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Morning 9: Winners roundup | Stacy Lewis calls out slow play | Strafaci wins U.S. Am

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1. Stacy Lewis wins the Scottish Open…
AP report…”Stacy Lewis won the Ladies Scottish Open with a 23-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff Sunday, giving the American her first title in nearly three years and a confidence boost ahead of the Women’s British Open.”
  • “The 35-year-old Lewis took a swig of champagne beside the 18th green after fending off Azahara Munoz, Cheyenne Knight and Emily Kristine Pedersen for her 13th LPGA Tour victory – and first since the birth to daughter Chesnee in October 2018.”
  • “I have been trying to get a trophy from the day she was born. That’s been my goal,” Lewis said. “I just called them, got to FaceTime with them. My husband said she was hitting the TV screen with her plastic golf clubs when I made that putt. So it’s just pretty cool. I can’t wait to get home with them in a week or so and celebrate.”
2. …and rightly calls out pace of play
Martin Dempster at the Scotsman reporting on absolutely glacial pace …”Having played with the same two players on Saturday, it was a tough two days for Lewis, but she prevailed in the end. A 24-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole did the trick in a sudden-death shoot-out with Munoz, American Cheyenne Knight and Dane Emily Pederson after they had all finished with five-under-par 279 totals – 15 shots fewer than the winning aggregate posted by Korea’s MJ Hur at the same venue last year.”
  • “Referring to her caddie, Lewis said: “I told him on the second tee, ‘I’m not allowed to complain once about the pace of play’ So I didn’t allow it to affect me. I was singing songs in my head, just getting away from everything, trying to pass the time. My daughter, she loves Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. So that was actually the song that was stuck in my head today.”
  • “The final group took five hours and 16 minutes to complete their round. “It does,” said Lewis of that taking some of the gloss of an enthralling title tussle. “It shouldn’t take that long to play. I knew it was going to; that’s the sad part. I do think an effort needs to be made across the board to play faster. I’m sure it couldn’t have been fun to watch on TV. I’ve been an advocate for changing our pace of play, getting people to play faster for a long time, and we’re still going the other way unfortunately.”
3. Sizzling Sunday = Victory for Hermie 

AP report…”Jim Herman rallied to win the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his third PGA TOUR title and a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs, shooting a 7-under 63 for a one-stroke victory over Billy Horschel.”

  • “Herman overcame a four-stroke deficit in the final round at Sedgefield Country Club. He overtook Horschel with a birdie on the 71st hole.”
  • “The 42-year-old Herman finished at 21-under 259.”
  • “Horschel closed with a 65. He had a final chance to tie on the 72nd hole, but his 8-foot birdie putt slid left of the cup.”
4. Beware Sam Horsfield
This guy looks like the real deal following his second win in three tournaments…EuropeanTour.com report…”After two hours were lost at The Celtic Manor Resort due to thunderstorms in the afternoon, it was close to darkness when Horsfield sank the putt that made him the 2020 Race to Dubai’s first multiple winner.”
  • “A bogey free 67 in Wales took the Englishman to 18 under and handed him a second win on the UK Swing after his triumph at the Hero Open two weeks ago.”
  • “Just like in Birmingham, Belgian Thomas Detry was second on 16 under after a 67, a shot clear of countryman Thomas Pieters, England’s Andrew Johnston and Scot Connor Syme.”
  • “American John Catlin, England’s David Horsey, Pole Adrian Meronk and Finn Sami Välimäki finished four shots off the lead.”
5. Kelly takes Senior Players
Straight from the PGA Tour Champions newswire…“Jerry Kelly won the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship by carding his first ace on PGA TOUR Champions on the 12th hole and recording a 3-under 69 Sunday to win by two strokes over Scott Parel. With the victory, Kelly will compete in the 2021 PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.”
  • “Kelly led by one stroke in the final round until he reached No. 12 and sunk his first ace on PGA TOUR Champions with a 5-iron from 177 yards out. He parred the following five holes leading by four, but double-bogeyed the final 18th hole. Kelly won his first major championship title by two strokes over Scott Parel.”
  • “Kelly becomes the first player to record an ace and go on to win since Scott McCarron at the 2018 Shaw Charity Classic…The win is Kelly’s first major championship victory in 15 major appearances and seventh PGA TOUR Champions victory. He now owns at least one victory in each of his four years on Tour.”
6. U.S. Am: Strafaci wins
David Shefter of the USGA…’Eighty-five years after Frank Strafaci Sr. won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links, his grandson, Tyler Strafaci, 22, of Davie, Fla., captured the U.S. Amateur Championship in dramatic fashion at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. The fifth-year Georgia Tech senior rallied from an early 5-down deficit to defeat Southern Methodist University rising junior Charles “Ollie” Osborne, 20, of Reno, Nev., 1 up, in the 36-hole championship match.’
  • “It was Strafaci’s fourth consecutive match to be decided on the final hole. This time, he laced a 4-iron from 245 yards to 25 feet to set up a two-putt birdie, the 25th of the match between the two finalists. When Osborne, who pushed his 5-iron second from 212 yards to the right of the green, failed to convert his birdie from 18 feet, the match was over.”
  • “An emotional Strafaci embraced his father/caddie, Frank Jr., his mother, Jill, and his older brother, Trent. He also was congratulated by 2021 USA Walker Cup captain Nathaniel Crosby, himself the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion, for earning a place on the team that will face Great Britain and Ireland May 8-9 at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., just a short drive from Strafaci’s home. There were tears of joy and several primal screams of excitement, knowing he had fulfilled a lifelong dream of winning America’s oldest amateur competition and play in a Walker Cup, something his decorated grandfather never achieved.”
7. Bomb blasting, former high school hockey goalie wins of Symetra Tour
  • Golfweek’s Todd Kelly…”Sarah White capped off a final-round 68 with a birdie on the 18th hole to finish at 15 under to win the Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute at Longbow.”
  • “White, the starting goaltender for two seasons for East Kentwood High School’s varsity hockey team in Grand Rapids, Michigan, edged Casey Danielson and Sophia Popov by a shot.”
  • “I have that competitive spirit in me from playing ice hockey for so many years,” White said after Saturday’s second round. “I know what it takes, the grind and all of that. I hit a 354-yard drive today and this course sets up for me really well. I’m also putting well, which trusting that frees me up.”
8. Patron-less Masters a big blow to Augusta economy
Damon Cline, Augusta Chronicle….“Augusta National Golf Club’s decision to hold a patron-free Masters Tournament means tens of thousands of visitors will collectively cross the city off their 2020 to-do list.”
  • “The club announced Wednesday it would not allow patrons, confirming what Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis predicted last week. The tournament, which was postponed in March, is scheduled Nov. 9-15.”
  • “Augusta National does not release attendance figures, but past projections have conservatively placed the tournament’s economic impact in excess of $100 million, as patrons spend money on lodging, food and entertainment.”
9. Five for Jaeger
Golfweek’s Adam Woodard...”The 31-year-old won his fifth career Korn Ferry Tour title on Sunday at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco. Jaeger’s final-round 3-under 68 was just enough to earn a two-shot victory at 22 under at Hillcrest Country Club.”
  • “Dan McCarthy made Jaeger earn it, getting to 20 under for the tournament thanks to a 7-under 64 on Sunday. Brandon Wu tied McCarthy for second, with Nicholas Lindheim and Justin Lower finishing T-4 at 19 under.”
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  1. 2putttom

    Aug 17, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    wonderful USGA am, championship tourney @ Bandon this last week. Congrats to Tyler Strafaci for hangin’ tough and executing a brilliant approach on 18

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

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Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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