Richy Werenski Wins Big Break The Palm Beaches
Seven months after it was filmed, golf fans all over found out Monday night who won Golf Channel's Big Break The Palm Beaches.
The latest edition, which was held on the Champion Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens and home to the Honda Classic, was won by Richy Werenski. Werenski defeated Justin Martinson 2-and-1 in the final match play competition to determine the winner.
The show, which puts 12 golfers through various competitions and skills challenges until there is only one golfer left, finished filming back in September but the results were kept under wraps until Monday's finale. Moments after the final episode aired though, Werenski said his phone started blowing up.
“It’s been crazy,” Werenski told The Palm Beach Post. “It wouldn’t stop vibrating. I put it on ‘do not disturb’ and next time I looked there were 100 texts.”
Werenski almost didn't even make it on the show. He said he was playing in a mini-tour event in North Carolina last summer when he was asked to audition.
“I just did it because everybody else was doing it,” he said. “They asked me a few questions on camera and I hit a few golf balls. I had watched it and thought it would be cool to be on it, but it wasn’t like I set out to get a spot.”
He got called for a second interview a month later, but before the interview even took place, he was informed that he had received a spot.
Werenski was already farmiliar with the course when he arrived, having played it during AJGA events.
“It’s one of my favorite courses,” he said. “It’s such a good design; I love that golf course. And the people at PGA National were great.”
What made it such a unique experience for Werenski is playing in front of so many TV cameras.
“I’d never really experienced TV cameras like that. There were 90 people on the crew, tons of cameras, and they were all watching every shot you took. Breaking that pane of glass on the first show, I still don’t know how I did it. But I learned to deal with it and felt so much more comfortable as it went along.”
With the win, Werenski won $50,000 in cash and prizes as well as an exemption into the PGA Tour's Barbasol Championship in Alabama in June. PGA National has definitely been a good spot for Richy over the past several months. After winning Big Break in September, he came back three months later and successfully completed Web.com Tour Q-School, also held on the Champion Course. He currently ranks 78th on the earnings list after an 18th place finish this past weekend in Mexico.
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