Keith Mitchell needed to two-putt the par-4 18th to take the Sanderson Farms Championship to extra holes with Beau Hossler and Kevin Yu.
Instead, a three-putt saw him bogey the 18th and finished T-3 at 22-under.
Losing by one stings, but when someone three-putts to push themselves out of a playoff, that has to sting.
“The first putt looked good off the face,” he said about the first putt he hit on 18. “Right when it missed, I turned my head and didn’t watch the read on the way by, so when I got there, I assumed it was breaking.”
“Guess it broke left. It was going to break right back up the hill. I played it left edge, left center, and it just didn’t go in.”
Mitchell struggled with his putter. He averaged two putts per green in regulation. The former Georgia Bulldog also lost 1.674 shots in strokes gained putting during that final round.
However, that was not the case all week. Throughout all four rounds, he picked up 5.602 shots in strokes gained putting, the 11th best in the field.
Mitchell is normally excellent off the tee, but this week, he only gained 0.634 shots in Strokes gained off the tee.
“I didn’t have my best on the back nine,” Mitchell said after his round.
“I think 18 was the only fairway I hit. I didn’t have my best stuff at the end. I hate that I finished with three putt. Felt like I grinded to the end and gave the first putt a really good chance.”
He and Hossler battled all day. Mitchell made three birdies on the front nine and one more on the par-4 12th. That birdie on 12 gave him the lead, but Hossler and Yu refused to go away.
Despite only hitting one fairway on the back nine, the 32-year-old stayed in contention until the last hole.
“I was just grinding to stay in it. I had a putt to win, and the way I played on the back was pretty awesome,” he said. “Unfortunately, I hit it a little too hard and thought it was going to break a little right at the end, but it didn’t. Long story short, glad I fought 71 and a half holes.”
That little mishap on the 18th rarely happens to these top players, but sometimes it does. Golf can do that to the best players.
However, Mitchell is picking up steam this fall. He came into this week off a T-12 at the Wyndham Championship and a solo 12th at the Procore Championship.
This T-3 finish marks his best of the season, and it could be coming at the right time for him. Before this finish, he only had three top 10s and 11 Top 25s in 2024.
Mitchell is looking to improve his FedEx Cup ranking as much as possible. If he continues to play this well, the 2019 Honda Classic winner could be in a Signature Event or two.
He should move six spots to No. 66 from No. 72 in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings. Mitchell must get inside the Top 60 to play in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational Signature Events.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
