Gary Woodland gets within 1 of Wyndham Clark, then hits this cold top only 97 yards off the tee

Gary Woodland is the crowd favorite this week at the BMW Championship as he grew up just three hours from Bellerive Country Club outside St. Louis. So when he made birdie on the par-5 eighth hole Sunday during the final round to get within a shot of Wyndham Clark, the noise grew louder. The gallery was witnessing what they came to see.

Then the man who is the feel-good story this year on the PGA Tour after winning in Houston shortly after publicly talking about his PTSD, stood on the ninth tee and hit a stone-cold top that went 97 yards and found a creek that has never been in play. It appeared like he hit a 3-wood off the deck, without a tee.

Fifteen minutes later, Woodland tapped in for a double-bogey 6 and was tied for third place, three shots behind Clark. Woodland dropped, hit his third to the middle of the fairway, hit an approach from 132 yards to 14 feet and two-putted for double.

Woodland, 42, opened with birdies on 2, 4, 5 and 8. There was a bogey on the seventh, and the double on the ninth, having him turn in only one-under 35 by making only three pars.