25 OR 7 FOR 1

By Torleif Sorenson on 12/15/14

For the second time, Greg Chalmers has won the Australian PGA Championship in a three-man playoff.

On Sunday, the Sydney native shot a Sunday eight-under-par 64 to go to seven holes of overtime. The problem is that tournament organizers decided to have Chalmers, Wade Ormsby, and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott replay the 18th hole over and over and over and over again until a winner emerged.

Ormsby lasted until the third verse, but Chalmers and Scott duked it out for four more nail-biting trips. Chalmers had some control problems, while Scott's broomstick putter failed him on four birdie attempts.

And when Scott missed a four-foot par-saver at the seventh playoff hole, Chalmers calmly nudged home his champion-winner from a shorter distance. Sunday's OT marathon was the longest-ever playoff in the history of Australia's top three tournaments.

With the win, Chalmers takes the PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit, boosted in part by a fourth-place finish at the Australian Open last weekend. That, he hopes, will get him back on the PGA Tour in 2015:

"I need all the help I can get next year, so just the fact that I'm going to get three extra events in a year when I'm probably only going to get 15 anyway off my category, is very exciting."

The 41-year-old splits time between Perth, Western Australia, and Dallas, Texas. And surely there is nothing he wants more than to become the next man from Australia to capture a major championship on American turf. But at the same time, we know that he hopes he doesn't have to go 25 holes on a Sunday again in order to get it.


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