TALOR GOOCH won his first US PGA Tour title in impressive style Sunday, carding six birdies in a six-under par 64 to win the RSM Classic by three strokes, while Ireland’s Seamus Power finished in the top four.
Gooch, 30, had taken a three-shot lead into the final round and never faltered on the par-70 Seaside course at Sea Island, Georgia, his 22-under par total of 260 leaving him three clear of runner-up Mackenzie Hughes of Canada.
Hughes did everything he could, but an eight-under 62 that featured nine birdies wasn’t enough.
“Man, it was a great week,” Gooch said. “I played well all week obviously, and today being a crucial day, I had a couple opportunities where things could have taken a turn for the worse and I was able to make some clutch putts … was able to kind of just keep my foot on the gas all day.”
Gooch got things rolling early with a four-foot birdie putt at the second. He rolled in a nine-footer at the fourth and birdied 10 and 11 to reach 20-under.
After a 16-foot birdie at the 13th, Gooch nabbed his last birdie of the day at the par-five 15th to take a five-stroke lead.
“That was kind of the final topper,” Gooch said of his birdie at 15. “I knew getting birdie there, that was going to give me a good cushion coming down to the last three. So that was a great shot I hit in there and yeah, it was a good birdie.”
Hughes trimmed the deficit with birdies at the 15th, 16th and 18th but remained in search of his first PGA Tour victory.
“If you told me I would have shot 62 I thought I might be pretty close, but Talor obviously played great this week and deserved to win,” Hughes said. “Looking at my own game, I feel like I’ve been getting better with each week. (I) feel like my game is trending in the right direction and hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll get one of those wins.”
Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz, who started the day tied for second with Power three shots behind Gooch, had four of his six birdies on the back nine in a five-under 65 and came solo third on 264.
Ireland’s Power was four-under for the day through 15 holes but a double bogey at the 16th saw him finish on 68 to head a group sharing fourth on 267.
Leading third-round scores on Sunday in the US PGA Tour RSM Classic on the par-70 Seaside course and par-72 Plantation course at sea Island, Georgia (USA unless noted):
260 – Talor Gooch 64-65-67-64
263 – Mackenzie Hughes (CAN) 63-68-70-62
264 – Sebastian Munoz (COL) 60-70-69-65
267 – Tyler McCumber 69-68-70-60, Cameron Smith (AUS) 64-71-68-64, Tom Hoge 65-68-67-67, Seamus Power (IRL) 63-69-67-68
268 – Taylor Moore 66-65-71-66, Webb Simpson 69-67-66-66
269 – Denny McCarthy 66-72-65-66, Luke List 68-67-66-68
270 – Keith Mitchell 68-67-70-65, Justin Rose 67-68-70-65 (ENG), John Huh 63-67-72-68, Jhonattan Vegas (COL) 64-72-67-67
