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Tour Mash: Hurley’s improbable victory, Ko and Stenson return to winner’s circle

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PGA Tour: Naval Academy grad Billy Hurley III grabs improbable victory at Quicken Loans National

In a week that saw the cancellation of an imminent PGA Tour event, and the human tragedy that surrounded it, a long-shot victor who dealt with his own family tragedy over the past year emerged to claim a first Tour win. Billy Hurley III stood even on the day, neck and neck with Vijay Singh, when he pitched in for birdie on the 15th hole to assume the lead. A subsequent birdie on No. 16 gave him a three-stroke edge, which he carried to the finish.

Hurley is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and his victory at Congressional resonated not only for the support that the tournament gives to the military, but also to the winner, who grew up not far from the tournament site. Hurley’s father, his golf instructor, passed away in the last year, adding to the emotion of the victory.

Vijay Singh and Ernie Els gave proper chase, but could not catch the determined champion. Singh finished second alone, with newly minted professional (and last week’s U.S. Open low amateur) Jon Rahm (see his WITB) tied for third with Bill Haas at 13-under par.

Related: See the clubs Hurley used to win

LPGA Tour: Lydia Ko wins Walmart Championship in Arkansas

The world No. 1 stood in a tie on Saturday evening with Morgan Pressel, but made an emphatic statement on Sunday that reminded the golf world of how she attained that top ranking. Ko birdied four of her first five holes in to jump ahead of the field, reaching 5-under on the day at one point on Sunday. Pressel could not keep early pace, although she did make a mid-round run with three birdies in a four-hole stretch.

As the leaders headed toward the tournament’s coda, Pressel bogied four consecutive holes to drop from contention. She finished in a tie with Candie Kung, whose 2-under 69 featured a strong closing kick of 4-under over the final eleven holes. Ko was able to play conservatively during the final six holes, making two bogeys to end at 17-under, three shots clear of Kung and Pressel.

European Tour: Stenson returns to winner’s podium at BMW International Open

Henrik Stenson had experienced joy and sadness at two previous BMW Opens, winning a playoff for the title in 2006, and losing another extra-hole battle in 2014. The Swede had not won anywhere since November of 2014, so his victory at Pulheim, Germany, was a welcome result. Forced to play 36 holes on Sunday after rain delays slowed play, Stenson went on a bogey run to fall into a tie with Darren Fichardt of South Africa into the back nine of Round 4.

Stenson responded like the top-10 player he is, with three birdies over the closing holes. Fichardt made bogey on the final hole to drop into a tie for second with Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark three shots back at 14-under. The victory was Stenson’s 10th on the European Tour. Once ranked No. 2 in the world, the Swede currently finds himself in the No. 7 spot worldwide, headed into the thick of summer competition. There was good news from the rest of the field as well: holes in one from Richie Ramsay and Sergio Garcia put an exclamation point on the week.

Related: See the clubs Stenson used to win

Web.com Tour: Schniederjans wins first at Air Capital in Kansas

Ollie Schniederjans, a first-year pro by way of Dallas and Georgia Tech, survived a two-hole, three-man playoff to claim his first professional title. The 22-year-old nearly won in early April in Colombia, but fell to Brad Fritsch in a playoff. This time around, he took matters into his own hands.

Schniederjans lit up the Crestview course with a record 61 on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to shake a host of players, including J.J. Spaun and amateur Collin Morikawa. One might think that Ollie’s 67 in the final round would get the job done, but a second consecutive 63 from Morikawa and a 64 from Spaun meant that another playoff would determine Schniederjan’s fate.

The winner made fairly short work of the extra session. After all three golfers, tied at 17-under in regulation, made par on the first bonus hole, Schniederjans drained an 18-foot, left-to-right slider to end matters.

Related: See the clubs Schniederjans used to win

The Rest of the Tours

Kirk Triplett took advantage of a Bart Bryant brain freeze to claim his fifth PGA Tour Champions victory and first since 2014 at the American Family Insurance Championship in Wisconsin. Bryant was in the lead when he pulled driver on the short, par-four 15th hole and dumped it into the trees, ultimately finishing at 15-under. That unforced error led to a triple bogey and a passing of the leader’s torch to Triplett. The state of Washington native ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine to claim the title by two strokes over Bryant and Mike Goodes.

Max Rottluff of Germany and Carter Jenkins of the U.S. matched each other shot for shot on Sunday’s back nine at the Dakota Dunes Open on Mackenzie Tour PGA Canada. It was a single blip by Jenkins, a bogey on the par-three 15th, that allowed Rottluff to sneak out of Saskatoon with a one-stroke victory. Rottluff, and Arizona State graduate, posted a winning score of 23-under.

Dou Zecheng of China posted the low Sunday round (67) to pass Thailand’s Gunn Charoenkul and Chang Yi Keung of Korea and secure the Nanjing Zhongshan Open at 14-under on PGA Tour China. Keung led with 18 holes to play, but could only manage an even-par 72 in round four, finishing at 11-under, in third alone. Zecheng and Charoenkul battled for the title, with Zecheng easing past with four birdies on the final nine. Charoenkul finished one shot back. The victory was Dou’s third of the campaign.

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Ronald Montesano writes for GolfWRX.com from western New York. He dabbles in coaching golf and teaching Spanish, in addition to scribbling columns on all aspects of golf, from apparel to architecture, from equipment to travel. Follow Ronald on Twitter at @buffalogolfer.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. chris

    Jun 27, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    This makes Stenson’s WD last week in 2nd round of Open that much more disappointing. People had speculated it was injury, seems though he is just fine. Shame he couldn’t finish the 2nd round just because he was +10 on the round, considering the amount of golfers that would kill for the opportunity to play in the US Open.

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Photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage

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GolfWRX is on site this week at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island for the RBC Heritage. Plenty of golfers who competed in the Masters last week will be making the quick turnaround in the Lowcountry of South Carolina as the Heritage is again one of the Tour’s Signature Events.

We have general albums for you to check out, as well as plenty of WITBs — including Justin Thomas and Justin Rose.

We’ll continue to update as more photos flow in from SC.

Check out links to all our photos, below.

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Photos from the 2024 Valero Texas Open

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GolfWRX is on site this week at the Valero Texas Open.

The event has been around since 1922, making it one of the oldest on the PGA Tour calendar. Over the years, it’s been held at a variety of courses across the Lone Star State, but it’s found its home at TPC San Antonio in recent years. Some of the biggest names in golf have taken home the title here, including Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, and Ben Crenshaw.

GolfWRX has its usual assortment of general galleries, WITBs and special pull-out albums. As always, we’ll continue to update the links below as more photos come in from TPC San Antonio.

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Photos from the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open

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GolfWRX is on site in the Lone Star State this week for the Texas Children’s Houston Open.

General galleries from the putting green and range, WITBs — including Thorbjorn Olesen and Zac Blair — and several pull-out albums await.

As always, we’ll continue to update as more photos flow in. Check out links to all our photos from Houston below.

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