On this day, Steve Elkington wins 1997 Players Championship; chips in from 30 ft to finish
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On this day, Steve Elkington dazzled the crowds of 35,000 on the final day of The 1997 Players Championship by winning by seven strokes. To top that dominance Elkington finished it off in style by holing out a 30 foot chip sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Elkington finished with a 16-under-par 272, and was basically never challenged. Scott Hoch was second at 279 and Loren Roberts third, eight shots back. The Australian native won a cool $630,000 jackpot for winning which soared him to the top the PGA money list for the year at $984,400. That being done in just four events.
”I was playing so well, there wasn’t any point in panicking….’I was hitting my drives straight off the tee, I was hitting my irons really good and my putts were going in. So I felt relaxed. Well, reasonably relaxed.”
-Steve Elkington
Elkington had previously triumphed at Doral-Ryder Open where he bested Larry Nelson and Nick Price. He became only the third winner to lead wire-to-wire in the tournament’s 24-year history. Al Geiberger did it in 1975 and Greg Norman in 1994.
