Aldrich Potgieter, the youngest player on the PGA Tour, picked up his first Tour victory Sunday at 20 years old in dramatic fashion and secured a life-changing payday in the process.
After 72 holes at the Rocket Classic, Potgieter remained tied with Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk atop the leaderboard at 22 under par. They didn’t settle a winner until five more holes were played.
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The threesome each played the par-4 18th to par on the first hole of the sudden-death playoff. Kirk bowed out with a bogey at the par-3 15th as Greyserman and Potgieter parred. Greyserman and Potgieter then parred the par-4 16th before posting matching birdies on the par-5 14th.
Then they returned to the 158-yard 15th, the shortest hole on the North Course course at the Detroit Golf Club. Potgieter hit a 9-iron on the green, roughly 18 feet from the hole. Greyserman also hit 9-iron onto the green that stopped about 10 feet behind Potgieter’s ball.
Greyserman putted first, and his ball rolled just past the left side of the hole. Potgieter took advantage of watching Greyserman’s putt and the opportunity. His putt was pure from contact and rolled straight into the center of the hole.
“I finally got one to the hole,” Potgieter told CBS of a day in which he left multiple putts short. “I just saw the ball roll over end over end and I just knew that it was gonna go in.”
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Potgieter entered Sunday with a two-stroke lead over the field while playing in the final group with Greyserman. Both Greyserman and Kirk caught up with final rounds of 5-under 67. Potgieter shot a 69, but ultimately prevailed in the playoff holes.
The putt secured Potgieter’s first PGA victory and a $1.728 million payday that was more than double Greyserman’s $854,200 payout for finishing in a second-place tie.
The payout added a significant boost to Potgieter’s career PGA Tour earnings, which stood at $1.98 million prior to his victory on Sunday. The win marked the third top-10 finish for Potgieter and bested his previous best result of a second-place finish at the Mexico Open in February that paid him $763,000.
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Potgieter appears to be a rising star in the sport after turning professional at age 18 in 2023. He became the youngest Korn Ferry Tour winner last year at age 19 when he claimed victory at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. This year, he leads the Tour in average driving distance at 326.6 yards, ahead of No. 2 Rory McIlroy’s 320 yards.
The victory this week also put him in some rare company. A South Africa native, Potgieter is just the fifth player not from the United States to secure his first PGA Tour victory before turning 21 in the last 100 years.
Rory McIlroy, Seve Ballesteros, Joaquin Niemann and Tom Kim are the others.
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