JACKSON, Miss. — Steven Fisk said he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of his first PGA Tour victory, and it took birdies on his last three holes Sunday to close with an 8-under 64 to win the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Fisk and Garrick Higgo of South Africa finally separated themselves over the closing holes at the Country Club of Jackson, and they put on quite a show.
They were tied when Fisk missed a 5-foot birdie putt on the reachable par-4 15th. That turned out to be his last mistake.
He holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 16th, and Higgo said he heard someone in the crowd say, “Take that, Higgo.” The South African answered with a 12-foot birdie of his own — his fourth in a row on the back nine — and playfully put his finger against his lips with a smile.
Fisk hit wedge that danced around the cup and settled 3 feet away on the 17th. Higgo answered again with a wedge to just outside 3 feet. It appeared as though it would go down to the wire, except that Higgo’s short birdie putt caught the left lip.
Fisk pulled one ahead with the birdie and then left no doubt with an approach to 4 feet for one final birdie to win by two shots over Higgo.
Steven Fisk reacts to his birdie putt on the 18th green and shakes hands with Garrick Higgo. Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
“I came out today with an attitude that nothing was going to stop me,” Fisk said during his Golf Channel interview on the 18th green. “I just felt like I’d be standing right here, right now, before the round started. I know I’m good enough. I thought I could do it.”
And he did, finishing at 24-under 264 for a win that carries big benefits for the 28-year-old who played his college golf at Georgia Southern and who played on the 2019 Walker Cup team at Royal Liverpool.
Fisk was at No. 135 in the FedEx Cup standings, destined to return to the Korn Ferry Tour unless he made up ground during the remaining two months of the Fall Series. Only the top 100 at the end of the season keep full cards.
He now has a two-year exemption through 2027, after it took him five years to get to the tour.
“To have some job security is pretty nice,” Fisk said. “It’s been a long, hard year.”
Higgo looked to have taken himself out of the mix with a bogey-bogey start to the back nine. But then he ran off four straight birdies to catch Fisk, and was poised to make it five in a row until the short miss at the 17th that cost him.
“My mindset was to birdie every hole,” Higgo said. “I almost did that. Steven did the same, so hats off to him.”
Danny Walker was tied for the lead early on the back nine, but he hit it into the water going for the green on the par-5 11th and made bogey, and then drove left into a hazard on the 17th that led to another bogey. He shot 69 and tied for third with Vince Whaley (67) and Ryder Cup player Rasmus Hojgaard, who had a 66-65 weekend.
All three of those players came away with a small consolation prize. Hojgaard was at No. 87 in the FedEx Cup, which is why he left the Ryder Cup celebration in New York for Mississippi. He went up 12 spots to No. 75.
The other two moved up 18 spots, Whaley to No. 84 and Walker to No. 86.
“I won’t be quite as stressed out, hopefully, around that 100 number,” said Walker, who had missed the cut in eight straight tournaments coming into the Sanderson Farms Championship. “You can just go to play to win, really. That will be a lot nicer feeling.”
Hojgaard, Whaley and Walker were among those headed for Japan for the Baycurrent Classic, the lone PGA Tour stop in Asia this year.
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