VICTOR DUBUISSON DIDN’T win the WGC-Accenture Match Play title but he left Arizona with a lot of new fans.
Twice in the playoff holes of his marathon final against Jason Day, Dubuisson needed a miracle to stay alive. Twice he did the seemingly impossible.
All that Day — and everyone else who was watching — could do was smile in disbelief.
After winning the final two regulation holes to force the $9 million championship to sudden death, the Frenchman seemed to let his chance slip when his approach to the 19th found the desert scrub.
Playing through a television cable, Dubuisson stitched what many had thought to be an unplayable shot to four feet to save par.
Incredibly, it happened again on the very next hole when Dubuisson’s approach found an even worse lie.
“I walked over there, and it was in a tree, a flower tree of some sort, in this little crevice,” Day told PGATour.com.
“It looked absolutely dead. I’m like, Yes. I hit 8-iron to 20 feet. There was so much pressure on him.”
Nerveless, Dubuisson popped the ball out and again rolled in the clutch putt for par.
“At that time you’re just thinking like do I need to just hand him the trophy now after those two shots?” Day said.
Dubuisson’s luck eventually ran out on the 23rd hole when his tee-shot found the rough. A hat-trick of miracles proved to be beyond him and Day held his birdie putt to take the $1.5 million top prize.
