In retrospect, perhaps it was a sign that the tournament which began the next day was called the Phoenix Open — after the city named for the mythological bird reborn from the ashes of its own destruction. Certainly by Sunday, the parallel was lost on no one.
In the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, it was Stanley who was down by eight strokes, and 27-year-old Spencer Levin with a seven-stroke lead after one hole, trying to close out his first PGA Tour win. It was a script that even Hollywood filmmakers would have declined as too unrealistic — Stanley overcoming his disappointment to charge back for a Sunday win, as Levin mirrored Stanley’s collapse of a week before. But as the holes unfolded, the impossible began to become reality.
On the 10th hole, Stanley mis-hit a 2-iron that ran across the hard TPC Scottsdale fairway and down a slope towards the water. Expecting to find the ball in the drink, Stanley was surprised to instead see it suspended on the downslope, just a few feet from the water’s edge.
“I looked at my caddy and said, ‘I can’t believe this ball stayed up,’” Stanley said later, in an interview with KJR’s Mitch Levy. “He looked at me and smiled and said, ‘It looks like we’re starting to get some good breaks.’”
A few holes later, another mishit that should have left Stanley stranded in the desert waste instead rolled through to a cut of rough, from which he got up and down for a birdie. Another birdie followed. Soon, Stanley could tell from the buzz of the crowd that something special, something so incredibly unlikely, was in fact happening.
By the time he stepped to the 18th green, Stanley needed just to roll in a four-footer to win … a nearly identical putt to that he had stood over a week before, with a win seemingly assured.
This time, it went down. And with it, a week’s worth of emotions flowed out of him — both elation at the win, but sympathy for Levin, who he describes as a “good friend” and whose pain he knows all too well.
“I’m at a loss for words,” he said afterward. “[But] I feel bad for Spencer. After going through [what I went through], I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”
When addressing the media just minutes after his victory, one of the first things Stanley mentioned were those conversations with his father after his Canyon Lakes failure.
“My dad always taught me that talent was only going to get you so far,’’ he said. “If I wanted to be the best, I was going to have to combine that talent with a great work ethic. You’ve got to have dreams and set goals. There has to be a purpose to everything you do.”
Stanley had sought and sustained immediate redemption. He also opened some eyes.
The 24-year-old had not even closed out that first victory when one TV analyst — inspired by his talent, and more importantly, his toughness — said he could win 30 more.