DA Points and Bill Murray shot a team total of 35-under to win the pro-am

“Cinderella story outta nowhere. Former greenskeeper and now about to become The Masters champion…” I bet you haven’t heard that line enough times since Sunday evening! But thing is, it actually was a Cinderella story. Paired with actor and entertainer Bill Murray, D.A. Points shot a five-under 67 in the final round to capture his first-career PGA Tour victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. To top it off, Points and Murray combined to post 35-under and won the pro-am portion of the event.

“It’s really exciting and it’s a dream come true, said Points in his post-round press conference. “To win on the PGA TOUR, and especially at Pebble Beach and especially with Bill Murray, gosh, I mean, I don’t think I could even dream it up. I don’t think I could even dream it that well.”

Points took command of the tournament when he holed out for eagle from 100 yards on the par-5 14th (where Paul Goydos, Bryce Molder and Alex Prugh posted 9s while in contention last year). In celebration he ran toward Murray and went in for the chest bump, only to result in a super-awkward half-bump because Murray intentionally stopped short. But Points followed the performance by draining an incredible 30-footer for birdie on the 15th to take a two-shot lead.

On the 16th Points turned into the comedian. As Murray lined up for a long putt, Points quipped, “The crowd would be really happy if you could make that.” The crowd laughed and it eased any tension in the air (or any that D.A. felt).

Instead of being distracted by Murray’s antics, Points welcome them the entire week. In fact, the comic relief helped him to the victory.

“Everybody all week kept saying, well, you got the short end of the stick playing with Murray and he’s so crazy and I never, ever felt that way and I kept thinking, you know, why does everybody get so worked up thinking he’s this big distraction,” said Points.

“I tried to embrace it. I was expecting him to be, you know, more of a distraction than he was, and maybe he toned it down, maybe he didn’t, I didn’t know, but he just seemed to have fun and he taught me to go ahead and have a little more fun and in turn, it distracted me from trying so hard. It kept me more loose and having a good time with Bill.”

Murray didn’t want to get in Points’ way, either.

“I just thought, if I could not screw this up for him that, would be great,” said Murray. “And if I don’t screw it up — and it’s sort of like the acting that I was taught, which was if you make the other person look good, you don’t have to worry about yourself.”

The full press conference is worth a read. Big takeaway? Points has things in perspective, which is evident just by his manners — after he putted out on 18, he waved to the gallery and said, “Thanks for coming.”

And Murray chimed in with the reason why he participates in the tournament.

“There’s no greed in this,” he said. “I remember hearing some knucklehead say, well, yeah, you guys go out there and you get all your publicity. No one is here to get publicity. This is really fun and you can ride — this ride, when it’s great, it’s awesome. It’s just really different and no entertainment experience, anything like it. Something about the energy of golf and having fun at it is so unusual that it can only happen in this place and a couple of others.

“And it’s very unusual, very singular kind of experience, and all of the people that are working are kind of going, go ahead, I’m in this, too, because this is good, what I’m doing is giving back too, we are all in.”

With the victory, Points also won his first trip to Augusta.

(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)