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Mark Wilson stood on the darkened green of the Palmer Private Course at PGA West on Sunday after rolling in a 14-foot putt that won him the Humana Challenge.
But it is possible, perhaps even probable, that Wilson's victory in the tournament really came Saturday at La Quinta Country Club.
“I think that is where I did win it. Because I chipped in twice, I holed a wedge for an eagle and chipped in for an eagle while the wind wasn't up,” Wilson said of his third round at La Quinta that was cut to 15 holes by the strong winds that devastated some players' scores. But Wilson shot 5 under at La Quinta on Saturday — even in the wild winds of the final few holes.
“I got off to a good start there, 4 under through my first four holes, and just kind of maintained that all day,” Wilson said. “So shooting 67 over there in those windy conditions, I agree, that was a key to winning this week.”
It wasn't just the 67 at La Quinta (a round capped Sunday morning with three holes played in a total of even par) that helped Wilson to the Humana title. There was a 62 he shot Friday at the Palmer Course. And there was a run of four birdies in eight holes to finish a 69 on the Palmer Course on Sunday.
Wilson, who comes to the desert to visit his in-laws at Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert and plays that club's two courses and other desert tracks, is not just some guy on the PGA Tour anymore. He's a player with five PGA Tour victories, a number that separates him from the one-and-done crowd or even from guys who have won a couple of events over a handful of years.
Wilson has three victories in the last 13 months on the PGA Tour, which is more than some players with higher profiles such as Luke Donald, Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson. It's the same number of wins since January of 2011 as Steve Stricker, the highest-ranked American player.
Low key and underrated, Wilson is now fully exempt on the tour through 2015. He'll play in major championships and World Golf Championships this year. He won $3.1 million last year and is already a third of the way there this year thanks to becoming the first winner of the Humana to earn $1 million for a victory. He's a shoo-in for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
With five victories now, Wilson is certainly a player who understands how to win and how to react when he's in position to win. That showed Sunday when he fought off a slow start to stay focused on the win.
“You have a lot of thoughts go through your head. Am I going to come out and play well and win or am I going to come out and play flat and finish 10th or am I going to have a horrible day and finish close to the bottom? You just don't know,” Wilson said. “I just tried to clear my head of that and said, ‘This is what we play for, let's enjoy the day. Win or lose, let's try to be a good example out there.'”
The example Wilson set this week was how to handle the adversity of bad conditions, and how to make the key putts at the right moments to close the deal in a PGA Tour event.
That example is a pretty good reason for his fellow members at Ironwood to celebrate Mark Wilson.
Larry Bohannan covers golf for the Desert Sun. His columns appear Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
