Riegger has winning feeling, then finds winner's circle  PGATOUR.com Correspondent GLENVIEW, Ill. -- Golf, even from a purist's point of view, is one strange game, one that can create violent mood swings and create clouds of self doubt from minute to minute and shot to shot.  Hot putting won the tournament for him, John Riegger said. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
Often, cruel and capricious it can turn for the better in a heartbeat and produce the kind of starling outcomes that can make even the keenest observers of the game scratch their heads. So raise your hand if, on Thursday, you projected John Riegger as the man who would find his way into the winner's circle at the 2007 LaSalle Bank Open on Sunday afternoon as blue-black storm clouds gathered over The Glen Club. Take a bow if you had a premonition Riegger, 43, would hole a double-breaking 20-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to defeat B.J. Staten by a shot in a final-round shootout that featured seven players with a legitimate shot at winning. And just where can we locate the genie that handed you the prediction bottle? Talk about catching lightning in a jug. Riegger had competed in 290 tournaments sanctioned by the PGA TOUR in 11 seasons, including 92 on the Nationwide Tour without a victory and with just 16 top 10s. But that didn't stop him from finally getting the job done Sunday on the Nationwide Tour's biggest stage of the regular season, an event that annually offers the biggest first-place check ($135,000) in a full-field tournament. Riegger shot a 4-under-par 68 that gave him a 72-hole aggregate of 17-under 271 for his first victory since 1996, when he won the Columbian Open. And guess what? He never had a doubt. "I was just hoping it would come before I hit the (Champions) Tour,'' he said. One thing is certain. Riegger would still be waiting if it hadn't been for his putter, which served as his bail bondsman time and time again. "My putter made up for everything,'' said Riegger, whose six birdie putts totaled 123 feet. "I was making putts you never expect to make.'' He laughed. "This is the first golf tournament I ever won because of how I putter,'' he said. "Normally my game is about hitting fairways and greens. This has been the exact opposite of me.'' At least one person begged to differ with Riegger on his putting. And that was Kelly Gibson, a former PGA TOUR player, who roomed with Riegger on the road when they were teammates at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. "John isn't long off the tee,'' Gibson said Sunday via telephone from his native New Orleans. "But he's a very streaky putter. "And you can say all you want about him not winning before today. He's made a career out of playing golf, good enough to have a big house in Las Vegas, a great wife and a great family.'' Riegger has carved out his niche while battling a spate of injuries to his hand, his shoulder and, during the past two weeks, his back. He is taking next week off and has a doctor's appointment Tuesday, where he will receive a shot of cortisone in an effort to ease the pain. He played relatively pain-free Sunday and had a notion that his time had come on the 599-yard, par-5 fifth hole after he drove it wildly to the left into what he described as "hay.'' "I knew it was my week when I walked up to the ball,'' he said. Riegger held his right hand out at chest level. "The stuff was this high,'' he said, shaking his head. "And I had a perfect lie. Stuff like that happens when it's your turn.'' Riegger hacked the ball back into play, hit a pedestrian third onto the green and then knocked a 35-foot night train for an improbable birdie. "Changed my day,'' he said. And quite likely his season. The victory moved him from 57th on the 2007 money list all the way to sixth with $169,481 in official earnings, just a couple of good paychecks short of what he will need to finish in the Top 25 and graduate for a ninth full season on the PGA TOUR. "That will give me the luxury of taking some time off as we go through the season,'' Riegger said. "I'm not like these young guys. I can't play every week.'' As Riegger pulled out of the driveway of The Glen Club with wife Jennie and six-year-old son Jaxon in tow, he took the time to reflect on where he had been and where he might be going. He thought long and hard about a question concerning how he might explain this victory to someone who knew something about his trials and tribulations during a professional career that has spanned more than two decades. "You have to have confidence and faith in yourself,'' he said. "I wouldn't still be doing this is I didn't think I could win out here and on the PGA TOUR. And the fact of the matter is, I've always believed I could play.'' Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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