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Former BYU golfer Zac Blair started Sunday tied for the lead at the Sony Open, tied with PGA Tour veteran Brandt Snedeker atop the leaderboard.
Things didn't get much worse, either.
Blair shot a 3-under-par 67 in the final round to finish at 19-under 261 in third place Sunday in Honolulu, Hawaii. The 25-year-old second-year PGA Tour player nearly holed in a 10-foot putt for eagle to force his way into an extra-hole playoff.
Blair, Snedeker and Fabian Gomez entered the final three holes tied for the lead at 18-under overall. Blair and Snedeker each shot 2-under on the day through that point to stay at the top of the leaderboard, while Gomez was 6-under on the day through 15 holes.
Gomez held off Snedeker in a two-hole playoff to claim his second PGA Tour win in 15 months.
Gomez birdied the par-3 17th hole, and Snedeker kept pace in the final group with Blair. The Fremont High alum was playing in his first final pairing since making his debut on the PGA Tour for the 2014-15 season.
Gomez rolled in a birdie punt from just off the green at No. 18 for his second-straight birdie to finish with a final-round 62 and take the outright lead with only the final group of Snedeker and Blair behind him. His 62 tied for the lowest final round in Sony Open history.
Blair carded a 2-under-par 35 on the front nine, opening the final round with three birdies and a bogey. But Blair was briefly eclipsed by the surging Argentine Gomez, who sank seven-straight birdies to take a two-stroke lead after No. 12, including his 146-yard second shot on the par-4 No. 8.
Blair was no slouch on the final day, either. The Ogden native and Fremont High alum slotted in three birdies in four holes on the front nine, including a 21-footer on the par-4 eighth hole to put him at 2-under after hitting for bogey on the par-3 fourth hole.
He then pulled within a stroke of Gomez with a birdie on the par-4 12th hole with a cold-blooded putting stroke.
Zac Blair. Baby-faced assassin.
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelESPN) January 18, 2016
Just as quickly as Gomez surged into the lead, he lost it with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14 to briefly give Blair a one-stroke lead. But the BYU product in his sophomore season on the PGA Tour also bogeyed the 14th hole to fall back into a tie for the lead at 18-under overall going into the final three.
Blair's previous tour-high finish also came in Honolulu, when he finished tied for sixth at the 2015 Sony Open.
