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Tour Rundown: CJ Cup rides off with Rory again | Ko sizzles
The golden season for leaves in the American middle and north countries arrived this week, with fireworks of gold, red, and orange dressing all sorts of trees in fall glory. The golf world reminded us of the extension of seasons around the world, well into November. Four events took place over these seven days, in Korea and Carolina, as well as Spain and Virginia. As the leaves drop, so does the number of remaining tournaments. If we’re fortunate, the competitors will continue to give us memorable moments, until the snow flakes arrive. Let’s dive into this week’s Tour Rundown with a bit of Autumn enthusiasm.
PGA Tour: CJ Cup rides off with Rory again
There’s a pretty good chance that Rory and the McIlroys are now officially scouting a piece of land in South Carolina’s low country. It’s not just the seafood boils that prove attractive; it’s the employment opportunities. For the second consecutive year, the pride of Holywood Golf Club secured a win at Congaree, although the new/old world number one decided to make it just a bit dramatic.
Jon Rahm and Kurt Kitayama held a joint, 36-hole lead at 11-under par, with McIlroy one shot back. On Saturday, the 2021 PGA Championship at nearby Kiawah Island made a move with a second-consecutive 66. With nothing assured, Roars played nearly-flawless golf through sixteen holes on Sunday. Seven birdies agains one bogey gave him a three-shot advantage with two to play. On the penultimate hole, his drive found a waste bunker, and his second bogey of the day was the result. At the last hole, a less-than-stellar approach left him 50 feet for birdie. With no desire to risk a week’s hard work, McIlroy eased into the hole in three putts, giving him a one-shot win over Kitayama. K.H. Lee of South Korea came third, at 15-under par.
Leader by 2 with 3 to play.@McIlroyRory gets up-and-down for birdie on 15. pic.twitter.com/YDq4V64QEo
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 23, 2022
LPGA: BMW Ladies Championship to Ko in sizzling fashion
Atthaya Thitikul began the week in wondrous fashion. Her nine-under 63 staked her to a one-shot advantage over amateur Minsol Kim. The amateur would ultimately tie for tenth position, earning the respect of her fellow competitors. Thitikul would hold the lead until Sunday, when her game left her and she closed with 74. Thitikul’s departure opened the door for a host of challengers, and a familiar name was the one to close the door.
After earning 14 tour victories over a four-year span last decade, Lydia Ko passed through a few lean years. Over the past two seasons, she has earned three victories, with the latest coming this week in Korea. Ko and Andrea Lee began round four a shot behind Thitikul. Ko reminded us of the closer that she once was. Her final-nine 31 featured five birdies, and allowed her to pull away from Lee and claim her 18th LPGA title. Lee’s final-round 69 might have won the event on a different day, but with Ko in fabulous form, a solo second was Lee’s destiny.
Victory in Korea! ??
Check out Lydia Ko's final round highlights from the BMW Ladies Championship! pic.twitter.com/2lVsbVfSGh
— LPGA (@LPGA) October 23, 2022
DP World Tour: Mallorca is milestone for Paul
How does one top a three-birdie, three-eagle Saturday? One that totals 62, and gives you the 54-hole lead? Nothing spectacular, just good-enough golf to claim your first DP World Tour title by a single stroke. Yannick Paul of Germany had earned top-ten finishes in recent starts at Madrid and Paris, so he might have had an inkling that a shot at a title wasn’t far off. Mallorca, in the Mediterranean off Spain’s eastern coast, gave him that opportunity and he seized it.
Winning isn’t easy, nor is it ever comprehensible. After rounds of 64 and 62, Paul found himself with a lead and a weight on his shoulders. Sunday began as it often does for the non-winner: the game that brought him to 71 on Thursday, and threatened to eviscerate his title hopes. Bogeys at one and seven turned him the wrong way, but birdies at eight and 11 stabilized the flight pattern. With a chance to separate from Paul Waring and Nicolai Von Dellinghausen, the golfers who would ultimately tie for second at 14-under par, Paul made another pair of bogeys at 14 and 15, in an effort to release his hold on the title.
With everything on the line, Yannick Paul found a way to coax his approach at the 18th to the right fringe. The rest, for him at least, is glorious history. Have a watch below.
The moment @YannikPaul became a DP World Tour winner ?#MallorcaGolfOpen pic.twitter.com/e4U3F26ma9
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 23, 2022
PGA Tour Champions: Dominion Energy Classic is Alker’s fourth of 2022
Is it a mild slump when, after three wins (including a major) in April and May, you don’t win again until October? Not really, although some pundits and aficionados might be misled into thinking just that. Toruing professionals are well aware that greatness flies away without warning, and success might be one adjustment away. Steven Alker spent a lifetime in the grind on the regular tours, winning just enough to keep the dream alive. His second chance at glory, on PGA Tour Champions, is one that he plans to hold close, for as long as possible.
In Richmond, Virginia, Alker had a high finish in his sight scope, although Jerry Kelly seemed determined to snatch it away. Kelly began the week with 65-67, and posted birdie on Sunday’s opening hole. An unforeseen double at the par-three fourth stalled the engine. A pair more of birdies against a bogey followed, but when a guy like Alker reels off four birdies on the inward half, including three consecutive, it’s not your day. Kelly ultimately finished in a tie for third with Doug Barron and Padraig Harrington, one behind K.J. Choi and two back of Alker, who secured win number four of the year.
After the signing of the cards, Alker let his guard down a bit. When you win, however, moments like these are easy to manage!
The first mistake Steven Alker has made all year ? pic.twitter.com/2XovoGZzrj
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 24, 2022
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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips
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
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.
360° and in!
A nervy par save by @TaylorPendrith to remain one back as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory @CJByronNelson. pic.twitter.com/LVFXUSidSg
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2024
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.
.@adrianotaegui birdies the 16th to tie the lead at -17 ?#VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/p4tfE5DRJa
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 5, 2024
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.
.@TBalla21 eagles 17, shoots 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the KIA Open. pic.twitter.com/TTOL2LxSdh
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) May 4, 2024
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.
Off the green? No worries for @ScottDu12500063
8-under solo leader @InsperityInvtnl pic.twitter.com/hoj5OujL5C
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2024
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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious
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