Eddie Pepperell savours 'invincible' Players Championship finish
Last Updated: 17/03/19 11:14pm
Eddie Pepperell revealed he felt "invincible" as he produced an incredible finish to snatch joint-third place behind Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship.
The 28-year-old Englishman, who was paired with Justin Rose, played the first six holes in one over par, but then made seven birdies in 12 holes from the seventh to storm through the field and card a six-under 66.
The highlight was a 50-foot putt for birdie at the par-three 17th and he then did well to salvage a par at the last to give himself an outside chance of victory until McIlroy and Jim Furyk nosed ahead of him.
"To be honest I just had a few ups out there, I didn't even have the downs to deal with because I holed a couple," he said.
"The pitch, the bunker shot I hit on 14 and the pitch I holed on 15 were, no matter who hits them at any stage of a golf tournament, they're great short game shots. They just gave me kind of a sense of huge confidence, actually. I kind of felt invincible, really, that last bit. Only around the greens, obviously.
"It was obviously fun. Playing with Justin was good. I mean, for the front nine, I just thought there's no way I'm beating Justin today. He was pretty flawless and then it looked like he was going to kind of cruise around, and I kind of managed to make a couple of good birdies at the end of the front nine to give me something to go off.
"But it was a lot of fun. Obviously coming in on the 17th was special. I just figured it was going to be a tap-in. I was kind of relieved I didn't have to face a three-footer in front of all those people, and then when it went in it was pretty awesome, to be fair."
Pepperell, who was the leading rookie at Sawgrass, admitted he will take a lot of positives from the week and is planning to put his $725,000 cheque to good use.
"It's a great way for me to leave this little trip because I could have shot 73, 74 quite easily today and left with not a very nice taste in my mouth," he added.
"All I'm here to do is pick up money because I'm not a member [of the PGA Tour]. I don't care about world ranking points. I like to win money so I can pay for some wine. That's probably the biggest positive, in a crude way.
"But it is a great first experience at this place because I hope I'll be back here, and to have some really nice memories of what's happened today, coming back will be nice."
