GREER, S.C. – Two weeks ago, Adrien Dumont de Chassart was a broke college student feeling disappointed that his University of Illinois team didn’t make it past the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
Today, he’s a proven pro with a six-digit bank account.
Dumont de Chassart, a 23-year-old in his first professional golf tournament, chased down the leader with a remarkable back nine Sunday and won the BMW Charity Pro-Am on an extra playoff hole at the Thornblade Club.
He beat 44-year-old veteran Josh Teater, who led all week and was looking for his second career win on the Korn Ferry Tour, a developmental league but also a repositioning league, especially in his case, for the PGA Tour.
After a weather delay of three and a half hours, Dumont de Chassart stormed to the top.
“I remember looking at the leaderboard at 13,” he said. “And then I kind of got on a roll.”
Dumont de Chassart shot par on No. 12, where he was standing in the tee box when the weather siren emptied the course more than three hours earlier, and then went birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle.
Suddenly, he was one shot ahead of Teater, who didn’t have to look at the scoreboard to know what was happening in front of him.
Dumont de Chassart was picking off shots like it was as easy as picking apples off a tree.
And after making up five strokes on four holes, he pulled a Red Delicious out of his bag and chomped away down the fairway on 17. He bogeyed 18, however, to fall back into tie and a playoff.
They were going to keep playing 18 until dark, if necessary, to settle this. It took only one more time.
Dumont de Chassart chipped to within inches, made par, and Teater missed his potential tying putt.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Dumont de Chassart said. “I came here with no expectation. I just wanted to play my game and see where I was compared to all these players. I hit the ball very well this week. I had a great short game, too. I was cool to see I can compete at this level.”
Dumont de Chassart won $180,000. It was $90,000 more than second place.
“I’m not doing it for the money,” he said. “But that was pretty exciting stuff.”
Dumont de Chassart is a native of Belgium, where his family back home was watching well past midnight.
“They stayed up,” he said. “I’m glad they saw that.”
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…