Kyle Stanley bounced back from his final-round capitulation at the Farmers Insurance Open to land the Phoenix Open title.
American capitalises on Levin meltdown to win in Arizona
Kyle Stanley bounced back from his final-round capitulation at the Farmers Insurance Open one week ago to land the Waste Management Phoenix Open title in dramatic fashion at Arizona.
The 24-year-old American capitalised on a final round meltdown from compatriot Spencer Levin to card a closing 65 and win his maiden PGA title by one stroke ahead of Ben Crane.
The win was the perfect riposte from Stanley, who had squandered a three-shot lead on the final hole before losing the play-off to Brandt Snedeker at the Farmers seven days previous.
"I really feel for (Levin), experiencing that," Stanley told
pgatour.com. "You don't want to wish that upon anybody. He's a very good player, way too good a player to not bounce back or recover.
Challenge
"I'm not sure I expected to maybe recover this quickly. I think the biggest challenge was seeing if I could put last week behind me. I think I did."
Levin, who started the final day with a six-stroke lead, carded a disastrous 75 on Sunday, opening the door for Stanley who held his nerve on the 18th to complete a fairytale comeback.
Stanley birdied three of his last eight holes in the desert sunshine for a 15-under total to finish one ahead of Crane (66).
Levin had to settle for third place at 13-under, one ahead of DJ Trahan.
"I gave it away, simple as that," he admitted. "If you have a six-shot lead and lose, you gave it away.
"My hat's off to Kyle. He played a great round. He went and got it. But if you've got a six-shot lead and don't win, then I think it's on the player with the lead, for sure."
