First the good news for former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders:
His fifth-place finish Sunday in the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier tournament in White Sulphur Springs. W.Va., was his best showing in a PGA Tour event since also tying for fifth in the Puerto Rico Open in March 2017. The last time he placed better than fifth was a runner-up at the 2015 Puerto Rico Open.
Saunders — who was using a putter once used by his grandfather, Arnold Palmer — shot rounds of 68-63-67-70 for a 12-under-par 268 total at The Greenbrier. That left him seven strokes behind champion Kevin Na.
The performance was a welcome change for Saunders, who had missed cuts in six of his previous eight official PGA Tour events. It also put him in good position to regain his PGA Tour card for next season by finishing this one in the top 125 in the FedExCup standings (he’s currently 113th).
As for the not-so-good news:
A less-than-stellar stretch run on Sunday not only cost Saunders (pictured) a higher finisher at The Greenbriar, but also a spot in the British Open July 19-22 in Scotland.
Saunders bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes on Sunday to drop spots on the leaderboard. He three-putted for bogey on No. 16, missing a 4-foot par putt. Then on the par-5 17th, Saunders was just in front of the green with his second shot. But he thinned his third over the green and failed to get up and down from there, posting a disappointing bogey.
As it turned out, that last bogey made the difference in not getting into the British Open. The top four finishers at The Greenbrier who didn’t already have a spot at the British Open earned ones on Sunday via the Open qualifying series. Those Open berths went to Kelly Kraft (266), Brandt Snedeker (267), Jason Kokrak (267) and Austin Cook (268). Cook shared fifth place with Saunders — and others — but had the highest world ranking among those who tied for fifth, so he had the tiebreaker to land the final berth.
