Davis Riley shot even-par 70 to finish at 14-under 266, five strokes ahead of the world’s No. 1 player and Keegan Bradley.
Davis Riley was practicing a week before Colonial when he got an unsettling call that his older sister had a seizure at work, which led to the discovery of a tumor on her brain and surgery the next day.
Riley wasn’t even sure then that he would be able to, or even want to, play in the Charles Schwab Challenge.
“When you have somebody that close to you, all the worst-case scenarios are going through your head,” Riley said. “It was certainly a scary feeling thinking about how you could lose your sister.”
The family got a huge sigh of relief when the surgery was successful and the tumor was non-cancerous. His parents told him that his sister wanted him to go play.
So Riley did, and got his first individual victory on the PGA Tour after playing in the final group Sunday with Scott Scheffler.
Riley shot even-par 70 to finish at 14-under 266, five strokes ahead of the world’s No. 1 player and Keegan Bradley.
After beginning the final round with a four-stroke lead, Riley gave up a stroke with a bogey on the second hole when he drove into the right rough and then hit into the bunker.
But that was the closest Scheffler — or anybody else — would get with wind gusts of 20 mph and more blowing throughout the day, and with firm greens.
Bradley had a 67, and Scheffler shot 71 on a day when he didn’t have a birdie until the 13th hole.
Collin Morikawa, the only player in the field to finish all four rounds under par, was fourth at 8 under after his closing 68.
The 27-year-old Riley’s only other PGA Tour win came when he and Nick Hardy won the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans last year.
The Mississippi native’s win at historic Colonial, which had been completely restored since last year’s tournament, earned him $1,638,000, the traditional winner’s plaid jacket and a fully restored and modernized 1975 Stingray car.
