Former Jacksonville State golfer wins PGA Tour tourney

Former Jacksonville State golfer wins PGA Tour tourney

At last week’s PGA Tour tournament, Matt Wallace and caddie Sam Bernard got into an animated argument on the final hole of the Valspar Championship.

At this week’s PGA Tour tournament, the pair walked off the 72nd hole after sharing the kind of hug produced by playing the last six holes of the final round in 4 under.

That moved Wallace to 6-under 66 on Sunday and 19-under 269 for the tournament, which ended up being good enough for the former Jacksonville State golfer’s first PGA Tour victory.

Playing in the third-to-last pairing on Sunday, Wallace won the Corales Puntacana Championship at Puntacana Resort and Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, when Nicolai Hojgaard’s 20-foot birdie putt to force a playoff slid past the cup on 18.

Wallace birdied the 13th through 16th coming in – three par-4 holes and one par-5 – to shoot to the top of the leaderboard.

A native of England who has won four times on the DP World Tour, Wallace got his first PGA Tour victory in his 80th start on the circuit.

Wallace played at Jacksonville State in the 2010-11 season before turning pro. He was the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year and helped the Gamecocks win the league championship tournament in 2011.

While Wallace won the first-place prize of $684,000 on Sunday, he did not receive a reserved spot in the Masters next month, as is usually the case for PGA Tour victories. The PGA Tour’s top-ranked golfers were playing in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play this week, so the Corales Puntacana Championship did not carry full FedEx Cup points – a requirement for a Masters qualifier. Wallace received 300 FedEx Cup points for his victory. Sam Burns got 550 for winning the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

The Corales Puntacana Championship does carry exemptions into the PGA Championship in May and Sentry Tournament of Champions next season.

Wallace tied for third at the PGA Championship in 2019 for his best finish in 15 major-championship appearances.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.