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Tour Mash: Kyle Stanley ends a five-year drought

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7 years ago

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It was a week with two major titles on the line, along with an opportunity for redemption for golfers in dire need of a career revival. A mass of humanity was within two swings of the lead on one tour, and drama echoed across every Sunday fairway on the world’s major professional golf tours. With no more delay, let’s mash it up.

Quicken Loans National to Stanley in playoff

It was a week of “Remember Him?” at the Quicken Loans National near the nation’s capital. Keegan Bradley finished in a tie for fifth, Charles Howell III tied for first and lost in a playoff. No return from the forgotten was greater, though, than Kyle Stanley’s. The 2012 Phoenix Open winner had not challenged for much of anything in the intervening five years, but he caught lightning in a bottle and used it to secure his second career PGA Tour victory.

After opening 65-65, David Lingmerth finished 73-73 and dropped from first after 3 rounds to a tie for 5th. His miscues offered hope to a number of golfers. First there was Rickie Fowler, who made nine birdies on the day, but had two bogeys and one double-bogey to finish two shots out of the playoff. Sung Kang stood on the 15th tee at 7-under par, but made a bogey and a double over the closing stretch to drop back to 4-under.

For the second consecutive week, nerves showed off the tee and into the green in the playoff. Last week, it was Daniel Berger and Jordan Spieth; this week, both Stanley and Howell missed fairway and green. After Howell missed from 11 feet for par, Stanley drained his five-foot effort for 4 and the win.

Women’s PGA trophy belongs to Danielle Kang

Danielle Kang might have expected an inaugural LPGA triumph to come before 2017. When she turned professional, half a decade ago, Kang had won the U.S. Amateur twice. On Sunday, she made the Women’s PGA championship her maiden victory, which probably worked out well. Kang used a four-birdie run on her second nine to separate herself from playing partner Chella Choi, and might have been forgiven for thinking that a win was in the books.

That’s when Brooke Henderson, perhaps feeling the civic pride from Canada’s 150th anniversary celebration on Saturday, began to make a move. Henderson signed for a bogey-free, five-birdie 66, two better than Kang. Trouble was, she started three shots back of the eventual champion. The finish was Henderson’s 2nd superlative finish in three weeks, and moved her from seventh to fourth in the Race for the CME Globe. As for Kang, this major triumph vaulted her all the way from 28th to a tie for tenth in the season-long series.

U.S. Senior Open title is Perry’s latest triumph

One golfer in the 2017 US Senior Open field played both weekend rounds under par at Salem (MA) country club. He was also the only golfer to play four rounds in the 60s, and that was enough to give James Kenneth Perry his ninth Champions Tour win, his 4th senior major and 2nd Senior Open title. Perry rode rounds of 65-64-67-68 to a two-stroke win over Kirk Triplett, who fell agonizingly shy of his first senior major triumph.

Perry was more consistent than anyone else. He might have lacked the firepower of the 62s posted by Triplett (Thursday) and Brandt Jobe (Saturday) but his engine revved the highest when the tally came in. Jobe finished a distant third at 9-under par, five behind Triplett and seven behind the champion.

The Salem country club continued the tradition of classic golf rebirth. The Donald Ross-design, just outside of Boston, utilized slower green speeds in order to counteract greater-than-normal slope. Bombers weren’t the order of the day, and the spoils went to the man who thought his way better than the rest over the course of 72 holes.

Flawless Fleetwood wins Open de France

Tommy Fleetwood played in the final pairing in last month’s US Open. Although he ultimately finished fourth, that experience proved invaluable as his Sunday golf was flawless near Paris, and he stormed from behind to earn his third European Tour win. American Peter Uihlein, still in search of a second Euro Tour victory, nearly caught Fleetwood, finishing one stroke back.

Fleetwood began the day four back of leader Alexander Bjork, who was paired with Uihlein in the final twosome. As the leaders struggle at the start (Bjork 1-over through four, Uihlein 2-over through five) Fleetwood was on the march. He made five birdies against zero bogeys on the day, finishing 12-under for the tournament. A number of players made runs, but it was Uihein and his inward 31 (4-under) that nearly caught the Englishman. Bjork ultimately finished tied for 3rd with Thorbjorn Olesen and Mike Lorenzo-Vera, undone by far too many bogeys and too few birdies.

Le Golf Nationale will be the host site for the 2018 Ryder Cup, and captains Thomas Bjorn (Europe) and Jim Furyk (USA) were certainly paying attention to the performances of candidates for their respective teams. The 2018 playing of this tournament will certainly attract more American players, looking to convince Furyk of their worth as captain’s picks.

Web.Com stalled by lightning, ends in playoff

The bad news was the two rain delays, followed by the playoff, that drove the conclusion of the Nashville Golf Open Sunday’s gloaming. The good news was that, as the second rain delay ended, 22 golfers were within two strokes of the lead. No, not a typo. Four golfers (Guillermo Pereira, Taylor Moore, Abraham Ancer and Adam Schenk) sat atop the board at 13-under. Another five golfers were one shot back, with 13 more at 11-under. No other tour had the potential for this much drama and the Web.Com golfers didn’t disappoint.

In the end, Lanto Griffin was able to follow his sublime 62 on Saturday with a 4-in-5 birdie stretch on the back nine, to reach -16. Joining him at that number was Abraham Ancer, already a winner on the Web.Com tour. Ancer had eight birdies in his closing 67, none of which came on par-5 holes! One stroke out of the playoff were Pereira and Moore. Both birdied the closing hole, but came up just shy of a shot at glory.

On the first playoff hole, Griffin made birdie from 20 feet on the par-three 10th hole. Ancer had missed the putting surface with his tee ball, and could not hole out from off the green.

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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.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

Published

2 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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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

Published

2 hours ago

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May 6, 2024

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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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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious

Published

3 hours ago

on

May 6, 2024

By
By Ben Alberstadt with Gianni Magliocco.

For comments: [email protected]

Good Monday morning, golf fans, as the PGA Tour gives us yet another breakthrough winner.

1. Pendrith wins first PGA Tour title

AP Report…”Taylor Pendrith took advantage of Ben Kohles’ final-hole meltdown to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title.”

  • “Kohles overtook Pendrith with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 for a one-shot lead then bogeyed the 18th after hitting his second shot into greenside rough. After having to chip twice from the rough and already looking stunned, Kohles missed a 6-foot putt that would have forced a playoff.”
  • “Pendrith two-putted for birdie on the 18th, holing a 3-footer for a 4-under 67 and 23-under 261 total at the TPC Craig Ranch. The 32-year-old Canadian won in his 74th career PGA Tour start.”
Full piece.

2. Koepka takes LIV title in Singapore

S.I.’s Bob Harig…”Brooks Koepka became the first player to win four times as part of the LIV Golf League, shooting a final-round 68 at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore on Sunday to beat Cam Smith and Marc Leishman by two strokes.”

  • “His timing wasn’t bad, either.”
  • “A few days after offering concern about his game in light of a poor Masters performance, Koepka stepped up and won the LIV Golf Singapore even to give himself a boost heading into the defense of his PGA Championship title in two weeks.”
  • “The year’s second major begins on May 16.”
Full piece.

3. Otaegui wins Volvo China

AP report…”Adrian Otaegui overturned a five-shot deficit to win the Volvo China Open on Sunday, the Spaniard’s fifth tour title.”

  • “Otaegui had been trailing the in-form Sebastian Söderberg after Friday’s round – Saturday’s was cancelled because of thunder and lightning – and he shot 7-under 65 in his final round to win by one shot from Guido Migliozzi, who finished runner up with a 67.”
Full piece.

4. ICYMI: Teen Kim makes the cut

Guardian report…”English teenager Kris Kim became the youngest player to make the cut on the PGA Tour in 11 years after a birdie at the last saw him get through to the weekend of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas with a shot to spare.”

  • “Amateur Kim, the son of former LPGA player Ji-Hyun Suh, made a second-round four-under-par 67, which included a run of five birdies and one bogey over his front nine.”
  • “At 16 years and seven months he became the youngest player to make the cut on tour since 14-year-old Guan Tianlang at the 2013 Masters, and, according to the PGA Tour, the fifth youngest in history.”
Full piece.

5. Winner in a rainout

AP report…”Scott Dunlap was declared the 36-hole winner of the Insperity Invitational when rain washed the final round Sunday, giving Dunlap his first PGA Tour Champions title in nearly 10 years.”

  • “Devastating rain in the Houston area previously washed out the opening round Friday. Players managed to play 36 holes on Saturday, and Dunlap posted a 2-under 70 to take a one-shot lead over Joe Durant and Stuart Appleby.”
  • “That proved to be the winning score when rain soaked The Woodlands Country Club. It was the second 36-hole event in the last three weeks on the PGA Tour Champions because of weather. The other was in the Dallas area.”
Full piece.

6. Morikawa back with former coach

7. Winner’s bag: Taylor Pendrith

Presented by 2nd Swing

Driver: Ping G430 LST (9 degrees)

Shaft: ACCRA TZ Six ST

3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees)

Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green Small Batch 80 6.5 TX

7-wood: Ping G430 MAX (20.5 degrees)

Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green Small Batch 90 6.5 TX

Irons: Srixon ZX5 Mk II (4, 5), Srixon ZX7 Mk II (6-9)

Shafts: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 6.5 90, 6.5 100 (2-3), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Cleveland RTX 6 Tour Rack (46-10 Mid, 52-10 Mid, 56-10 Mid, 60-9 Full)

Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Putter: Odyssey Jailbird Versa

Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Flatso 1.0

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

Ball: Srixon Z-Star Diamond
Full WITB.
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WITB

Whats in the Bag18 hours ago

Taylor Pendrith’s winning WITB: 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson

Driver: Ping G430 LST (9 degrees) Buy here. Shaft: Accra TZ Six ST 3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees) Buy here....
Whats in the Bag20 hours ago

Ben Kohles WITB 2024 (May)

Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees, D1 SureFit setting) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 X 3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (15 degrees)...
Whats in the Bag3 days ago

Kris Kim WITB 2024 (May)

Kris Kim what’s in the bag accurate as of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. More photos from the event here....
Whats in the Bag4 days ago

Richy Werenski WITB 2024 (May)

Richy Werenski what’s in the bag accurate as of the CJ Cup Houston Open. Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1...

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