2017 Players Amateur winner Phillip Knowles (Players Am photo)
BLUFFTON, SC (July 16, 2017) - It was a long trying final day at the Players Amateur hosted by Berkeley Hall Club but in the end North Florida junior Philip Knowles was able to win the title on the second hole of a sudden death playoff against Bryson Nimmer.
Knowles started Sunday four shots behind before surging during the final round with a bogey-free 7-under 64 to finish regulation 13-under.
“You dream of this, you know?” Knowles told Bluffton Today. “I started the day, I don’t know how many back, and you dream of going out there and playing one of the best rounds of your career.”
Knowles also told the Bluffton today reporter that he had no idea the Players Amateur champion is awarded a sponsor exemption to play in the RBC Heritage.
“I made the putt, I looked at [my caddy], and he says, ‘You just qualified for your first PGA Tour event. I had no words. I am excited to come back.”
The final round charge for Knowles started with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 2-4 and then continued with a 7th hole birdie that saw the 2016 Atlantic Sun All-Freshman team member turn in 4-under 32 and at 10-under for the tournament.
Still chasing and despite a better than three-hour rain delay, Knowles continued to rally with 14th, 15th and 17th hole birdies. The final birdie ended up being good enough to put Knowles into the playoff.
Nimmer, a junior for Clemson, had chance to win the tournament outright but he bogeyed the closing hole to finish regulation 13-under and in the playoff against Knowles.
For much of the day Nimmer, who shot a final round 3-under 68, was in control of his game and following a birdie on No. 16 he was 14-under and alone in the lead.
Vanderbilt teammates Patrick Martin and 54-hole co-leader Theo Humphrey shared third at 12-under while in a tie for fifth it was William Rainey of the College of Charleston and Vanderbilt's John Augenstein at 11-under.
ABOUT THE
Players Amateur
While competing in the 1999 US Amateur
Championship at Pebble Beach, former US
Walker Cup
Team members, Duke Delcher and Tom
McKnight
discussed the formation of a premier 72-hole
stroke
play amateur golf tournament. The inaugural
Players
Amateur was held the next summer. Former
British
Open Champion, Ben Curtis, was the winner of
the
2000 event. In 2004, the Heritage Classic
Foundation
began running the event. The Heritage Classic
Foundation was formed in 1987 as a 501 (c) (3),
not-
for-profit organization, it serves as the
operational
and financial oversight group for the PGA Tour
RBC
Heritage Classic. The Foundation distributes all
charitable funds generated from the tournaments
to
charity. The winner of The Players Amateur gets
an
exemption into the PGA Tour RBC Heritage
Classic, as
well as the Master of the Amateurs tournament
in
Melbourne, Australia.
View Complete Tournament Information