Bad Weather Gives Web.Com Winner A Terrific Birthday Present

The bad weather in Mississippi provided a terrific birthday present for eventual Web.com Tour winner Eric Axley as the final round of the North Mississippi Classic was rained out. But we’re burying the lead as Golf World’s Joel Beall explains.

The final round of the Web.com Tour event was canceled, as officials deemed the course unplayable after heavy rains. Axley, who held a three-stroke lead over Willy Wilcox, Sebastian Munoz and K.H. Lee, was declared champ. It was a bit of providence, as Axley had already gave up his lead before play was suspended.

“We looked at the forecast and knew they had moved [final-round] tee times up,” Axley recalled, “and this isn’t our first rodeo so we thought that there may be a chance that we didn’t play today. Our goal yesterday was to play like it was the final round and we went out and played well, and it ends up it was the final round, so we got the win.”

Axley made 22 starts on the Web.com Tour in 2017, making 11 cuts and carding one top-10 finish. The performance was enough to land him a spot in the Web.com Tour Finals, but missed cuts in three of the four Finals events left the former East Tennessee State Buccaneer at No. 59 on the Finals money list come season’s end. Though Axley has been back and forth on the Web.com Tour and PGA TOUR over the last few years, he’s never wavered in his ability to compete and make a living via professional golf. 

“You always want to play at the highest level and compete at the highest level,” he said. “You’ll have your ups and downs and your injuries and stuff like that, but if I didn’t play golf I really don’t know what else I would do.”

It is Axley’s first Tour win since 2006.