25 February 2019: In just his 11th start on the PGA TOUR, Martin Trainer earned his first PGA TOUR win with a facile three-stroke victory over Daniel Berger, Roger Sloan, Johnson Wagner and overnight leader Aaron Baddeley. The 27-year-old scored a brilliant 67 to move to 15-under 273 with the chasing pack closing their rounds at 12-under. Arjun Atwal (72-73-74-75) finished in 70th place. Even though he made three birdies on Sunday, he also made doubles at the 8th and 16th to cede considerable ground.
Wagner’s 67 earned him his highest finish since he was T2 at the Houston Open in 2015. For Sloan, his T2 at the Coco Beach Golf and Country Club was his best ever PGA TOUR finish.
Berger has been rated highly for a while now, but he went cold after a second place finish at the 2017 Travelers Championship underlined his promise. A solid 66 on Sunday should help his confidence.
Baddeley just could not get his groove on Sunday, settling for an even 72 and a tie for second with the three other men. The best round of the day came from Shawn Stefani, who shot seven birdies in a clean 65 to finish T6.
Trainer becomes the fourth first-time winner of the 2018-19 season, joining Kevin Tway (Safeway Open), Cameron Champ (Sanderson Farms Championship) and Adam Long (Desert Classic). He also joins Champ and Long as the third rookie winner of the season. He also earns fully exempt status for all of 2018-2019 through 2021-2022 seasons.
“I never thought that I would be able to win on the PGA TOUR,” said Trainer. “I managed to do it today and that’s just incredible.”
“I never had the luxury of making a plan. I was just trying to play as many events as I could,” added Trainer. “So now I guess that will be a little different, I’ll be able to pick and choose where I want to go and have a little more flexibility with my schedule. It’s just such a great feeling to be able to have that.”
Victory in Puerto Rico also earns him entry into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Heritage, PGA Championship, Charles Schwab Challenge and the Memorial Tournament later this season. He also earns entry into the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Puerto Rico native Rafa Campos, just one of four natives to make the cut this week, carded a final-round 71 to finish T49. Amateur Bryson Nimmer, a Clemson University senior, shot a 3-under 69 to finish T47 (-3) for the tournament in his TOUR debut.
Final-Round Leaderboard
Martin Trainer 70-67-69-67—273 (-15)
Daniel Berger 70-71-69-66—276 (-12)
Roger Sloan 70-67-72-67—276 (-12)
Johnson Wagner 69-69-69-69—276 (-12)
Aaron Baddeley 70-68-66-72—276 (-12)
Bogey-free rounds
R1 (8): Andres Romero (66), Alex Kang (68), Roberto Castro (68), Martin Flores (69), Kramer Hickok (69), David Lingmerth (69), Curtis Luck (70), Aaron Baddeley (70)
R2 (3): Roberto Diaz (68), Curtis Luck (68), John Chin (70)
R3 (5): Aaron Baddeley (66), J.J. Henry (67), Stuart Appleby (69), Ken Duke (70), Julian Etulain (70)
R4 (4): Shawn Stefani (65), Charl Schwartzel (66), Derek Fathauer (67), Scott Brown (68)
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