Michael Gligic earns first Web.com Tour title at Panamá Championship
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Written by Staff
PANAMÁ CITY, Panamá – Canadian Michael Gligic fired a final-round 5-under 65 to earn his first Web.com Tour victory at the Panamá Championship. The 29-year-old veteran survived windy conditions throughout the week at the Club de Golf de Panamá as players again battled firm and fast conditions on Sunday.
Gligic won in his first career start at the Panamá Championship. The journeyman has spent years between tours before earning Web.com Tour starts with a T13 finish at the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament last December. Once the results were confirmed, Gligic was overcome with emotion, realizing he had officially won.
“I still can’t really believe it, to be honest. You come to every golf tournament to win and to actually do it is a whole different ball game, and it’s really overwhelming,” Gligic said. “I knew I was right there, and every shot really counted. I gave it my all and fortunately I was good by one shot.”
Gligic started the day with pars on his first four holes before recording birdies on Nos. 5, 9, 10, 11 and 14. The Ontario native three-putted on No. 15 for bogey but immediately bounced back with a birdie on 16. He finished with pars on 17 and 18 to post 8-under for the week. Gligic noted that a clutch par on the seventh gave him some momentum heading into the back nine.
“I would say the turning point was when I made that really good par putt on seven, which was over a cup outside,” Gligic said. “I’d say that putt kept me going and birdieing 10 and 11 was where it was game on from there.”
After a third-round 67, Gligic was T7 as he began his final round. He sensed that he was near the top of the leaderboard but didn’t know for sure until the round was over.
“Down the stretch I didn’t really know where I stood,” said Gligic. “I’ve been trying not to look at leaderboards or anything. I knew I was close because the cameras were out and people were following.”
Gligic has spent most of his career on the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada with this week being his 15th-career start on the Web.com Tour. He referenced the constant support from his fellow Canadians and Mackenzie Tour counterparts.
“It’s great; it’s always been like that. We’re a pretty tight-knit group and regardless of whether we’re playing the Mackenzie Tour, Web.com Tour or PGA TOUR, everyone’s cheering for each other,” said Gligic. “Everyone wants to see that Canadian flag at the top of the leaderboard and fortunately it was my week this week. Hopefully those boys get it done in the next few weeks here. I think Canada is moving in the right direction and were seeing a lot of Canadian flags on all the tours.”
This was Gligic’s fourth start on the Web.com Tour this season. He had one top-20 finish entering the week in Panamá. With the win, he jumped to second in The 25 standings. Despite having a flight booked for 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Gligic’s wife stayed at the Club de Golf de Panamá to savor the moment.
“It’s really surreal, this is her first event of the year so maybe I need to bring her everywhere,” Gligic said. “I didn’t really know where I stood last night. We were more worried about if we were going to make our flights or not which clearly, we’re not going to. This is what you dream of when you start the week and for this to come through and actually happen, the flights are irrelevant now.”
China’s Xinjun Zhang shot a final-round 66 to finish 7-under in solo-second. Web.com Tour rookie Carl Yuan had a career-best solo-third-place finish after shooting four rounds in the 60s. Ben Taylor finished in solo fourth as Rhein Gibson and Cameron Percy finished T5.