Riley bests Scheffler for 1st solo win at Colonial

FORT WORTH, Texas — Davis Riley shot even-par 70 while playing in the final group Sunday with Scottie Scheffler and still won a subdued Colonial by 5 strokes over the world’s No. 1 player and Keegan Bradley for his first individual victory on the PGA Tour.

Riley finished at 14-under 266 after rolling in a 6-foot par putt on the final hole. Bradley had a closing 67, and Scheffler shot 71 on a day when he hit only seven of 14 fairways and didn’t have a birdie until the 13th hole.

After beginning the final round with a 4-stroke lead, Riley gave up a stroke with a bogey on the second hole when he drove into the right rough then hit into the bunker. But that was the closest Scheffler — or anybody else — would get with wind gusts of 20 mph and greater blowing throughout the day.

The 27-year-old Riley’s only other PGA Tour win came when he and Nick Hardy won the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans last year. The Mississippi native’s win at historic Colonial, which had been completely restored since last year’s tournament, earned him $1.638 million, the traditional winner’s plaid jacket and a fully restored and modernized 1975 Stingray car.

The final round was played on the same day that Grayson Murray‘s parents said their 30-year-old son took his own life Saturday, a day after the two-time Tour winner had cited illness when withdrawing from the event with two holes left in his second round. The family had insisted to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan for play to continue at the Charles Schwab Classic.

Bradley, who won twice last year, was at 10 under after a 4-foot birdie at the 17th hole. But he missed a similar-length chance to save par at No. 18 after his tee shot and approach both ended up in the right rough.

Collin Morikawa, the only player in the field to finish all four rounds under par, was fourth at 8 under after his closing 68.

Riley curled in a 27-foot birdie at the 229-yard par-3 No. 4 that is the middle of the famed “Horrible Horseshoe,” which is still the toughest three-hole stretch on the course. Scheffler bogeyed there and again at No. 5 after hitting into the right rough running parallel to the Trinity River.

While Riley closed out the front nine with a 9-foot birdie putt, he was 6 strokes ahead of Scheffler.

Scheffler was playing close to his Dallas home a week after his arrest in the morning darkness before his second round of the PGA Championship, when police were investigating a pedestrian fatality and arrested — and briefly jailed — Scheffler for not following traffic directions.

After tying for eighth at Valhalla, Colonial was the 11th top-10 finish in Scheffler’s 12 tournaments this year. Before the PGA Championship, he had taken three weeks off for the birth of his first child after back-to-back wins at the Masters and the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head.

It was Scheffler’s third consecutive top-three finish at Colonial, even after an opening 72 that was the first time this season he failed to break par in a first round. That also included his first triple bogey of the season, when his tee shot at the par-3 13th hole went into the pond fronting that raised green.

No. 13 was Scheffler’s first birdie Sunday, but he was still 7 strokes back at that point. After the triple on Thursday, he had played 44 consecutive bogey-free holes — including rounds of 65 and 63, until Nos. 4 and 5 on Sunday.