WATCH: Emiliano Grillo overcomes aqueduct fiasco on 72nd hole to win 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge

FORT WORTH, Texas — Emiliano Grillo emerged the winner Sunday on the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club after outlasting Adam Schenk in a two-hole playoff. And that wasn’t till after a 72nd hole-adventure involving an aqueduct adjoining to the par-4 18th that resulted within the two further holes being performed to resolve a winner. 

Holding a two-shot lead on the 18th tee field at 10 below for the development, Grillo sprayed his tee shot proper, with the ball in the end rolling into the aqueduct inside the penalty house. The aqueduct’s present used to be robust sufficient that Grillo’s ball started to slowly flow a wholesome distance again within the course of the tee field ahead of in spite of everything coming to relaxation.

While Grillo had the choice to play the ball from the danger, he in the end opted to take a drop and the accompanying one-stroke penalty. Fortunately for Grillo, he used to be ready to take his drop on his line of access into the danger, permitting him to play his 3rd shot — a punch-out wanting the golf green — from a place a lot nearer to the golf green than the place his ball settled after taking an surprising adventure.

Grillo in the end settled for a final double-bogey to sit down at 8 below for the development. Schenk matched that mark to pressure the playoff. Third-round co-leader Harry Hall used to be additionally at 8 below coming into the 72nd hole, however ignored the playoff via a stroke after hitting his tee shot on 18 into the water and being concerned a bogey.

“I’ve hit that exact shot [before], right into the tree. When the marshals walked right from the tree, I knew it was going to be a long way until that ball stopped,” Grillo mentioned. “It stopped for a five to 10 seconds, and I thought I got lucky. It had a window, and then five seconds later, it kept moving. So I tried my hardest to make a bogey, but was not able. I knew if I finished ahead of Scottie Scheffler I knew I was going to have a chance still.”

Grillo and Schenk carded dueling pars on the primary playoff hole, a replay of the par 4 18th. When the motion shifted to the second one playoff hole on the par-3 sixteenth, alternatively, Grillo caught his tee shot lower than 5 ft from the cup ,whilst Schenk’s tee shot bounced off the again aspect of the golf green. Schenk then put his chip shot shut to the cup, however Grillo sunk his birdie try to seize his 2d PGA Tour victory, birdying the similar hole previous within the afternoon to succeed in 10 below ahead of coming again to 8 below. 

Those who’ve tuned into the Charles Schwab Challenge over time can have discovered Grillo’s collection of occasions on the general hole of law acquainted. Two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, in 1990, had a similar encounter with the similar aqueduct when teeing off the on the neighboring par-4 seventeenth, despite the fact that Crenshaw’s ball in the end traveled all of the method into a bigger frame of water. Crenshaw additionally shot 8 below in direction to a victory that yr, despite the fact that no playoff used to be wanted.