Ted Potter saved the best for last at the Sony Open, continuing to display an excellent short game over the final 18 holes, but adding some superior putting to the menu. As a result, he broke his 2019-2020 streak of five straight missed cuts and finished in a tie for seventh place, earning a juicy check of $214,500.

    Ted came to the 18th hole tied for 14th place, but his birdie 4 on the short par-5 moved him up seven spots. He finished with a 4-under-par 66 and an 8-under-272 total, just three strokes behind Cameron Smith and Brendan Steele. Smith defeated Steele in a one-hole playoff on No. 10 when Steele took a bogey after he had been leading the event most of the way. 

    Ted's putter came to life on No. 2 after he parred the first hole. He two-putted the second from 44 feet, 9 inches away, then proceeded to sink a nearly 17-footer on the third for his first birdie. He two-putted again from 50 feet, 7 inches on No. 4, and went to 2 under with a 23'-11" putt on the fifth. 

    He dropped a stroke on the par-3 7th after hitting into a bunker off the tee, but he got it back on the par-5 ninth when he pitched his third just 3 feet, 2 inches from the hole. At this point, Ted was 2 under again and tied for eighth at 6 under overall.

    He quickly moved to 3 under on the 10th when he hit a 100-yard wedge to within 4'-5" and canned it to go 7 under and into a tie for fourth. After pars at 11 through 13, Ted salvaged a par on 14 by two-putting from 57 feet, 1 inch. But he dropped another stroke on 15 when he couldn't get it up and down from 66 feet, 8 inches, missing from 9 feet, 7 inches for the par.

    A birdie putt of 4 feet, 6 inches on 16 got him back to 7 under, then he barely missed a televised 24-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 17th - by two inches. On 18, he drove it 278 yards into a fairway bunker, hit his second 223 yards to the right fairway, pitched up 3 feet, 4 inches from the hole and made it for his final birdie. He wound up the week ranked No. 1 in scrambling. 

    Over the 72 holes, Ted made 16 birdies and 8 bogeys, and his finish shot him up to - oddly enough - 120th place on both the PGA Tour money list and the FedEx Cup list (with the 88 points he earned Sunday).

    The only Seminole/Gator to make the Sony cut, Daniel Berger (70-70-69-69-278), tied for 38th at 2 under par. 

    Ted will head right for California for this week's American Express event over the Stadium Course in La Quinta with its purse of $6.7 million.  

    

     

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