Jonathan Byrd 'Grateful' to Open PGA Tour Season With Win

Filed under: PGA

Jonathan Byrd will not get the credit he deserves for Sunday's PGA Tour season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions victory in Kapalua, Hawaii.

Lost in a distant time zone on an NFL playoff weekend, Byrd's sudden-death victory over Robert Garrigus on the second playoff hole will be very much like a tree that falls in the forest when no one is around to hear.

All the same, a final-round 67 and 24-under-par goes into the record book as Byrd's fifth career win (second in four months) and sets a high standard for the next 11 months to chase.

"I can't sit here and not think about where I was toward the end of the season last year, fighting for my (PGA Tour) card," he said. "I'm just thankful. I'm overwhelmed. I'm grateful, all of the above."

Obviously, Byrd does some of his finest work in overtime. He earned his invitation to the previous year's winners-only field by becoming the first player in PGA Tour history to win a playoff with a hole-in-one in Las Vegas back in October. Sunday's win on the Plantation Course was nowhere near as dramatic -- Garrigus missed a 3-foot putt for par on the second playoff hole that would have extended the playoff -- but it was every bit as satisfying.

 

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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2011/01/10/jonathan-byrd-grateful-to-open-pga-tour-season-with-win/

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