Braves great John Smoltz now has a golf tournament victory on his resume.
Smoltz, the Hall of Fame pitcher, won the celebrity division of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions at the Tranquilo Golf Course at Four Seasons in Lake Buena Vista, Fla on Sunday. He won by three points over former all-star pitcher Mark Mulder under the Modified Stableford system.
Smoltz grabbed the tournament lead after the third round. After shooting 1-under par on the front nine Sunday, he had to battle the wind and several mistakes down the stretch. Smoltz chunked a second shot into water in double-bogeying 10, shanked a shot in bogeying the 12th, three-putted after driving the green on the par-4, 254-yard 16th and hit his second shot into water in bogeying the par-5 17th.
Smoltz scored 33 points Sunday for 149 total.
“I was playing math the last five holes,” said Smoltz, who qualified for last year’s U.S. Senior Open. “I was counting in my head. I was trying to figure out which points would put me over the top. I played real defensively for obvious reasons. A par for two points is valuable. We went in today saying par is our friend.”
Former Braves catcher Greg Olson caddied for Smoltz.