 5-iron to the 17th came up well short, and Points hit a beautiful pitch-and run to tap-in range for his par. On the final hole, his hybrid began to sail right of the green toward the bunkers, but it caught just enough of the grass to hand up in the rough. He played a peculiar shot, lobbing the pitch instead of playing it closer to the ground, and the ball came up well short on the rain-softened green.
The putt dropped into the left corner, and Points screamed so loud it could be hear over the sparse applause.
Suddenly, his year is looking up.
He finished at 16-under 272, and the win gives him another two-year exemption. His exemption from the Pebble Beach would have expired this year. More important, the win gets him back to Augusta National in two weeks.