Neal Shipley won his first professional title at the Korn Ferry Tour's 2025 LECOM Suncoast Classic on Saturday thanks to a heroic final-round comeback and a stunning winning putt in a lengthy playoff.
The 2024 Masters and US Open Low Amateur defeated South Korea's Seungtaek Lee with a birdie on the fifth sudden-death hole at Lakewood National Golf Club, but only after surging through the field and carding a remarkable seven-under 64.
Starting the day four strokes behind the co-leaders, Shipley posted seven birdies between holes four and 11 to rocket up the standings and place himself firmly in contention down the stretch.
Touching on his purple patch post-round, Shipley said: “I got really hot there making the turn. I hit really good golf shots into 7, 8, and 9. I made a good up and down on 10. I did the same on No. 12.
“I just had a couple of mistakes out there. But overall, I’m really pleased with shooting 7-under, especially in this kind of wind.”
T1 👀 pic.twitter.com/lWIpTUm7VbApril 19, 2025
A bogey at the 12th briefly halted the 24-year-old's momentum before the man with the most birdies throughout the week (30) added his final two to reach eight-under for the day and 19-under for the tournament.
Shipley ended up requiring extra holes to win, but he could have been celebrating even earlier if not for a costly bogey on the 16th which saw him drop a shot. Fortunately for the former Ohio State player, Lee bogeyed the same hole to leave the door open.
Both Shipley and Lee parred out to force a playoff, and the sudden-death format began with a pair of bogeys on the par-4 18th. Three further trips down 18 each ended all square at four apiece, with Shipley saving from 15 feet on the third go to maintain his hopes of victory.
In the end, the crucial putt was from much further out still. Stood over a 38-foot birdie chance, Shipley confidently pushed his golf ball down the slope and into the left edge of the hole before letting out a huge roar of celebration.
Afterwards, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania pro said of that moment: “I had to make some clutch putts. When that last one went in, I kind of went berserk. You practice for moments like that.”
"This is what we play for.We play for moments like that." pic.twitter.com/1ANGpprloCApril 20, 2025
With this win, Shipley moves up to No.3 in the Korn Ferry Tour points list and gives him an excellent chance of securing a top-20 spot at the end of the season - a spot which would give him full PGA Tour status.
Shipley continued: “This puts me in great position for the rest of the year. It’s great to get that first win. But I will just let the golf take care of itself. If I play good golf, it will get the job done.”
The LECOM Suncoast Classic was Shipley's eighth Korn Ferry Tour start of the campaign, two appearances after competing on the PGA Tour for the first time in 2025, at the Valspar Championship.
One take, everyone knows the rules 🤳🏆 pic.twitter.com/Lurzi5WTZNApril 20, 2025
Shipley made himself quite popular among many of his peers at the Copperhead Course last month when a late bogey allowed 12 players to make the cut.
In his post-round press conference, the 24-year-old joked that whoever earned weekend tee times as a result of his inadvertent error was welcome to purchase him a Waffle House gift card in order to say thank you.
Shipley joked: "Everyone knows where my locker room is and they can feel free to leave some Waffle House gift cards in there for me, I'd appreciate it."
