McNeill locks up Tour job security
George McNeill made his first PGA Tour victory look like child’s play Sunday.
His win in the $4 million Frys.com Open at TPC Summerlin was more like hide-and-seek than golf. After carrying a five-shot lead into the final round, none of his competitors was able to find McNeill, much less catch him.
He closed with a 5-under-par 67 for a four-day total of 23-under 264, a four-shot victory over playing partner D.J. Trahan and a first-place check of $720,000.
Just as important, the victory guarantees McNeill will keep his Tour playing privileges for the next two years. Needing to finish in the top 125 money winners for guaranteed exempt status, he came to Las Vegas on the bubble at 122nd with $702,127. Now he’s No. 59 after more than doubling his 2007 earnings to $1,422,127.
“I was trying not to think about all that while I was playing,” McNeill said. “But knowing I have a job the next two years definitely takes the pressure off of me.”
McNeill became the fourth straight champion and seventh in all to use Las Vegas as the site of his first Tour victory. Andre Stolz started the run in 2004, followed by Wes Short Jr. in 2005 and Troy Matteson in 2006. Jim Furyk (1995), Tiger Woods (1996) and Phil Tataurangi (2002) were the others.
McNeill pretty much had a Sunday stroll. The victory was well in hand by the time he made his only mistake, missing a par putt on No. 18 and taking his only bogey of the round. Trahan got as close as three shots and wound up four back at 268, but everyone else was out of the picture.
“I knew I was in the driver’s seat,” McNeill said. “If I shot 5-under, that meant someone would have to shoot 10-under to beat me. And if anyone did that, I would shake their hand and say, ‘Congratulations.’
“But the whole day, I had the mind-set that I was going to play my game and not worry about what D.J. or anyone else was doing. I didn’t want to back off and I didn’t want to make any mistakes.”
McNeill started quickly, making birdie on Nos. 1 and 3. He stayed even the rest of the front side and made the turn at 2 under for the day. He heated up on the back nine, carding birdies at Nos. 11, 13 and 14, where he made a 30-foot putt to reach 23 under.
“When I made that putt at 14, I knew something was right for me,” McNeill said.
He got as low as 6 under for the day with a birdie at the par-5 16th. By then he was five shots ahead of Trahan with two holes to play. It was just a matter of time before McNeill got to pose with four Las Vegas showgirls and the crystal championship trophy.
Trahan began his round with four straight birdies to pull within three shots of McNeill. But he made bogey at the par-4 No. 6 and that hiccup, however slight, was costly considering the way McNeill was playing.
“It almost seemed insignificant given the way George played,” Trahan said of his 5-under 66. “He went out there and played solid golf. I thought we both did that. But with the lead he had coming in and the way he managed his game today, it was going to be tough for anyone to catch him.”
Trahan earned $432,000 for his runner-up finish — a gratifying outcome considering his best finish this year had been a tie for seventh.
“With the end of the season coming up, it was nice to have a good week,” said Trahan, who passed the $1 million mark for 2007 and climbed from 126th to 81st on the money list. “It’s been a frustrating year for me. My putting has been terrible. But I made some putts this week and that was the difference.”
Cameron Beckman and Robert Garrigus tied for third, four shots back at 272. Las Vegan Bob May closed well with a 3-under 69 and tied for fifth with Bo Van Pelt at 273.
But this was McNeill’s day. Less than two years ago, he was out of the game, working in a pro shop in Florida and planning to go back to qualifying school for the ninth time in an attempt to regain his playing privileges. Today he’s got his first Tour title securely tucked away and Q-school is nothing but a distant memory.
“You know what they say about what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Hopefully my game from this week will travel with me from Vegas,” McNeill said.
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2913.
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