Aldrich Potgieter had been banging on the door for months.
And for a 20-year-old former rugby player and wrestler who is seemingly still listed at his grade-school weight (211 pounds), those knocks have been hard, just ineffective when it came to the overarching pursuit.
Potgieter led by three shots through three days of the DP World Tour’s season opener last December before coughing up the Nedbank Golf Challenge, colloquially known as Africa’s Open, with a sloppy final round.
Then in late January, he closed in 78 to eject from contention at the Farmers Insurance Open.
And a few weeks later, in a playoff at the Mexico Open, it was the PGA Tour’s shortest hitter, Brian Campbell, toppling Potgieter, the Tour’s longest but with clear flaws from short range.
But on Sunday evening in Detroit, the burly South African finally knocked that door down.
After shrugging off another rocky start and some late misses with the putter, Potgieter drained an 18-footer for birdie on Detroit Golf Club’s par-3 15th hole, the fifth in a playoff against Max Greyserman (and earlier Chris Kirk), to capture the Rocket Classic and become the youngest of his countrymen to win on the PGA Tour. Potgieter’s maiden victory also makes him the third youngest winner in the last half-century, older than only Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods.
“I’m just happy to walk away as a winner,” said Potgieter on the 15th green, still trying to catch his breath amid the settling dust.
The longest playoff in PGA Tour history went 11 holes. That was at the 1949 Motor City Open in Detroit, and overtime would’ve gone on longer had darkness not forced Lloyd Mangrum and Cary Middlecoff to share the title.
For a while, Sunday’s playoff felt like it would challenge that.
Potgieter, Greyserman and Kirk broke out of a logjam that saw 13 players within three shots when the final group made the turn on Sunday afternoon. Kirk missed a 16-foot birdie putt at the last, settling for a 5-under 67 and the clubhouse lead at 22 under. Greyserman (67) and Potgieter (69) soon joined him after Greyserman’s birdie bid from 12 feet missed and Potgieter, the 54-hole leader by two, closed out a tricky two-putt from 40 feet.
Putts remained elusive in extras.
Kirk had 9 feet for the win on the first playoff hole, No. 18, and missed. He was eliminated with a bogey one hole later, on No. 15, where Greyserman couldn’t convert a winner from 11 feet. Then at the par-4 16th, the third of overtime, both Potgieter and Greyserman whiffed on 15-footers. And on the next, the par-5 14th, two-putt birdies were traded.
Once Greyserman missed on a 35-footer at No. 15, the fifth of the playoff, it set the stage for Potgieter’s winning blow, when the lid finally came off the hole – and the proverbial door flew off its hinges.
“I left a lot short, so it was definitely a grind to kind of pull something out of the books to kind of feel like I can hit the putt a lot harder but not lose where I’m aiming and matching the speed and the line,” Potgieter said. “It was definitely hard playing all those playoff holes where putts weren’t dropping where I had really good looks at it.
“It was nice to finish on a really good putt.”
Greyserman, still winless, has now finished runner-up four times on the PGA Tour. He also was second twice on the Koen Ferry Tour two years ago.
“It’s getting late in the day, greens are getting crusty, they’re redoing the course, putts just didn’t drop,” said Greyserman, who opted to change shoes right before the playoff after his right sole got stuck in a locker-room doorframe, breaking one of his spikes. “I hit a lot of good putts. This one’s going to sting for a little bit, but I’ll get back to work in two weeks.”
This week marked Potgieter’s first action in over a month, since the Charles Schwab Challenge in late May at Colonial, where he tied for sixth.
Potgieter took the time to return home to Mossel Bay, South Africa, and recharge. He also made some equipment changes, ditching his previous Titleist blades for a more forgiving mix of the brands new T-100 and T-150 irons. He also switched into the Pro V1x+ ball, needing more spin to keep his shots in the air longer and avoid the hot knucklers that would often go too far.
“I think I did a really good job of not coming in expecting too much because so much has changed,” Potgieter said. “It’s nice. I thought I didn’t hit enough balls at home, I could have done a little bit more work, but it’s nice to kind of see some results coming from the club-fitting and having
some time off to breathe a bit.”
Potgieter checked out of his AirBnb at 10 a.m. Sunday, which meant that he had a couple hours to kill before he was to arrive at Detroit Golf Club around noon. So, the youngster went to a coffee shop.
Bad move.
“That got me a little shaky,” Potgieter admitted.
He did birdie his opening hole, but bogeys at Nos. 2 and 5 followed, and Potgieter had lost his lead. With the same, old story starting to play out once again, Potgieter took control of his nerves, telling himself, “We’ve got to change and play like we did the first three days.”
“There was a switch that kind of went off when I lost the lead, and I kind of felt like I can kind of chase something,” Potgieter later explained. “I kind of had to pull myself out of the environment I was in before those first couple holes and get in that chase mode where I can kind of play some different golf.”
He birdied Nos. 7 and 8, then Nos. 13 and 14, and he almost eagled the par-5 17th after going flag-hunting from 200 yards, narrowly missing a 17-footer.
He missed a lot from there, but he made the one that counted most.
Then he whiffed a final time.
At some point in the rush of victory, Potgieter decided to toss his golf ball to a young fan. Yes, he disregarded his winning, white sphere.
“I don’t know, it was just in the moment,” Potgieter said. “I was just pumped up. I know my grandma’s probably going to be quite mad at me. I give her all my stuff that I’ve won with, so she’s not going to be pretty happy.”
No worries, Grandma, there will be plenty more.
The door’s been kicked down.
