After the start of his 242nd career PGA Tour, five legs stood between Adam Schenk and the victory he had spent his entire life dreaming of capturing. In the scoring tent, Chandler Phillips sat with his hat back, waiting for his luck to be called.
With the Bermuda wind blowing across the Port Royal golf course, Schenk eyed the line that could change everything — five feet to erase a season that saw him miss 15 cuts and rank 131st in strokes gained: Total.
Schenk caught his ball, scooped it up and rolled it into the center of the cup. As the ball disappeared, Schenk gave a fist pump and a celebratory scream.
“Just relief that it was so hard, so little relief that it’s over, and to finally do it because I feel like at one point or another I’ve been so close so many times,” Schenk said after winning the award. Butterfield Bermuda 2025 Championship. “Ultimately, you make it or you don’t, and I’m going to have a lot more of those opportunities, especially if I would have lost in a four-man, five-man playoff and still ended up at Q-School. Like that was just a massive shot for me, an easy shot to get in. It’s kind of life-changing.”
The win gives Schenk a two-year exemption from the PGA Tour, as well as a spot in The Players Championship and the PGA Championship.
As Schenk’s emotions began to emerge on the 18th green, back in the scoring tent, Phillips pounded the table with his fist and offered a small smile. He didn’t win, but a career-best finish has given him a new lease of life.
He entered the week in Bermuda just wanting his season to be over. He was 139th in the FedEx Fall Rankings and was almost certain to return to the Korn Ferry Tour after a season of disappointment. Like Schenk, who entered the week at 134, the path to keeping his PGA Tour card was narrow: either win or finish high enough to move to the other side of the top-100 bubble with one event to play.
“I’ve only got one option and that’s to go out there and try to win because if I don’t I’m not going to keep my card,” Phillips said on Friday in Bermuda. “There’s not a lot of answers to it. There’s only one answer, it’s just go out there and try to put the ball away. If it happens, it happens. If not, you know, try to fix what’s wrong for the year. To tell you the truth, I’m done this year. It’s been a struggle, but I’m waiting for that finish line.”
But after three good rounds in Bermuda, that finish line Phillips was looking for began to change shape. A life-changing, career-changing victory was within his reach. All that stood in their way was Schenk and Bermuda’s terrible conditions.
On Sunday, Phillips, whose best finish of the season was a T10 at the Zurich Classic team event, struggled to catch Schenk. He made the turn at one under but made three bogeys on the back nine to fall two shots back with two to play. He made a clutch birdie on the par-5 17th to get within one and put the pressure on Schenk, but could only watch from the scoreboard as his best chance to win a PGA Tour event came too soon.
But Phillips’ disappointment quickly dissipated as his path to retaining his PGA Tour became a little less steep. With the runner-up finish, Phillips moved to 92nd in the standings with one tournament remaining.
“It’s hard to get really mad about anything,” Phillips said Sunday. “Adam played obviously great, congratulations to him. I’m happy with my finish. If we had gone to a playoff it would have been better, but it’s hard to be angry about anything.
“I’m just happy to be in the top 100 right now. I know I’ve got a week left, but at least I’m not going into next week in the same position I was in this week, looking at it like God, I have to win to have a job here. I hope I play pretty well next week and see you next year.”
Back on the green, Schenk embraced his card after a victory eight years in the making. A win that erased a year that saw him go through two separate stretches with six consecutive missed cuts. It lifted a weight off Adam Schenk’s shoulders, gave him a new lease on life on the PGA Tour and showed there is immeasurable value in perseverance.
And it can pay off when few see it coming.
“It’s a little embarrassing, but at the end of the day, like I don’t want to say I don’t care what anybody thinks, but I have a belief in what I do and how I do things and that was, that was probably bigger than anything this week, just seeing that belief come through and how I do things,” Schenk said. “There’s a method to the madness. It’s not always right, but it’s good. I’d rather go down swinging, doing it my way, and learning along the way and getting advice from a small circle.
“It’s just incredible that it finally came true.”
