22 June 2020: Webb Simpson is no stranger to winning on Father’s Day. He is the 2012 US Open Champion, a major that has traditionally decorated its winner on the day. Simpson rose to the top of the FedEx Cup rankings with a one-shot victory over Abraham Ancer in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.
Tyrrell Hatton had close calls at the 17th and 18th, but he missed by inches as he settled for a T3 with Daniel Berger. The latter has now gone 32 straight rounds under par. Berger is chasing Fred Funk, who shot 38 straight in 2001-02. Tiger Woods has the record for the most consecutive rounds under par with 52, perhaps very safe even with Berger in hot pursuit.
In a thrilling finish, six contenders went shoulder to shoulder on the final stretch, before Simpson separated himself with a birdie on the 17th hole. It was his fifth birdie on the back nine, as he raised his game just when he needed to pull away from the crowd.
“It was a crazy day. Honestly, I’m speechless right now. We had that big delay, I texted my good friend, to see if I could stay at his house here tonight,” said Simpson, soaked in the excitement of his seventh PGA TOUR victory. “It looked like we weren’t going to finish, but we went back out, the Tour did a great job getting us out there pretty quickly, only had a 20 minute warmup. It was a long day on the golf course as well, I didn’t really get it going until 12, and then the putts started going in, and I was getting confident, and it’s amazing to be standing here right now.”
Simpson finished at 22-under with scores of 66-65-68-64, good enough to move to 5th in the world rankings. Ancer made six birdies, but got most of his work done on the front nine. He had only two birdies on the inward stretch, at the 15th and 17th as he pushed hard to become the youngest golfer since Sergio Garcia in 2001 to win twice on the PGA TOUR.
Garcia shot a third straight 65 to finish in T5 with his protege Joaquin Niemann. The latter followed through his third round 63 with a final round 65, falling just short of what may have been an impressive victory after a slow start. He made 69 and 68 in the opening two rounds, on the par-71 course.
