Jerry Kelly birdied the first playoff hole to defeat John Huston and win the Shaw Charity Classic on Sunday at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club in Calgary, Alberta.
Huston’s 5-under-par 65 got him to 9-under 201 for the day, where Kelly went on to match him thanks to his 3-under 67. Kelly missed a birdie putt at the par-5 18th that would have won him the tournament outright.
But when they returned to No. 18 for the playoff, Kelly reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie, which Huston couldn’t match.
“That is a really hard green to read,” Kelly said of the 18th. “I made a great putt in regulation for my second putt and then I made another great second putt. I don’t know what was wrong with my speed. Greens were as fast as we had ever seen them yesterday, they were a little slower today. I think they had to do that with the heat maybe, I don’t know.”
Kelly, 55, won his third tournament of the season and the first of his career in Canada.
“I love coming to Canada,” said Kelly, a Wisconsinite. “To get a win up here is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Huston, a 61-year-old seven-time PGA Tour winner, was looking for his second PGA Tour Champions title.
Joe Durant fired an 8-under 62 that featured two eagles, but he came up one stroke shy of the playoff. He tied for third at 8-under 202 with Ireland’s Padraig Harrington (66), Dean Wilson (66), Germany’s Alex Cejka (66) and second-round leader Kirk Triplett (69).
–Field Level Media