After fifteen holes it looked like Fisher’s Todd Palmer was
going to coast to victory at the IGA Match Play Championship at Hillview
CC. Palmer had a 3-up lead over Lapel’s
Brodie Williams, and Williams was going to have to do something spectacular to
have any chance of winning. With a birdie on 15, Williams cut Palmer’s lead to
two.
“That was my first birdie of the day,” Williams said. “I had 14 straight pars up until that point
and I knew pars weren’t going to be good enough today.”
Williams went on to birdie 16 and 17 to Palmer’s pars and just
like that they were all square headed to 18, and it became a very different
match.
Both players hit their tee shots right down the middle and about three yards apart from one another. Williams missed the green short left, with
what looked like would be an easy up-and-down for birdie. Palmer missed his second shot well left of
the green and had to maneuver around trees if he wanted to give himself a
birdie putt.
“I just wanted to give my putt a good roll,” Williams
said. “I felt like I knew what it was
going to do, I just had to put a good roll on it.”
Williams hit his putt right in the center of the hole, for
his fourth consecutive birdie. Palmer
had to do the same to stay alive, but missed it by about an inch.
“It’s really cool to win,” Williams said. “I just wanted to come out here and make some
noise. This is one of the three most
important IGA events and I’m really happy with how things worked out.”
Williams, the 2012 IGA Public Links Champ, adds this to his
list of achievements and made a tremendous comeback to capture the title.