Derby native Woody Austin’s stellar 2018 continues with PGA Champions Tour win

Woody Austin’s 2018 just keeps getting better and better on the PGA Champions Tour.

The Derby native won on the senior tour for the fourth time and the first time since 2016 over the weekend, as Austin finished with an 11-under total for three rounds to win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va. and collect a $305,000 paycheck.

Austin, 54, has registered eight top-10 finishes on the tour in 2018. Sunday’s victory moved him up 11 spots to No. 8 on the Schwab Cup points list, which should secure his place in the top 36 for the Schwab Cup Championship from Nov. 7-11 in Phoenix.

“The big thing is being back in the winner’s circle because it gets you the caveat of the Tour starting in Hualalai (Hawaii in January),” Austin told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It will be really good to get out of the Wichita cold in January for that.”

Austin fell 1 stroke behind the leaders after he bogeyed the par-3 14th, but Austin rallied for birdies on the par-4 15th and par-5 18th to ultimately beat out Bernhard Langer (10-under) by 1 stroke. For the tournament, Austin finished 8-under on par-5s.

Austin said afterward his break came on No. 18, where he hit a chip shot just off the green too firm only for the ball to smack the pin and stop its momentum. Instead of a likely two-putt from distance, Austin capitalized by sinking a 6-foot birdie putt.

“Usually the person that wins gets a break on Sunday,” Austin told the Times-Dispatch. “That was my break. I played well enough to win all week, but I still didn’t putt well enough to win all week and I needed that break.”

On a day where almost every golfer had a difficult time scoring, Austin’s accuracy won out.

“Bermuda rough is a great equalizer,” Austin told the Golf Channel. “It helps a person like me who needs the scores to be a little lower. I just don’t make enough putts to shoot those really low scores on a consistent basis. I’ll get it going one day, but it’s hard to do that for three days.”

Austin will play next in the Invesco QQQ Championship, a 54-hole tournament in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 3:26 PM.