PGA TOUR

Graham DeLaet finishes second at the Waste Management Phoenix Open

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Graham DeLaet (Golf Canada/Bernard Brault)

Kevin Stadler won the Phoenix Open on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title when playing partner Bubba Watson missed a 5-footer for par on the final hole.

Stadler, the 33-year-old son of PGA Tour winner Craig Stadler, closed with a 3-under 68 for a one-stroke victory over Watson and Canadian Graham DeLaet.

Stadler won in his 239th PGA Tour start, earning a spot in the Masters — a tournament his father won in 1982. The Stadlers are the ninth father-son winners in tour history.

Stadler finished at 16-under 268 at TPC Scottsdale, his home course. Raised in Colorado, he played in Denver Broncos colours, wearing an orange shirt and blue pants and hat.

Watson finished with a 71, while DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask. carded a 65. After hitting it into the water on the 15th, DeLaet rallied with birdies on the final two holes. He also tied for second last week at Torrey Pines.

DeLaet gains momentum after back-to-back second place finishes

On the heels of a second place finish last week at the Farmers Insurance Open, Graham DeLaet fired a pair of 65’s over the weekend at TPC Scottsdale to record his fourth top 10 finish of the season.

“I have been playing well for the last few months, I really feel like I worked super hard in the off-season. It’s nice to see it paying off,” DeLaet said. “Disappointing here to be within one, I think this is the fourth time now, but I’ll be back I hope.”

After dunking his tee shot into the pond on the par-5 15th hole, DeLaet rebounded with a birdie on the short par-4 17th and rolled in a second birdie on his closing hole to grab a share of the lead.

“I knew that I needed probably to birdie the last two, that back pin on 17 is really, really tough, and I hit what I thought was a pretty good shot there, but I still had 12, 15 feet,” he said. “To birdie the last, I knew that I had to, I was trying to hole it, but, you know, birdie is second best.”

The second place finish earned DeLaet $545,000 and moved him into 11th place in the FedEx Cup standings. He’s currently the highest ranked Canadian in world at No. 26.

The Waste Management Phoenix Open drew an estimated 563,008 fans, breaking the seven-day record of record of 538,356 set in 2008. The tournament set records the last five days, drawing agolf-record 189,722 on Saturday and 60,232 on Sunday.