Steven Bowditch features twice in our 10-1 countdown
Steven Bowditch features twice in our 10-1 countdown

Ben Coley's PGA Tour shocks of the decade countdown


Relive some of the most remarkable PGA Tour events in recent memory with our countdown of the top 10 shocks of the last decade.

2018 John Deere: Michael Kim

  • Odds: 300/1
  • Form: MC-MC-18-MC-MC-MC
Michael Kim’s highlights | Round 4 | John Deere 2018

Many a great college talent has failed to make the transition to the professional ranks, and many an average college player has turned out to be pretty special once playing for their livelihood. We should all steer clear of making assumptions, with the odd exception: it was always clear Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas had huge futures, just as it was Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson once upon a time.

Why those names? Because all four are former winners of the Haskins Award, given to the player voted as the outstanding collegiate talent in any given year. Michael Kim won it in 2013, following on from Thomas, with Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley kicking off the decade. Five years later, Kim won the John Deere Classic by eight shots.

All seven of these are now PGA Tour winners and when Mickelson took the award for the first of three years in succession, way back in 1990, it was the start of a seven-year stretch of future major champions. Another came along in 2002 in the shape of Graeme McDowell, with Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas, Hunter Mahan, Ryan Moore, Charles Howell and Luke Donald also on the roll-of-honour. The Haskins Award, of all the things one can win as an amateur golfer, has arguably the strongest return when it comes to producing what it promises.

In that sense, Kim's victory is perhaps not as shocking as his odds, or as dictated by the form he'd shown coming in. Here we had a fine young player with real pedigree, who had finished 17th in the US Open at Merion before turning professional, who quickly climbed up to the PGA Tour and who, while hardly setting the world alight, had demonstrated he had enough about him to stick around for years to come.

And yet after catching lightning in a bottle in Illinois, where he gained 13.5 shots on the field with the putter alone, Kim slowly but surely got taught a lesson: putting might pinch you a title, but if you want a career, you need to hit the ball to a decent standard. This fact is now beyond dispute, golf's maxim about putting, driving and dough undermined by years of statistical evidence.

Unfortunately for Kim, he isn't even putting well these days, but his problems lie in being the worst driver on the circuit, and among its worst iron players. Unless he has an awakening similar to that of Brendon Todd, his career threatens to spiral out of control in echoes of David Gossett, a top-class amateur who won the John Deere but, by the time his exemption ran out, had nothing left to give.

It's to be hoped that Kim finds a way back, and the enforced PGA Tour pause may help him to do that. Last seen withdrawing from the RSM Classic with a wrist injury, memories of this spectacular, front-running demolition job at TPC Deere Run are fading fast.

2016 Pebble Beach: Vaughn Taylor

  • Odds: 300/1
  • Form: MC-24-20-MC-MC-WD
2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am highlights Vaughn Taylor wins the Title

Vaughn Taylor is one of the classiest players in this countdown, good enough to play in the 2006 Ryder Cup, where he earned half a point from two matches. He took a thumping in the singles at the hands of Henrik Stenson, and was therefore present to see Europe cross the threshold, but the blame was for others. Taylor, eighth in the PLAYERS that year, hadn't done much wrong.

He earned his place on that team with back-to-back victories in Reno, but, almost 10 years later, the glory days were gone. Surely, he would be remembered for a career which parallels that of J.J. Henry, who also played at The K Club: great in Reno, good elsewhere; always paid his way.

And then, in February 2016, he shot a final-round 65 at Pebble Beach to somehow deny Phil Mickelson - bang-in-form and still ranked 29th in the world - what would have been a fifth victory in the event. Mickelson started the day leading on 16-under, Taylor six back and in eighth place on 10-under. Playing in the event in a past champions category and without his full card, Taylor's goal was a top-10 finish. He ended the day with a Masters invite - sweet for anyone, but sweeter for a man who calls Augusta home.

It's not just that Taylor shot 65, on a day where only a handful of players broke 70, to erase a six-shot deficit and go on to win by one. It's that he did so having started the year on the Web.com Tour, where he'd missed the cut and then withdrawn a week prior to heading to Pebble Beach. And that his victory was still unsure as he sat in the clubhouse to witness Mickelson claw back within one courtesy of a birdie at the 17th, only to then par the last. What a remarkable day.

2018 Pebble Beach: Ted Potter Jr

  • Odds: 400/1
  • Form: MC-MC-13-MC-MC-73
Ted Potter, Jr.’s extended highlights | Round 4 | AT&T Pebble Beach

By the end of this feature a handful of names will have popped up more than once: the Honda Classic, Quail Hollow, a certain yet-to-be-named Australian, the Wyndham Championship, Pebble Beach, and Ted Potter Jr.

Potter's Pebble Beach success goes down as only his second act of wizardry (see: nickname), but in truth it would've been worthy of anything bar top spot in this back-to-front ranking. Not only did he beat Dustin Johnson, a Pebble Beach king, but he did so having shot a final-round 82 the previous week. Oh, and he'd gone almost five years without a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour.

Those backing Johnson will surely have felt confident, their man entering the final round tied for the lead. And yet there are lowly-ranked players you expect to falter, and there are lowly-ranked players you worry might stick around. Potter is very much in the latter category, and after a third-round 62 he held firm on Sunday to beat Sirius Black by two, with He Who Must Not Be Named tied for third alongside Draco Malfoy.

2016 Wells Fargo: James Hahn

  • Odds: 400/1
  • Form: MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC
Highlights | James Hahn is victorious in sudden death playoff at Wells Fargo

Many will have expected to see James Hahn feature already, courtesy of his play-off win at Riviera in 2015. Fair enough. Hahn was the world number 297, and he got the better of Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey that day. Were this feature focused solely on the nature of the final round and against-the-odds successes, there's no doubt he'd have cracked the top 20.

But there had been reasons to see a big performance coming that week. He'd been playing well, he had strong local connections, and a couple of years earlier he'd contended in similar circumstances at Pebble Beach. From an odds perspective, leaving him out is an oversight; my perception at the time, as far as I recall, was that Hahn's win there was one of those big-odds, not-unforeseeable things that happen every year.

Roll on 15 or so months, and I can't say I remember the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship in quite the same way. Hahn arrived at Quail Hollow on a run of eight missed cuts and 19 rounds of 70-plus. He hadn't been finishing dead last, but nor were many of these cuts marginal: he was, by any and every measure, an out-of-sorts golfer suffering some kind of sophomore slump. And he was not heading to a comforting venue: in three previous visits, Hahn had finished 50th or worse, breaking par once in 10 attempts.

Yet there he was, posting nine-under, and watching on as Roberto Castro made par at the last to force a play-off which was as good as over after the tee-shots. Somehow, Hahn had won his second PGA Tour title, again showing an ability to defy difficult conditions on a championship course, albeit needing plenty of help.

Chiefly, that came from Castro, who missed from inside four feet at the 16th and then bogeyed 17. Those were the vital missteps, but don't forget the contribution of Justin Rose, beaten a shot after missing from little more than five feet at the 15th, and three feet at the 16th. This was not the first time Quail Hollow's greens had played their part in the outcome, nor the most dramatic, but it's still a solid top-10 selection.

2014 Texas Open: Steven Bowditch

  • Odds: 300/1
  • Form: 69-19-MC-MC-37-MC
Steven Bowditch captures his first PGA TOUR win at Valero | Highlights

Steven Bowditch edges out James Hahn and Ted Potter as the top shock-jock of the PGA Tour over the last decade, and his is a story of overcoming the most serious type of hardship.

Bowditch didn't just suffer those things most golfers suffer, like injuries, a loss or form, or a loss of confidence; he faced a battle with severe mental health issues and, come the 2014 Texas Open, it was victory enough that he was here, on the PGA Tour, playing some decent golf.

And he had been playing decent golf - enough you could say to put him further towards 20th than first in this list. But on this occasion I'll allow myself to be influenced by the specific nature of the final round. Bowditch, who had two top-10 finishes to his name before this in eight years on the PGA Tour, shot 76 on Sunday. Somehow, it was enough to win by one - the highest final round by the winner of a non-major in more than 30 years.

All the more silly is the fact he ranked 64th in putting for the week, his problems highlighted on the final green where a horrible stroke saw him make bogey. It didn't matter; the job had already been done, courtesy of a string of miracles around the green, and the fact that his two playing partners - Matt Kuchar and Andrew Loupe - both laboured to rounds of 75.

Anyone watching would have assumed Bowditch had wasted his chance as soon as he had lost the lead, which came as early as the fourth. Three-over for the round at that point, two things happened: he played the remaining 14 holes in just one-over, and that was enough to win by a shot.

2015 Wyndham: Davis Love

  • Odds: 400/1
  • Form: 5*-MC-MC-54-MC-MC
Highlights | Love conquers all at the Wyndham Championship

Should a Hall-of-Fame golfer, born in North Carolina, ever be considered a shock winner of a tournament - especially when that tournament is being played in North Carolina, and is one he's won twice before?

Well, yes. Love started the final round of the Wyndham with an outside chance, but he was behind the likes of Webb Simpson and Paul Casey and a certain Tiger Woods, tied with former Masters champion Charles Schwartzel, and with four shots to make up on leader Jason Gore.

When he bogeyed the first, I dare say his odds returned to the region of those offered pre-tournament, but then came a run of birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, which rocketed him into contention.

Astonishingly, Love didn't make another birdie from the sixth, and dropped a shot at the seventh. But with Gore plodding, Casey and Schwartzel making costly mistakes around the turn, and Woods making seven at the 11th, Love's eagle at the 15th ensured he was the first player all week to reach 17-under.

Despite Gore responding with an eagle of his own, he failed to get to that mark, and so did everybody else. Love, aged 51, had done enough to win his 21st PGA Tour title, moving ahead of Greg Norman and Hale Irwin on the all-time list. Surely, it will prove to be his last.

2015 Byron Nelson: Steven Bowditch

  • Odds: 500/1
  • Form: MC-44-12-MC-47-DQ

Had those of us who buy into this sort of thing had known that Bowditch - a Texas resident, and a Texas winner a year earlier - had been married at TPC Four Seasons... it wouldn't have mattered. We'd still have dismissed his chances in the 2015 Byron Nelson - perhaps even after an opening 62.

And yet, having earned the lead on Thursday, he never let it go, leading after every round and eventually coming home four clear of Jimmy Walker, Charley Hoffman and Scott Pinckney, with Dustin Johnson among those faltering on Sunday. It was the most dominant display in the Nelson in more than 30 years and elevated Bowditch to within touching distance of the world's top 50, a mark he'd never quite reach.

Typical of the player, this victory - absent of back-nine drama, as it turned out - was the diametric opposite to that of a year earlier. Down in San Antonio, he'd led the field from tee-to-green and won despite a poor putter. Here, he led the field on the greens, rather than around them, and the result seldom really looked in doubt.

Well, at least from the sixth hole onwards on Sunday. Early on, Johnson had made a foreboding move, chipping in twice over the first three holes to join the lead. When Bowditch bogeyed the fifth courtesy of a three-putt, the game was up - only for Johnson to produce one of the worst holes of his career at the sixth, dropping four shots as one mistake followed another (proof that professionals do do that, contrary to what commentators often say).

Bowditch made three at the same hole, picking up five strokes on his most serious rival in golf's best attempt at the blink of an eye. Another birdie at the eighth set him up for a back-nine 30 and a victory perhaps even sweeter than that of the previous spring, as he added a new set of photos on the 18th green.

2019 Desert Classic: Adam Long

  • Odds: 500/1
  • Form: MC-MC-63-MC-MC-MC
Highlights | Round 4 | Desert Classic 2019

Seventy-one holes of the Desert Classic had passed, and three players remained: Adam Hadwin, an event specialist; Phil Mickelson, an event specialist; and Adam Long, a relative nobody who had finally earned his PGA Tour card after half a decade of trying, but so far looked out of his depth.

Not once had Long won on the Korn Ferry Tour, and so when his drive flared to the right of the 18th fairway, he looked set to fall on his sword. It had been a brave effort, including two back-nine chip-ins to eliminate a three-shot gap to Hadwin, but the game was now up. The brave par putt of the previous green would count for nothing, with Hadwin ideally positioned and Mickelson firing his approach shots close all day.

Then, with the ball below his feet in what Shot Link would call the native area, and water running all the way along the left-hand side of the hole, Long produced a career-making shot, an approach from 175 yards which left 13 feet for birdie. Suddenly, he was favourite. And when Hadwin couldn't hole from sand, and Mickelson's curling effort just ran out of pace, he had a chance to win the tournament. Like everything else on that back-nine, he took the opportunity.

How exactly did it happen? Well, largely because he started performing miracles on and around the greens, as Hadwin and Mickelson started to make the simple appear anything but. In fact, Hadwin's only birdie over the closing stretch came from precisely one inch, while Mickelson missed no fewer than a dozen genuine chances over the course of 18 painful holes with the putter.

In the end, Mickelson lost three-and-a-quarter strokes on the greens that day, and Hadwin wasted a five-under front-nine which looked set to reward those who had backed him on the strength of his love for the format and the courses. I suspect nobody backed Long. This was a collision of circumstances nobody could have foreseen, but he deserves enormous credit not just for taking it, but for building on it with some solid golf since.

2012 Greenbrier: Ted Potter Jr

  • Odds: 500/1
  • Form: MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-51
Round 4 Recap: 2012 Greenbrier Classic

Back to Ted Potter, and the Greenbrier Classic which, in its own way, is a tournament of surprises. Remember Stuart Appleby shooting 59 to deny Jeff Overton a deserved title? Remember Angel Cabrera winning his first and only PGA Tour event since he became Masters champion? Remember Robert Streb almost winning while using his wedge for a putter, or Kevin Na turning over a new leaf to win by five?

All of that has happened in just nine years of the Greenbrier Classic, but it's the 2012 edition, won by Ted Potter Jr in a play-off, which stands out even in a packed field.

Potter had won twice the previous year on what was the Web.com Tour (or was it the Nationwide back then? I forget) but his form was dire coming in. He'd missed his last five PGA Tour cuts, and had struggled to get competitive dropped down a level a week prior to making the trip to West Virginia for this. He ranked 163rd in total strokes-gained and outside the world's top 200.

And he started the final round at Old White TPC four shots behind Webb Simpson who, three weeks earlier, had won the US Open. Who could possibly have imagined that it would be Simpson who would tumble down to seventh after a Sunday 73, while Potter stormed through the field courtesy of a final-round 64?

That wasn't enough to win outright, but it was enough for a play-off with Troy Kelly, who looked terrified all day but held things together remarkably well. Kelly was the world number 464, and he'd been struggling all year, too. But whereas he was looking for his first tour win of any substance, Potter had two to his name in 2011, and perhaps that told as the Wizard cast his first spell.

2013 Wells Fargo: Derek Ernst

  • Odds: 500/1
  • Form: MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-47
Round 4 Recap: 2013 Wells Fargo Championship

Ahead of the 2013 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, word quickly spread that the greens were, well, not good. In fact that underplays it: several players withdrew and many more complained at greens which mid-handicappers playing £10 for a round might well have found shocking.

"You can't lie about it – the greens are shaky," said Rickie Fowler, the defending champion, before the tournament began. "But (there) is still a hole out there. Someone's going to have to make putts this week. Someone's going to win the golf tournament. They're still giving out a trophy and a jacket at the end of Sunday."

And it was true - they did hand out a trophy, and a jacket, and a seven-figure check. Those all went to Derek Ernst, the world number 1207 and subsequent butt of many golf-themed jokes.

Ernst had worked his way through Qualifying School - every stage, by the way - at the end of the previous year, which at the time was still a path straight to the PGA Tour. For the most part, he'd looked set to be taught a harsh lesson now swimming with the big fish, although unlike most shock winners he did in fact make the cut a week earlier, cashing his biggest cheque since taking up membership: $16,159.

Then he came to Quail Hollow and, for three rounds, he swam just fine alongside those big fish. With one to go, he sat two adrift of leaders Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney, level with Lee Westwood and Ryan Moore, one ahead of Rory McIlroy. Things were bunched and, having seen the greens wreak havoc throughout the tournament, everyone watching knew strange things would happen. Just not perhaps as strange as Ernst beating David Lynn in a play-off.

Ernst only got into the event because others didn't want to play - he was fourth alternate on Monday, and preparing to take part in a Web.com Tour event instead, buoyed by some better golf in New Orleans. Instead, he sneaked into this field and, thanks to a sublime birdie at the final hole, one of the toughest around, he'd done enough to earn a play-off with a player ranked over a thousand spots above him.

That counted for nothing as sweet-swinging Ernst set up a birdie chance while Lynn chopped his way to a bogey. And that was that. On a rainy day in Charlotte, on greens not fit for purpose, a rookie with perhaps no sense of entitlement toughed things out in a way some world-class superstars could not. Watching him that day, there is perhaps only one mystery bigger than how this all happened: how has Ernst gone 180-odd subsequent starts without winning again?

As of today, with the world rankings locked, he is down at 1371, struggling badly to find his game on the Korn Ferry Tour. He remains with one PGA Tour top 10 to his name. Lynn, meanwhile, retired just a year later, evidently having had enough of professional golf despite only recent having enjoyed so much success, including victory in Portugal not long after this.

Fowler knew, starting that week, that there was an opportunity for someone to overcome the weather and the greens. None of us would've expected it to be taken by Derek Ernst, and he's the man responsible for the biggest PGA Tour upset in recent memory.


Click here for the first part of our countdown

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