AP

After fighting through the demons of last week’s back-nine 42 on Sunday as well as the bogey, double bogey finish to his round on Saturday, Bill Hass did nothing if not persevere to become the fourth winner of the FedEx Cup at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga.

The only problem was even he didn’t know he had just won the richest prize in golf.

Following the making of his four-foot putt on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff with Hunter Mahan, Haas was only sure that he had won the Tour Championship. On his way up to NBC’s television trophy presentation, he saw the Tour Championship Trophy as well as the FedEx Cup sitting on a table and he was the only golfer on the platform.

Haas turned to his wife, Julie, and asked, “Did I win the FedEx Cup?” She quietly nodded and said, “Yes.”

“I saw Tim Finchem,” Haas said after the presentation, “and I said, I didn’t know I had won this, and he was like, ‘Congratulations, you won both. Both are for you.’”

Regardless of whether or not the eventual winner knew what was on the line when he and Mahan began their entertaining sudden-death playoff, the viewers at home were all made aware. Perhaps it was the first time in the five-year history of the PGA Tour-contrived playoff system that the fans were given exactly what they wanted, namely, a one-on-one match to see who would take home the $11.44 prize.

The Tour sells the FedEx Cup finale, the Tour Championship, as an opportunity for all 30 guys in the field to win the big prize, although the guys towards to bottom seem to need a small miracle. This year with Haas ranked No. 25 going into the week, the sales pitch held true.

“I wanted to win, especially going into today,” Haas said. “I felt like I was in the position even after my finish yesterday. I felt like I was in a position to win the golf tournament, and that was all I could do in order to win the FedExCup.”

However, in order for Haas to come out on top, he needed a little help from the guys near the top of the standings. Of the five who had control of their destiny, only Luke Donald finished in the top-5, checking in at T-3. Webb Simpson (22), Justin Rose (T-20), Dustin Johnson (T-23) and Matt Kuchar (T-20) all failed to break par for the week and as a result, were virtual non-factors on Sunday.

Donald, the world’s No. 1 player, was the favorite to take home the big pay day with a solid finish. Playing alongside Haas, Donald sank a 12-footer for birdie on the 18th hole to put him in position if a few things went his way. Even Haas believed his playing partner was the one who would take home the $10 million.

“He birdied the last, and I thought that won the FedExCup for him,” Haas said. “So afterwards I told him, ‘Congratulations, I hope that won it for you.’”

Ironically enough, Haas, who had finished ahead of Donald in the Tour Championship, was the one who would play for the money in playoff with Mahan only minutes later.

With East Lake’s finishing hole a long par-3, the two swapped a pair of hard-earned pars following two errant tee shots. The second playoff hole is skirted by the course’s namesake, East Lake. Wary of the trouble left off the tee, Haas put his drive in the right fairway bunker while Mahan split the fairway. The 17th green nestles up alongside East Lake and with the tournament on the line, Haas took an agressive angle out of the fairway bunker to the left pin. Believing he had hit a good shot, Haas said to himself, ‘be good,’ but when he heard the groaning from up ahead, he feared he may have found the water.

“I never would have thought that [it would go in the water] when it was in the air,” Haas said. “My brother caddying was like, ‘Yeah, I think it is.’ I was like, well, there it goes.”

Fortunately for Haas, he found his ball only one-third of the way submerged. As many of you know, if half the ball is above water, it is definitely playable. With $11 million on the line, you better believe he was going to try the shot.

“It wasn’t a ton of water, I was up over the sole of my shoe, into the leather, but I didn’t have to get submersed or anything like that,” Haas said. “You play it like a bunker shot if there’s a little bit of water, if you don’t mind getting your feet dirty, and then blast it out of there. It came out perfect.”

By “perfect,” Haas meant to three feet, and what many have already dubbed as the Shot of the Year. Mahan, who had hit to the middle of the green still had a putt to win, but momentum was clearly on Haas’ side. Mahan misjudged his putt and Haas put his in the heart of the cup. Back to 18 they went.

Playing the 235-yard par-3 for the third time in an hour, although neither of them had played it particularly well, Haas put his shot on the back fringe. Mahan left another approach on 18 out to the right and found the green-side bunker that Jim Furyk got up-and-down from last year to win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.

Mahan, away, hit a forgettable bunker shot past the hole and Haas opted to putt through the fringe, cuddling the ball up to three or four feet for his par. Mahan’s par try slipped by the cup and Haas had a putt for the Tour Championship and unbeknownst to him, the FedEx Cup as well.

“I don’t know how far it was, it looked like 12 feet, it was probably four,” Haas said. “When I hit it, looked like it came off right where I wanted it to. It was a pretty cool feeling.”

A feeling most people would love to have, I’d bet.

Outplaying the 30-man field which included Keegan Bradley and Brandt Snedeker, thought by most to be the other two in contention for the final Presidents Cup spot, Haas said he did all he could do and now he has to wait for US Captain Freddie Couples to make the decision.

“I’m not going to say it gets me to Australia,” Haas said. “It definitely puts me in the talk up there with some of the guys that everybody has been talking about. I did what I could do.”

Joining the group of Tiger Woods (twice), Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk as the winners of the FedEx Cup, Haas also jumped to 20th in the world rankings and received an exemption into just about any tournament in the world.

The FedEx Cup has caught a lot of flack over the years, most of it deserved, some of it not, but finally, this year, we, the fans, got what we wanted. We didn’t need a calculator or Steve Sands and his whiteboard. Anyone can understand one-on-one for the whole thing and that’s what we got. Along with an easy computation to find a winner, we were privy to some exceptional golf, topped off by Haas’ shot out of East Lake.

Well done, PGA Tour. This year, you got it right.

*****

Here is Haas’ shot from the water on 17, the second playoff hole.