Christiaan Bezuidenhout punched his ticket to the 150th Open Championship on Sunday as he made a thrilling charge in an attempt to win his maiden PGA Tour title. In the end, he finished in a share of second in the John Deere Classic.
His closing five-under-par 66 was the low round of the day, and it saw him climb six places on the leaderboard to 18-under for the tournament. That was three shots behind the winner JT Poston of the United States, who made things difficult for his pursuers with his opening nine-under 62 taking him well clear of danger for the rest of the week.
Poston closed with a 69 to also take a spot at St Andrews in two weeks’ time, and so did Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, who shared second with Bezuidenhout.
Bezuidenhout’s final round was bogey-free, with birdies on three and eight coming from his trademark precision iron-play. His three birdies on the homeward nine – on 14, 15 and 17 – came from some impressive putting, and he narrowly missed birdie putts from inside 20 feet on 10, 16 and 18.
His performance saw him climb inside the top 100 on the FedEx Cup rankings to 55th, with eight tournaments (including the Open Championship) before the play-offs which get underway on August 11.
Dylan Frittelli had a closing three-under 68 to climb nine places into a share of 30th. He moved to 102nd in the FedEx Cup rankings.
