Kyle Stanley bounces back, wins WM Phoenix Open

A week ago Kyle Stanley was being consoled by friends and family after losing a once seven stroke lead on the final day at Torrey Pines. He needed to sink a four foot putt in order to win and missed it. 

On Sunday, Stanley had another four foot putt to maintain a two-stroke lead to finish his Waste Management Phoenix Open and nailed it. Which proved to be more than enough to be tournament champion.

“It was tough, I am not sure you can really teach someone how to deal with that,” explained Stanley on Sunday. “I got tons of support from family, friends and people I didn’t even know and that really helped me.”

While it was Stanley’s collapse a week earlier from Torrey Pines, there was another collapse that another young golfer on the tour will have to bounce back from. Spencer Levin started the day at 17 under par which was a six shot lead and eights strokes ahead of Stanley.

Levin got into a funk in the back nine from TPC Scottsdale and never got out of it.

“I just didn’t allow myself to have fun today,” explained Levin. “I was having fun all week, but today for some reason I didn’t.”

Stanley explained how he understands what Levin went through.

“I never would want to wish that on anybody. I feel for him. He is a fantastic player and probably one of my good friends out here and I feel for him. But he is too good not to recover,” said Stanley.

The many golf fans that came to the TPC Scottsdale were aware of Stanley’s story which brought a lot of cheers and support.

“Even when I missed the green on 16 I didn’t get booed to bad,” Stanley mentioned. “A lot of support, I haven’t felt anything like that before. The fans were great.”

It was a record breaking week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. 173,210 people showed up on Saturday which is a new tournament record. Over 518,000 people came through total.