Webb of Dreams: Simpson Posts Back-to-Back Birdies in Playoff to Capture DBC Title - September 5th

NORTON, Mass. – In the most dramatic finish in the nine-year history of the tournament, Webb Simpson holed a nine-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole, the par-4 17th, to defeat Chez Reavie and capture the 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship.
 
The win vaults Simpson to the top of the FedExCup point standings with two playoff events remaining. The winner of the FedExCup receives a $10 million first prize.

The winning birdie came after both players made birdies on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. Each missed the green left with their second shots. Simpson chipped the ball 15 feet past the hole while Reavie nestled his to three feet to seize the advantage.
 
Simpson, though, calmly approached the putt, backed off for a second read then buried it dead center of the cup.
 
“It was a tricky read,” said Simpson. “I had to hit it so soft that it could have done anything. We ended up picking the right line and it went right in the middle. 
 
It was the second time in the matter of an hour that he had made a long putt on 18 having drained a 26-footer from a similar spot to finish at 15-under to give himself a chance to make the playoff.
 
But even after that regulation birdie, Simpson’s prospect to reach a playoff was bleak. Reavie, playing two holes behind him had just birdied the par-3 16th to get to -16. After a par at 17, Reavie needed only a par on the closing hole, which all week had played as the easiest hole on the course.
 
Instead, Reavie chose to lay up and his approach shot, a wedge from 115 yards, got caught in the wind and flew the green, landing inches from the bleachers. After a drop, he was unable to get up and down, missing what would’ve been a 13-foot par putt to win in regulation.
 
“I pulled it a little bit,” said Reavie of his approach to regulation. “Then the wind switched from off the right and in [my face] to off the right and [at my back].”
 
“One in a hundred,” said Simpson when asked what he thought the odds were to get into a playoff. 
 
Midway through Monday’s final round, many would have said those odds of a playoff were more like even money. Six different players held the outright lead at some point during the day. Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Luke Donald all tied the front nine record with 6-under-par 30s.
 
But the back nine proved difficult late in the day. Snedeker made bogies at 12, 15 and 16 to fade. Donald double-bogeyed the 12th to drop out of the lead then made bogey at 16 to drop out of contention. Both rallied with late birdies to finish in a three-way tie for third with Jason Day at -13.
 
While most were crumbling, Reavie was catching fire. He drained birdie putts of 8 feet at 11, 24 feet at 13, 13 feet at 14 and a 32-foot bomb at 16.
 
He stood on the 17th green and heard the loud road of the crowd when Simpson birdied 18. That, though, didn’t change his approach to playing 18.
 
“My game plan on 18 with a one-shot lead was to hit it up the left and lay it up, wedge it on and make a par,” said Reavie. “My wedge didn’t quite work out.”
 
The bogey was the only blemish on a remarkable round for Reavie. His 5-under-par 66 was topped only by Simpson, who was one better at 65.
 
The silver-lining for Reavie comes in the way of the FedExCup standings. He moved from 87th at the beginning of the week to 9th, locking up a spot in both the BMW Championship in Chicago and the TOUR Championship in Atlanta. That’s certainly a bonus for a guy who began the year on tour with a major medical extension having missed most of last season with a knee injury.
 
“It’s unbelievable,” said Reavie, fighting back tears as he talked about clinching the TOUR Championship spot. “Starting the year on a medical and not knowing what’s going to happen, to be able to go to the TOUR Championship is a goal.”
 
For Simpson, the win is even sweeter as the 2,500 FedExCup points bolts him past Dustin Johnson to the top of the standings. It is his second career win and second in a three-week span.
 
“I told somebody that [after the win at the Wyndham Championship], next time I was in contention it would be easier,” said Simpson. “It wasn’t that way at all. It was just as hard.”
 
Just as hard, for certain, but being a win in the PGA TOUR Playoffs, it was much more sweet.