Sam Stevens’ Farmers hopes rinsed away on 18, but there was a consolation

Sam Stevens had 207 yards left to the flag at Torrey Pines’ par-5 18th hole, 200 yards to cover the steep bank that leads down into the water guarding the front of the green.

Straight downwind.

A little adrenaline.

A perfect 7-iron – or so he thought.

Stevens’ ball landed just a few feet short of the green, flying into the bank and trickling back into the water, effectively ending the 28-year-old Stevens’ bid for his first PGA Tour victory Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open. Stevens nearly holed a spinny pitch for birdie, but his closing par eventually left him a shot back of winner Harris English.

“Didn’t make a terrible swing, but just kind of made the swing that you can’t make there and leave it out to the right, kind of hit that soft right shot,” Stevens explained. “When it was in the air, I was hopeful, but I was pretty sure that it was going to land about right where it did. They didn’t shave that bank this year like they have in years past, but it still goes in the water.

“But I was able to save par. That was big, post a number and make those guys at least earn it coming down the stretch. If they play good and finish at better than 7 under, there’s nothing I can do about it, but glad I got up and down there.”

Stevens’ solo second earned him $1,013,700, the biggest check of his career. To put that into context, Stevens won six times on the All Pro Tour during his mini-tour days a few years ago, collecting a total of $160,000 for those victories.

But Stevens’ runner-up comes with more. He was one of five players to earn their way into next week’s signature event at Pebble Beach, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, via the Aon Swing 5. Here is the list:

Sam Stevens
J.J. Spaun
Andrew Novak
Justin Lower
Lee Hodges

English’s win now exempts him into each of the remaining signature events this season. Normally, he would counted as part of the Swing 5, since he didn’t finish last season in the top 50 in points, but he punched his Pebble ticket via the Aon Next 10, which was finalized last fall.

There will be another Swing 5 cutoff for the Genesis Invitational in three weeks, also at Torrey Pines, with the WM Phoenix Open factoring into the Sony-AmEx-Farmers aggregate. With 311.329 FedExCup points, Stevens is in good position to play Genesis, too, as he leads Charley Hoffman, the first player out of the Swing 5, by over 170 points.

“Obviously, there’s a big opportunity there,” Stevens said of Pebble. “They have a lot of points, and we won’t get into the amount of points that the signature events have, but take advantage of the opportunity hopefully and keep playing well. You know, each event kind of is individual, so hopefully, I can reset and get hot early and stay hot.”