Column: Brice Garnett shows why winning means just as much to the little guys

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Until Sunday, about the only thing Scottie Scheffler and Brice Garnett had in common was PGA Tour status and serving together on the Player Advisory Council last year.

They won tournaments held 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) apart — separated by margins even greater — and it raised the question of which was more valuable.

Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, beat a 69-man field of the best and hottest PGA Tour players at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, picked up $4 million and got a much-needed win. It was his first official title in nearly a year and ended tiresome questions about his putting.

Garnett was No. 535 in the world when he faced 132 players — only seven of them from the top 100, none higher than No. 69 — in the Puerto Rico Open. He struggled to hold back tears after he made a 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole to win.

The entire purse for Puerto Rico was $4 million. Garnett won $720,000, slightly less than the payout for the two-tie for sixth at Bay Hill.

Who was happier?

“That would be a cool place to win — Bay Hill, Arnie’s tournament, $4 million,” Garnett said. “I wasn’t playing for the $720,000. I was playing for status, for exemptions. I can’t say this for sure, but it probably meant more to me.”

This was an example of how the bottom half lives on the PGA Tour, and maybe it’s an example of why the PGA Tour schedule seems so bloated. The Puerto Rico Open is one of five events on the schedule held opposite tournaments that attract the best players.

The emotions of Garnett, whose only other PGA Tour victory was another opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic five years ago, are understandable.

In this new era of signature events — big money, small fields — players at the very bottom of the pecking order are having a…