Is staid old Augusta National ready for this?
Paul Stankowski, who sports a goatee and is prone to saying things like “This is cool” or “I was bumming,” shot his way into the Masters by winning the BellSouth Classic on Sunday in the first hole of a playoff with Brandel Chamblee.
Stankowski, 26, who didn’t even know if he would be teeing off at Atlanta Country Club at the beginning of the week, becomes the fourth player in the last five weeks to earn his first PGA win.
More important, the victory earned him an invitation to the Masters, which begins next weekend.
“This is probably the most exciting day of my life,” said Stankowski, who birdied the playoff hole while Chamblee bogeyed it after hitting a shot into the water. “Wow, I’m going to Augusta. My golfing life just changed forever. This is going to open a lot of new opportunities for me.”
He clutched a fax from officials at Augusta National, offering to help him locate housing during the Masters.
Stankowski, who captured a Nike Tour event last week in Louisiana, is the first player to win on the minor-league circuit one week and the PGA Tour the next.
“I think I’m probably the only guy going to Augusta with a two-week winning streak,” he quipped.
Before his victory last week in the Nike event, he had not won a tournament of any kind since 1992, and he had to attend qualifying school last year just to keep his PGA Tour membership. Before Atlanta, Stankowski had made only one cut in seven PGA events this year.
Though he was the sixth alternate and didn’t expect to get in the tournament, Stankowski changed his travel plans after the Louisiana event and headed to Atlanta, where he had friends to visit. Late Wednesday, he became the last player to get in when Steve Hart withdrew because of a bad back.
“It cost me an extra 500 bucks to change my ticket, which was kind of a bummer. But I guess it paid off,” said Stankowski, who picked up a $234,000 check for his victory.
Stankowski shot a 71 and needed a gutsy up-and-down par out of the bunker at No. 18 to force the playoff with Chamblee, another player seeking his first PGA Tour win.
On the first hole of the playoff, Chamblee, who fired a 5-under 67, tried to hit the green with his second shot on the 499-yard, par-5 18th hole. But his 1-iron sent the ball careening into the water that guards the front.
Stankowski, who had played it safe with his second shot, put his third within 12 feet of the cup and putted in for a birdie.
