With a long birdie putt on the second playoff hole, Sam Burns wasn’t the only one who won a championship.
Willie Mack III won the APGA Queen’s Harbour Championship on Tuesday with a 40-footer that was nearly 8 feet longer than Burns’ in the Valspar Championship.
Mack bogeyed his final hole in regulation, forcing a playoff with Tommy Schaff, who had a 3-under 69 for the day’s low score. Mack missed the green on the first playoff hole, but he recovered to make par. Schaff sank a short putt that would have given him the win. Mack then took advantage of his second chance and triumphed in front of his mother in the gallery.
“I won the last time she came, so maybe she has to come out here more regularly,” Mack told PGATour.com after his victory.
Mack, who is 33 years old, is the current APGA Player of the Year. The Tiger Woods Foundation awarded the Flint native the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption at the Genesis Invitational in 2021. Later that year, at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in his native state, he made his maiden PGA Tour cut, and then did it again the following week at the John Deere Classic.
Mack’s most recent Tour appearance was in November at Mayakoba, when he failed to make the cut. Mack had just missed out on the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying by two shots.
On April 2, he’ll have another chance at an APGA victory when the tour visits PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
