Matt McCarty just keeps winning, no matter the tour.
The 26-year-old former Santa Clara University golfer smashed his drive within 3 feet of the hole at the drivable par-4, 14thgreen at Black Desert Resort to set up an eagle en route to posting a final-round 4-under 67 on Sunday and win the inaugural Black Desert Championship in Ivins, Utah.
“I knew if I played well this week after last week then I could maybe have a chance but to do it like this? I don’t know how you could expect this, to be honest,” he said.
McCarty won three times in a span of six events on the Korn Ferry Tour to earn a promotion to the PGA Tour and in just his second start in the big leagues, he returned to the winner’s circle with a 72-hole total of 23-under 261 and a three-shot victory over Stephan Jaeger.
“Winning sometimes just seems like it kind of happens, especially lately,” McCarty said. “When it rains it pours right now for me.”
McCarty, who opened with a bogey-free 62, grabbed the lead with a third-round 64 and entered the final round with a two-stroke advantage. All week long, the left-hander reminded himself that if he could win on the Kerry Ferry Tour, why couldn’t he do the same on the PGA Tour? On Sunday, he experienced nerves just as he had during his previous trips to the winner’s circle only this time they didn’t subside; they kept building, he said. It didn’t hurt that he added a birdie right out of the gate at the first and seventh before a bogey at No. 12 cut his lead to one stroke. But the eagle at 14 gave McCarty a three-stroke cushion and he tacked on two more birdies at Nos. 16 and 18, sandwiched between a three-putt bogey at 17 and cruised to his maiden title on the PGA Tour.
297 yards to 3 feet 😤@MattMcCarty21 sticks it on the drivable par-4 14th @BDChampionship. pic.twitter.com/ZggL7fBHmn
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2024
He became the first player since Jason Gore in 2005 to win three times on the Korn Ferry Tour and then on the PGA Tour in the same season. It was just his third career Tour start — he had previously played in the 2022 U.S. Open — and since 1970 only five players have won as quickly (or faster).
McCarty’s triumph at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open in August secured him that circuit’s first Three-Victory Promotion in a year since Wesley Bryan in 2016, and just the 13th player to do so in the Tour’s 34-year history. Before his first start since his promotion last week at the…
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