Graham DeLaet had an exciting final round with a third place finish at the Travelers Championship. The former Weyburn golfer earned $414,800 for his third-place finish. DeLaet has total earnings of $1.
Graham DeLaet had an exciting final round with a third place finish at the Travelers Championship. The former Weyburn golfer earned $414,800 for his third-place finish.
DeLaet has total earnings of $1.35 million after making 14 cuts out of 17 events on the PGA Tour this season. His FedExCup standings is currently 29th.
During round one, DeLaet shot his first 65 score, staying five-under-par with five birdies and absolutely no bogeys. Starting on the back nine, DeLaet hit birdies on holes 12 and 16, then for the front nine scored birdies on holes one, three and six.
For the second round, DeLaet hit two birdies during the front nine, scored on hole two and six, then shot a bogey on hole seven. Then during the back nine, DeLaet hit a double bogey on hole 12, then scored a birdie for hole 13. His final score was 70, even-par.
DeLaet scored another 65-score during the third round. During the front nine, DeLaet stayed mostly on par, with one birdie on hole two.
Then on the back nine, DeLaet hit four back-to-back birdies on holes 10, 11, 12 and 13. He shot one bogey on hole 16 and then a birdie on hole 18.
"I did play well pretty much all day," said DeLaet, during a PGA Tour interview. "I hit it great. I had a lot of good birdie chances on the front nine, just couldn't really seem to find the hole, and Julian, my caddie, just told me to stay patient because I was rolling it well."
"I got off to a nice little start on the back side, birdied 10, 11, 12 and 13 and kind of settled the nerves a little bit and got me going, and it was really nice to finish nice on 18 with a birdie."
DeLaet also talked about facing a little mental strain, since he had scored a bogey on the 16th, before the birdie on the 18th hole in the third round. He was also tied for first place during the third round.
"I made a three-putt bogey there on 16, but my first putt I left quite a bit short. I felt like I hit a decent putt on my second one, but it just ran through the break a little bit. And same thing on 17, I hit what I thought was a perfect putt there and the ball just didn't really turn."
"It's probably going to take a hot putter for me to win the tournament," said DeLaet.
His prediction proved to be true during the fourth and final round. DeLaet started on the back nine, staying on par until shooting a bogey at hole six, and then coming out even with a birdie on hole nine.
Then on the back nine, DeLaet hit a birdie on hole 12, a bogey on hole 16 and then another birdie to end the round on hole 18. DeLaet was one shot behind the leaders of the tournament, with Chris Stroud and Ken Duke going into a tie-breaker.
During the tournament, DeLaet supported flood relief initiatives in Alberta, by pledging $1,000 for each birdie he made during round three and four.
"It breaks my heart to see the flooding images of Calgary and southern Alberta," said DeLaet. "I wanted to show my support and do what I could to help. Alberta is strong and will recover."
With a birdie on the 18th hole, Graham had a total of nine birdies making his own personal donation at $9,000. Matching Graham's donation, to bring the grand total for flood relief to $36,000 was PGA Tour Canada, ATB Financial and Saskatoon businessman David Dube.
The donations will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross to aid their efforts to help Alberta recover from the devastating floods that ravaged and destroyed their region last week.
The ATB Financial Classic, a PGA Tour Canada event in Calgary, was cancelled last week due to the flooding. DeLaet won the ATB Financial Classic in 2009, during his PGA Canadian Tour career.
In addition, while competing on the final round of the Travelers Championship, Graham wrote "YYC" and "For Alberta" on his golf hat as a symbol of his support. The CBS channel featured images from the flooding in Calgary, during the final round of the championship.
DeLaet had a few weeks off before competing at the Travelers Championship. Some people wondered about his decision to withdraw from the U.S. Open.
Graham does not regret withdrawing from an U.S. Open. "I can see why people would wonder why I would not play the U.S. Open qualifier, but I was tired mentally and physically," said DeLaet. "I just knew that I needed a break."
"I was looking more at the season as a whole as opposed to just one event," explained DeLaet. "I just thought that the best thing for me, for the remainder of the year, was to take a little break, re-charge my batteries and relax at home."
DeLaet will be the honorary chair for the upcoming PGA Tour Canada Dakota Dunes Open. The tournament will run the first week of July.
"It's definitely an honour, especially in my home province," said DeLaet, who maintains his ties with Saskatchewan. A former three-time champion on the Canadian Tour, DeLaet is one of more than 170 former Canadian Tour players who have gone on to the PGA Tour.
The next tournament for DeLaet is the AT&T Classic, which runs Thursday to Sunday, June 27 to 30.
Currently, since his FedExCup standings is 29th, DeLaet is in good position to make the PGA Tour finals.
He did mention that one of his goals is to make the Presidents Cup which will be played for the 10th time in 2013. "I was definitely on the outside looking in, but we had a Nick Price hold a meeting for potential members of the team at Memorial. Adam Scott poured his heart out that night and it was super inspiring."
"Ever since then I wanted to be on that team," said DeLaet. "After seeing how much it means to those guys, it would be an unbelievable opportunity and I'm doing everything I can to try to make that team."
