Adam Schenk survives wild winds for 1st PGA Tour victory at Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Cameron JourdanAdam Schenk's creativity was on full display down the stretch.
He hit a layup on the par-5 17th that didn't get but 3 feet off the ground. He flighted wedge shots down wind and powered saucy chip shots back into the breeze when he found himself out of position.
He contorted his body and wrists to manipulate his golf ball all around Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda, doing anything he could in sustained winds of 30 miles per hour and gusting to 45 on Sunday. With his first PGA Tour victory in the balance, Schenk did anything but shank his ball offline when numerous others crumbled down the stretch.
For the first time in 243 PGA Tour starts, Schenk is a winner, taking the 2025 Butterfield Bermuda Championship with a brilliant stretch of shotmaking and creativity to survive a wind that bruised and battered most of the 70 players in the field during the final round. Schenk, who entered the final round tied for the lead, had a clutch par save on the par-3 16th and par-4 18th, winning by one shot over Chandler Phillips. Schenk missed a short birdie look on the 17th that would have given him a two-shot cushion going to the 18th, but he missed it and had to grind out a par to win. He finished with 16 pars in all on Sunday.
"I started to play some better golf the last four months," Schenk said. "I always had a little bit of the belief. I've really been working really hard. I have so many people to thank. I wish my family could be here. Of course I win out of the country and my wife can't be here."
On a day that features numerous bogeys, Schenk's scorecard was relatively quiet. He had only one bogey and one birdie, somewhat boring golf in conditions that were anything but. Yet throughout the afternoon on the windswept island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Schenk grinded his way to victory, holding the lead throughout the entire back nine and never truly being challenged by anyone because of the conditions.
In the war of attrition, Schenk came out on top.
He has had close calls in the past, losing in a playoff to Emiliano Grillo at the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge. He had five top-25 finishes this year, but he had also missed 15 cuts in 26 starts coming into the Butterfield Bermuda Championship while sitting 134th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings.
"I knew I could win, it was just a matter of executing each shot and handling each situation I put myself in," he said. "I can't believe it's over. It seemed like the longest day ever."
Even down the stretch, the nerves showed for Schenk, who stood strong above the rest. His missed birdie putt on the 17th could've broken him. Instead, he smoked his tee shot down the fairway on 18. His approach went long, perhaps a combination of adrenaline, nerves and misjudging the wind, but he pulled putter from long of the green and hit a brilliant lag to about 4 feet.
Then he fist pumped as his par putt trickled over the front edge, and he is finally a PGA Tour winner.
"Was really hoping this day would come at some point in my life. Never really know if it is," he said. "That's what makes the journey so amazing, interesting, and it's a surreal moment when it finally does."
He was asked further about his emotions.
"A little bit of relief that it's over with, and to finally get it done because it just seems like at some point or another I've been so close so many times," he said. "Eventually you get it done or you don't, and I'm only going to have so many more of these opportunities, especially if I would have lost in a four-, five-man playoff and still end up having to go to Q-School. Like, that was just a massive putt for me to make, a massive putt to have go in. It's somewhat life changing. It's life changing I get two more years on the PGA Tour."
With the win, Schenk takes home $1,080,000 from the $6 million purse. He'll also move to 67th in the FedEx Cup standings, well inside the top-100 cutoff, which comes next week after the conclusion of the season-ending RSM Classic in Georgia.
Schenk is also the 16th different first-time winner (and third in the Fall series) on the PGA Tour in 2025.
First-time winners on the PGA Tour in 2025
- Thomas Detry, WM Phoenix Open
- Brian Campbell, Mexico Open at VidantaWorld
- Joe Highsmith, Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches
- Karl Vilips, Puerto Rico Open
- Min Woo Lee, Texas Children's Hospital Open
- Andrew Novak/Ben Griffin, Zurich Classic of New Orleans
- Ryan Fox, Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic
- Aldrich Potgieter, Rocket Classic
- William Mouw, ISCO Championship
- Ryan Gerard, Barracuda Championship
- Cameron Young, Wyndham Championship
- Tommy Fleetwood, Tour Championship
- Steven Fisk, Sanderson Farms Championship
- Michael Brennan, Bank of Utah Championship
- Adam Schenk, Butterfield Bermuda Championship