Haas takes $10 million FedEx Cup Jackpot
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An end of season finale that had everyone guessing, ended up with a winner that no one expected.
None of the top five players in the FedEx Cup standings took the coveted $10 million jack pot, nor could the world number one, Luke Donald.
Instead it was the man down at No.25, who had choked so badly in the last tournament in Cog Hill, Bill Haas, who became the lowest seed to capture golf’s biggest prize in a winner-take-all playoff with Hunter Mahan.
And the victor didn’t even realise the windfall was on the line during the extra holes.
“When I went up and did some TV interviews (after the playoff) in the grandstands there on 18, both trophies were there and there was no other player,” said Haas.
“So, I kind of assumed. I looked at my wife and she nodded her head. That was when I realized. I saw Tim Finchem and said, ‘I didn’t know I had won this,’ and he was like, ‘Congratulations, you won both.’”
Haas joins a distinguished list of FedEx Cup winners that includes Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, but he so nearly threw it all away on the second hole of the playoffs.
A shot from a fairway bunker trickled down the hill alongside the 17th green and plopped into the water, half-submerged.
Instead of giving up, Haas strode into the pond, with his right foot in the water and chipped an implausible 60 degree lob wedge that span towards the cup, settling just 3 feet away.
"It was an all or nothing shot," Haas said. "If I don't pull it off, I'm shaking Hunter's hand."
Haas saved par, and did so again on the par-3 18th with Mahan failing salvage par after his drive hit nothing but sand.
Haas, as he had in a microcosm on the 17th, had gone from apparent failure to the ultimate victory.
"Anything can happen," Haas said. "Anything did happen."
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