Christiaan Bezuidenhout missed out on a spot in a play-off on Sunday by just a single stroke as he finished in a share of sixth in the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi.
Bezuidenhout had made eagle on 14 in the final round to move within one stroke of the lead when he hit his 298-yard approach to inside 14 feet on the par-five and made the putt. But he made bogey on the 15th when he nearly drove the green on the short par-four. He fluffed his chip to the right rough, still nearly 50 feet from the pin. It took him three more shots to get down from there.
Although he made birdie on 18, that bogey hurt his chances of winning, and he finished the tournament on 17-under in a share of sixth. Luke List of the United States won a five-way play-off, defeating fellow Americans Ben Griffin and Scott Stallings, and Swedes Ludvig Aborg and Henrik Norlander on the first extra hole.
Garrick Higgo finished well with his closing seven-under-par 65 to climb 46 places on the leaderboard for a share of 16th on 12-under.
Also on 12-under was Erik van Rooyen, who closed with a frustrating level-par 72. Van Rooyen was projected to climb one place to 125th on the FedEx Fall rankings, just five places out of the crucial top 120 which would give him a bigger quota of starts in 2024.
Bezuidenhout was projected to climb to 92nd, and Higgo to 75th, and seem safe at this stage.
