Republished with permission by Global Golf Post

For Hudson Swafford, finally getting his first PGA Tour victory is transformative.

There’s a Masters invitation as well as having his Tour status locked up through the 2018-19 season. There is also the satisfaction of having proven to himself that he can win.

He has been a solid performer in his first three seasons on Tour but Swafford hadn’t made many appearances on weekend leaderboards. In fact, he had just three career top-10 finishes in 92 Tour starts before finally breaking through in the Southern California desert.

At 29, Swafford has seen several of his former University of Georgia teammates find success more quickly than he has, but he kept grinding. He didn’t start well Sunday – Swafford bogeyed his opening hole – but he was almost flawless from there, closing with a 5-under-par 67.

One week earlier, Swafford was in contention at the Sony Open in Hawaii but he went flat on Sunday. At the CareerBuilder Challenge, Swafford made three consecutive final-round birdies to close out the front nine then won the tournament with another run of three birdies in a row starting at the 15th hole.

His tee shot on the dangerous par-3 17th was a thing of beauty, stopping 17 inches from the hole, setting up what turned out to be the winning birdie.

Swafford won, in part, because he didn’t make mistakes coming in. Adam Hadwin bogeyed the 13th hole and fell one stroke short. Veteran Chad Campbell was at 19-under par through five holes of the final round (20-under won) but put two tee shots in the water on par-3 holes to ruin his chances.

Asked after his victory about how tough it was to get his first Tour trophy, Swafford said, “They don’t give them away. It’s very difficult.”

Driver: TaylorMade M1 2017 (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila 2KXV Green 70TX

Fairway Woods: Ping i25 (14 and 18 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 80TX (3 Wood), Aldila Tour Blue 95TX (5 Wood)

Irons: Ping S55 (4-9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM6 (46-08 F Grind, 52-12 F Grind, 56-10 S Grind and 60-04 L Grind)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Putter: Odyssey Versa 2-Ball

Golf Ball: Bridgestone Tour B330