“No, I really didn’t do that,” Schenk admitted.
Do you blame him? The 33-year-old Schenk, a veteran of eight seasons on the PGA Tour, missed 13 of his final 16 matches to end the regular season and entered this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship ranked No. 134 in the FedExCup in danger of losing his PGA Tour card for the first time.
His season had been so frustrating that by the time Schenk showed up at Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton, Bermuda, the penultimate stop of the fall, he had used different putting grips, even resorting to stroking putts with just his right hand.
“I still believed in it a little bit,” Schenk continued, “but when I missed seven out of eight cuts in a row, it’s kind of hard to keep the faith alive.”
He won’t have a problem now as Schenk, in his 243rd career start on the PGA Tour, is finally a champion. In a relentless wind that blew his competitors off course left and right, Schenk recorded just two bogeys in his final 56 holes. He had one on Sunday, when he shot an even-par 71, went up and down on the last and finished at 12 under, one shot ahead of runner-up Chandler Phillips.
While fellow 54-hole leader Braden Thornberry was sent packing early en route to a final-round 80, Schenk clung to a slim lead for much of the day — or co-lead with Vince Whaley, who birdied four of his first six holes before falling back. By the time Schenk bogeyed the par-4 15th and missed a 10-footer for par, he still led by a shot over Frankie Capan III. Capan bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 to end his threat, eventually finishing in third place with Whaley and three others. Phillips birdied the par-5 17th to get back to 11 under, and he would par the 18th to take the clubhouse lead.
“It’s damn hard, man,” Phillips said afterward about the 30-mile-per-hour winds and gusts up to 45 miles per hour. “I love playing in the wind, but this was the most I’ve ever played in.”
Phillips needed help, but Schenk never gave it.
He hit back-to-back long irons on the par-5 17th, his second shot, a layup, getting barely six feet in the air. Then he squeezed to six feet, and although he holed the birdie putt, Schenk had no complaints about par on a hole with 18 bogeys or worse on Sunday. At the par-4 finishing hole, Schenk flew over the green with his approach from the fairway, but he took the putter from the fairway cut and was left 5 feet, this time finding the bottom of the cup.
“I knew I could win, it was just a matter of executing every shot and facing every situation I put myself in,” Schenk said. “I can’t believe it’s over. It seemed like the longest day ever.”
Before Sunday, Schenk had not won anywhere since the 2017 Lincoln Land Charity Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. He graduated from the PGA Tour that year and then needed the KFT Finals to keep his PGA Tour card after his rookie season. But Schenk has now had seven consecutive seasons finishing within the fully exempt limit in the FedExCup. Of course, Sunday’s win means Schenk doesn’t have to worry about the points table, at least when it comes to keeping his job, for another two years.
Phillips will move up in points from No. 139 to No. 92, meaning he’s likely to commit his entire card for next year. Whaley, Alex Smalley and Max McGreevy, all T-3, boast the same thing; McGreevy entered the week No. 100 and is now No. 89. Takumi Kanaya, the other T-3, will enter next week’s RSM Classic at No. 99, while Capan is No. 124, a spot in the top 125 for conditional status.
“I’m just happy to be in the top 100,” Phillips said. “I know I still have a week to go, but at least I’m not going into next week in the same position I was in this week, looking at it like, God, I have to win to have a job here.”
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