Jeff Maggert Wins the Charles Schwab Championship

Last updated on: November 10, 2019 at 6:58 pm by Kermit Zarley

Jeff Maggert Wins the Charles Schwab Championship 2019-11-10T18:58:43-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Just minutes ago here in the Phoenix Valley, where I live, Jeff Maggert won the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship at Phoenix Country Club in heroic fashion on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour. He and Retief Goosen–a two-time U.S. Open champion from South Africa–tied in regulation play at 21 under par to force a sudden-death playoff that ended on the third extra hole.

Both Maggert and Goosen had been making some putts during their final round, with Maggert often leading by one stroke. But on the first extra hole, which they played on the reachable par-five 18th hole, both missed short birdie putts. Goosen missed second from only about two feet. They then played the second extra hole on the 18th hole again, and this time they both birdied it.

They then played the third extra hole on the short par-four 17th hole. It has a tight driving area with a fairway sand bunker on the right. Yet both players used a driver off the tee. Goosen drove first, and his ball went into the middle of the bunker. Maggert–who was a short but very straight driver in his history on the regular PGA Tour–drove perfectly, in the middle of the fairway with a 123 yard second shot to the green. The right side of the 17th green juts up right next to a lake, and the pin was located on the right side of the green.

Goosen played first and struck a brilliant second shot from the sand bunker onto the green to only about eight feet from the hole. He definitely was now in the driver’s seat.

But there was another golf show going on with this play, and Goosen was one of the two contenders in it. The Champions Tour has a year-long sponsor. It is the Charles Schwab Corporation, which is a huge bank and stock brokerage company. Therefore, this single tournament was one show, and the other show was the Charles Schwab Cup. Points are allotted throughout the year in the Charles Schwab Cup. Scot McCarron had been leading in points all year long. But he had faltered in the last three tournaments and Goosen had moved up in points. Thus, if Goosen won this playoff with Maggert, Goosen would win both the tournament and the Cup. But if Goosen lost the playoff to Maggert, McCarron would win the Cup after finishing fourth, third, and second in the Cup standings in previous years. So, there was a lot of drama going on in that playoff, with McCarron feeling on pins and needles in the clubhouse watching.

Now it was Maggert’s turn to play his second shot on this third playoff hole to the par-four 17th, with Goosen sittin’ pretty at eight feet from the hole. Jeff Maggert, who is from my old hometown of Houston, Texas, takes a little more time than most Tour players in addressing the golf ball. Plus, he just stands there and doesn’t move anything. And when he starts his backswing, he has no forward press at all, which is unusual. Lots of golfers feel that if they did that, they might get “frozen” and not be able to draw the club back. But not Maggert. That’s just the way he plays the game.

As Maggert swung his club on that shot, I was thinking of how I have often marveled at how he can swing the club back and down in the backswing on what appears to be the same exact plane. That is what many Tour players have striven to do in their careers. The great ball striker Ben Hogan made that idea famous with his first instructional book about the golf swing, Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, which has many superb drawings of Hogan’s golf swing with an imaginary sheet of glass covering the plane of his swing. That’s how Hogan said he always imagined trying to the swing, and there may not have been anybody who ever has done it as well has him. However, Jeff Maggert might be close.

Anyway, Jeff hit his second shot on this third playoff hole. The ball landed a few feet short of the hole, right on line, took two short bounces, and hopped in the hole like a bunny rabbit. Everyone was stunned. The PGA Tour commentators, such as Lanny Wadkins and John Cook, said it was one of the greatest finishes in golf they had ever seen.

This was Jeff Maggert’s sixth win on the Champions Tour. And Scot McCarron was rejoicing in the clubhouse as he finally got to the top by winning the Cup. And it was fitting that Maggert won since he is a PING player and the PING corporation is located only a few miles away.

Incidentally, some of the tournaments on the Champions Tour have returned to venues that we used to play on the regular Tour forty and fifty years ago or more, and one of them is the Phoenix Country Club where the Phoenix Open used to be staged every year. I played that tournament there many times.

Previous Post

November 9, 2019

Funny Trump Stuff

Next Post

November 13, 2019 Televised American Lessons in Democracy Began Today

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who became jealous and tried to kill David several times?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Saul Abner Abiathar Samuel

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »