Crowe flies high as Fishburn sinks in NV5

Writing from Glenview, Illinois

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Trace Crowe wears a rubber bracelet on his left wrist. “No complaining,” it reads.

“I still complain,” Crowe quipped after winning the fifth NV5 Invitational at The Glen Club on Sunday evening.

With a trophy for his first career victory and $180,000 in his pocket, nearly sextupling his season earnings on the Korn Ferry Tour and almost doubling his career PGA Tour/Korn Ferry earnings, the 26-year-old Auburn graduate is a good bet to carry on the tradition of the NV5 champion not coming back the following year to defend.

It’s too early to say that Crowe, who beat Patrick Fishburn with a par on the second hole of sudden death after they tied at 25-under 259, will become the next Scottie Scheffler. Nobody knew Scheffler would be the first Scheffler when he won in a playoff in 2019.

Crowe, the leader by two strokes at daybreak, was dead in the water soon after starting, having triple-bogeyed the second hole. He looked at his bracelet then but ignored the suggestion. That happens when you pull your drive into the right round, airmail the green and fail to find your ball.

On the Korn Ferry Tour, full of eager players who will step over a dead body to get to the PGA Tour, he was suddenly in third place, two strokes in arrears.

The good news for Crowe was all the time left, and despite the bundle of birdies bagged on a daily basis on the KFT, strange things can happen.

In the next four hours, plenty did, beginning with Ryan McCormick, who needed a particular model of Titleist’s Pro V1 ball on Friday to continue play, and who got a couple from Crowe when the word spread. McCormick, who started the week with an 11-under 60, finished with 65 for 260.

Playing alongside McCormick, Crowe recovered to birdie seven holes in a stretch of 12 after losing his ball for a closing 5-under 66 for 25-under 259.

“I just hung in there and hung in there and started making birdies,” Crowe said.

In normal tournaments, that would be good enough to win, but the NV5, the WGA’s entry on the PGA Tour’s development series, is not a normal tournament.

Crowe’s par 5 at the last via laying up was only good enough to secure a tie, for immediately ahead of him, Fishburn, who had led in the middle stages of the round, regained a share of the lead by sinking a 45-foot downhill putt at the 18th for an eagle, a 64 and a 259. The several hundred on hand went wild, thinking they saw the winning shot.

Not quite. Not after Crowe matched his total to force extra holes.

They matched birdies on the 18th in the playoff, Crowe sinking a 30-footer that he thought surprised Fishburn, then went back to the tee to give it another go.

This time, Fishburn seemed to have the advantage even after driving into a bunker between the pond and the green. Crowe had sailed his tee shot to the right rough and remained there on his approach. He had to keep laying up because he took his 3-wood out of play after the second round in favor of a 6-wood and 2-iron.

“The wind made it a bad number,” Crowe said. “I was 10 yards shorter than I thought I was going to be each time."

Trophy to Fishburn, right? Lucky there wasn’t an engraver on site, for Crowe pitched smartly to 20 feet with his third shot, then saw the unthinkable. Fishburn, his head lifting up and his body turning too quickly, left his bunker shot in the sand. It nearly rolled back to his feet.

“I got lucky,” Crowe said. “There was a lot of sand under it.”

Fishburn chopped out his fourth shot 16 feet past the hole, and after Crowe left his birdie putt within a foot, tried to match Crowe’s sure par. He could not, rolling it past the hole. Crowe tapped in for par and his first career victory, leaving Fishburn winless on the circuit.

For Crowe, it means vaulting to 36th on the KFT standings, a far cry from the 139th-place spot he started the week in. The top 30 advance to the PGA Tour, and Crowe now is locked into the KFT playoffs, where he can continue to climb.

“It’s a crazy feeling,” Crowe said of winning. “It’s been a long, tough, interesting season. I’m blown away about how good everyone is. I feel I played unreal the last couple days.”

Around The Glen Club

Illinois grad Adrien Dumont de Chassart finished 10th with a closing 68 for 18-under 266. … Vince India finished at 16-under 268 after a closing 4-under 67. … Mark Wilson also finished with 67 for 14-under 270. … It’s the second playoff in a row at the NV5, Harry Hall beating Nick Hardy on the third sudden-death hole last year. Scheffler knocked off Marcelo Rozo in a playoff in the inaugural. … The par-71 course averaged 68.156 strokes for the week, only four holes finishing over par. Sunday’s average was 68.342 strokes. 

– Tim Cronin