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Tour Rundown: Partner events aplenty | One trophy to rule them all
It was a week of partner events on the PGA and Champions tours, and a reminder that unique events are a welcome respite from the 72-hole grind. In fact, team events should be mandated for each of the tours, as long as the spoils of victory make the events worthwhile. There were other goings-on this week, too. The European Tour was in action in Africa, while the ladies of the LPGA traveled to Los Angeles for a run at historic Wilshire Country Club. It’s time for a sundown Rundown of five of the world’s tours, so turn on those headlights and have a watch.
Zurich Classic triumph ironically delicious for Rahm and Palmer
Both Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer came to the Big Easy as cast-offs, solo artists in search of a partner. By week’s end, they were champions and, in all probability, partners until the end of time. The Spaniard and the Texan entered round 4 in a tie with Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax, who proceeded to put on a clinic on how not to bring home a win (sorry, boys.) In direct contrast, the winners shook off a 6th-hole bogey with 3 back-nine birdies, to separate themselves from a chasing field. Ryder Cup heroes Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia gave serious chase, posting 4 birdies and 1 eagle on day four. They needed to be perfect to catch the front runners, and two bogeys along the way did them in. Had they somehow reached -25, one shy of the winning total, they would certainly have given Rahm and Palmer more to consider. As things were, the victors negotiated the waters and sands of TPC Louisiana over the closing holes. A bomb of a par save at hole 15 by Rahm kept them at 26-under par, and three pars later, they were champions.
The lead is 3 with 3 to play @Zurich_Classic. ????
???? @JonRahmPGA and @RyanPalmerPGA. ???? pic.twitter.com/1KTO5oTMun
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 28, 2019
Don Jorge Campillo claims 1st European Tour win at Trophee Hassan II
Jorge Campillo did a 4-year, tour of duty at Indiana University during the mid 2000s. He embarked on a professional career in 2009, and established himself as a likely tour winner. 10 years later, perhaps more than anyone envisioned, Campillo played with less than his best at Dar Es Salaam, emerging from the battle with a 2-shot victory over 3 runners-up. Campillo has been close before, with a handful of 2nd-place results. His opportunities were there, but some errant shot or decision always did him in. On this day, he ground out a total of 9 strokes beneath par, 2 better than Julian Suri, Erik Van Rooyen and Sean Crocker. Each of the runners-up had his chance at the trophy, but (sound familiar?) errant shots and decisions did them in. The victory moved Campillo into the world’s top 70 golfers, poised to begin receiving the big-event invitations.
Jorge Campillo winning round highlights ?????#TropheeHassanII pic.twitter.com/AvSVQSkNXv
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) April 28, 2019
Los Angeles Open is Minjee’s 5th LPGA victory
When golfers like Lorena Ochoa or Annika Sorenstam won what we perceived to be every start, golf fans were spoiled. Minjee Lee, like Ariya Jutanugarn and Inbee Park, has the potential to be one of those golfers, but needs more wins. Her first four wins on tour were by 2, 1, 1 and 1 strokes. On Sunday, Lee finished 4 strokes clear of Sei Young Kim, although it can’t be called a runaway triumph. Lee’s lead was down to 1 stroke at one point, then she dug deep and separated herself from the field. In direct contrast, her 4th-round companion, Nanna Madsen, saw her weaknesses exposed. The golfer from Denmark made her only birdie of the final day at the 16th, and that after 6 bogeys over the first 15 holes. As poised as Minjee showed, the raw promise of Madsen gave way to butterflies, jitters and mistakes. In the land of dreams, often only one comes true on a given day.
That winning feeling with 5X LPGA Tour winner, @minjeegolf @lpga_la!#LPGAGoesHollywood pic.twitter.com/5M2xi7llXX
— #DriveOn (@LPGA) April 29, 2019
Dormie Network Classic a walkaway for Zhang
As if anyone needed an explanation on why Xinjun Zhang had the 54-hole lead at the inaugural Dormie Network Classic, here it is: he shot the low daily round, each of the first three days. Opening with 63-64-65 is stunning, and the onus was on the 31-year old pro from China to hold it together on day four. A 55th-hole bogey might have unnerved him, but only for a moment. 3 birdies followed and Zhang preserved his handful-of-strokes lead through 63 holes. With no one making a run, a 1-under 35 coming home was enough to bring him his first international victory. Last week’s cup-holder, Lanto Griffin, made a game run at a 2nd consecutive triumph. He ultimately tied with Chase Seiffert, one of 4 golfers to shoot all 4 rounds in the 60s. In conclusion, have a look at the winner’s final numbers for the week: 28 birdies (11 on day one!), 2 eagles, and 6 bogies. Salute!
Inaugural Dormie Network Classic @BriggsRanchGC.
Back nine on Sunday …
• Xinjun Zhang -25 (11)
• @TheLanto61 -21 (11)
• @ZackSucherPGA -20 (17)
• @ChaseSeiffert -19 (12)
• @Robby_Shelton -18 (12)
• Steven Alker -18 (11)#WebTour pic.twitter.com/HAzUnI6Wui— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) April 28, 2019
Top of the Rock welcomes the oldest winner in the oldest senior event
Way back … well, in the 1970s, the Legends of Golf confirmed that fans did want to see the heroes of a former age. Names like Don January, Sam Snead and Roberto DiVicenzo put eyes on the screen and feet on the fairways. From that humble origin, the Champions tour was born. In 2019, the event has a new home in the Ozark mountains, at the Top of the Rock resort. It also has a new format, folding a par-three course into the mix. One thing that hasn’t changed, is the hope that the Legends of Golf event, and its brethren, give to golfers once thought past their prime. This year, Scott Hoch became the oldest winner in the tour’s 40-year history, teaming with Tom Pernice, jr. for a 5-stroke victory. Teams played one round of four ball (better ball) over the Ozark National golf course, joined by two over the par-three Top of the Rock course. On Sunday, Hoch and Pernice played 8-under par golf over 18 holes to hold off the defending champions, Paul Broadhurst and Kirk Triplett. Their closest, overnight pursuers all fell by the wayside with over-par final rounds. It wasn’t quite a walk in the park, but it was an easier stroll than either winner anticipated.
Another one from @StevePernicePGA, this time from off the green!
He and Scott Hoch are rolling at the @BassProLegends. ???? pic.twitter.com/rnkSPJ6lZV
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) April 28, 2019
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Morning 9: Nelly does it again | Bryson: Definitely disappointing | Xander wins PGA
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Can you believe it? Professor Xavier won the 2024 PGA Championship
PGA Championship Sunday is a multi-tiered celebration. It begins with the identification of the top PGA professionals in the USA, and their naming to the USA side for the PGA Cup competition. This biennial event pits the best club professionals from Great Britain and Ireland, and the USA. Beginning with this year’s low PGA professional, Braden Shattuck, and his fellow cut-maker, Jeremy Wells, and concluding with last year’s darling, Michael Block, ten golfers were selected to represent the stars and bars at Sunriver Resort in Oregon.
The next bit of intrigue is a bit larger, in news terms. Who would hoist the Wannamaker Trophy, the largest of all the men’s major vessels, as the 2024 PGA Champion? Would it be a former major winner like DeChambeau, Lowry, or Morikawa? Or, would a first-timer prevail, perhaps with the last name of Hovland, Theegala, or Schauffele? After his third-round 73, we knew that the grand slam of golf would not happen in 2024 for Scottie Scheffler, but we admired his moxie.
For those architecture luddites who proclaim that if it ain’t Raynor, it ain’t golf, we hear you, but we don’t side with you. Major-championship golf needs courses like Valhalla, with odd, stone-lined, island greens, alongside forced carries over water. A little thick rough is all right, from time to time. Quail Hollow might have some rough in 2025, but there is no doubt that Aronimink in 2026, and PGA Frisco in 2027, will play lean, fast, and firm. Be patient; you’ll get what you crave.
WOW??
Alejandro Tosti drives the green on the signature 13th!#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/XeZ9OBtMmA
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2024
Valhalla gave us all the drama we needed, waaaayyyyy more than we had at Augusta in April. This first-gen bloke from California made birdie on his first hole, to jump into a tie for the lead. This leader of mutant super heroes took the lead back, and held it for most of the day. Some muscular physicist entered the fray, alongside a fan of Norwegian death metal music. Let’s be honest: that’s quite a mixed bag, and could we ask for anything more? Nah. Here we go, then, with the one thing we learned on Sunday at the PGA Championship.
Sahith Theegala began the day with a longish putt for birdie on his first hole of the day. If he had stuffed his approach and made the same score, he might have made believers of us. As it was, that was the last hurrah for the young Californian. He gave the stroke back at number two, and failed to find any balance nor momentum on the day. Five bogeys and three birdies gave him 73 on the day, and he dropped from solo third to T12. There’s still a bit of learning on how to close a major championship for Theegala, but he has time.
On the other end of the spectrum, Shane Lowry figured to have the poise to make a run at a second major title. The pride of Ireland started well, standing minus-two through four holes. Unfortunately for Shamrock Shane, he didn’t make another birdie until the 14th hole. His 70 kept him inside the top six, but seven strokes off the winner’s pace.
Sahith Theegala starting things off RIGHT??
He birdies 1 and moves into a tie for the lead. ?#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/3s69WnNQyI
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2024
Collin Morikawa and Thomas Detry each arrived at four-place-tie station on different horses. Morikawa began round four in a tie with Xander Schauffele, at minus-sixteen. Morikawa did not have his “A” game on this day, and his “B” game wasn’t good enough to keep him in contention. Detry bounced back from a Saturday 70 with 66 on day four. He moved up six spots on Sunday, almost as magnificent a jump as Billy Horschel, who climbed from 29th to 8th with 64. The T4 was a ringing success for Detry, his best major finish ever. For Morikawa, it was another gut punch, suggesting that his major wins in 2020 and 2021 were more fortune than fame.
Death Metal merchant Viktor Hovland came to the last hole at 19-under par. His game is built around power, and birdie should have been a possibility for the Norwegian nightmare. His drivefound the left side of the fairway, but his approach was more foozle than flame, and was fortunate to find the right tongue of fairway, short of the green. He pitched to 10 feet, but missed the putt for birdie. Knowing that the tournament was lost, he proceeded to miss from three feet and finished in solo third. If there was one bit of consolation, the missed tap-in mattered not at all in the final tally.
And just like that… Viktor Hovland grabs a share of the LEAD!
He’s 19-under through 13.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/VF13Z28SXL
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2024
Bryson DeChambeau made his bed when he defected from the PGA Tour in 2023. Like Hovland, he challenged for the 2023 PGA Championship in Rochester, at storied Oak Hill, before ultimately offering a golf clap for winner Brooks Koepka. DeChambeau did everything that one might do on Sunday, save win the tournament. Unlike the other contenders, the 2020 US Open winner signed for a clean card on day four. His seven-birdie 64 was the day’s low round, matched by the aforementioned Billy Horschel, and England’s Jordan Smith. Knowing that he had to make a 72nd-hole birdie to pressure the leader, DeChambeau hit a marvelous pitch from thick rough, to ten feet. Unlike Hovland, he converted the birdie and went to the scorer’s pavillion at 20-deep. Only a birdie from the final pairing could ruin his day.
Xander Schauffele, along with the other Olympic gold medal winners, gets a major win from this writer. Olympic Gold is akin to immortality. From his peers and from the rest of the media, it may not count quite so high. Affirmation comes from winning one of the four big ones. The men’s tours have the fewest major events, so their value escalates. Schauffele had come close before, and two weeks ago, he faded against Rory McIlroy in the final round at Quail Hollow (next year’s PGA Championship site, doncha know?!)
On Sunday, Schauffele was a lion. He made seven birdies on the day, and survived a bogey at the benign tenth, a straightforward par-five hole. He followed the bogey with a pair of birdies, to reclaim the lead. It wasn’t until DeChambeau made birdie at the last, that the outcome was in doubt. With gravel in his belly, a boy named Xander rose up and kept his ball dry at the last. He pitched to six feet, and rammed the winning putt into the back of the hole. In a flash, all the unwanted finishes washed away: Xander Schauffele was, finally, the owner of a grand slam tournament title.
Attack an awkward lie with confidence like 2024 PGA Champion Xander Schauffele with these key tips from Ryan Adams, PGA. ?@TMobile | @PGAChampionship pic.twitter.com/0Y66NzUnsR
— PGA of America (@PGA) May 19, 2024
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Five Things We Learned: Saturday at the PGA Championship
Moving Day is a term applied to round three of a four-round tournament. It suggests that competitors need a solid or spectacular round on Saturday, in order to position themselves for potential Sunday victory. Among the favorites in contention after 36 holes, only Scottie Scheffler fell out of contention. The Texan suffered a par-double-bogey-bogey start, and could not recover. Three more bogeys damaged his score even more. Scheffler begins day four at seven-under par, eight shots behind the leaders.
As for those leaders, it’s a familiar pair, and we’ll get to them. We saw Justin Rose return to major-championship contention for the first time in a while. He’ll need 63 on Sunday to matter, but it’s still good to see the two-time major winner (Olympic Gold counts!) in the mix. Bryson DeChambeau carried the LIV flag into the day-four conversation, and with a low 60s score, he’ll have a chance at a second major title. Even the home-state feloow, Justin Thomas, found a way to matter. He’s on the outside, looking in, but a 60 is not inconceivable, and 11-under would certainly win the day, if not the week.
UNBELIEVABLE! Justin. Thomas.
The Kentucky guy holes out for birdie! #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/YVeNslCW37
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024
1. Xander holds the lead
There’s a burden that comes with posting a score of 62. Media, fans, and even the player hope and even expect to see it again. Xander Schauffele wasn’t on track to repeat that number of Saturday, but he stood in the middle of the 15th fairway and thought about how low he could go. Three-under par on the day, coming off birdie at 14, with a pitch to the green, and he went for the flag and missed.
Schauffele made an unanticipated mistake and it cost him two shots. His most immediate competitor was in his group and made birdie, retrieving three shots in one hole. That’s the sort of moment that goes down in history as a gut check. Schauffele’s gut responded. He leveled the wings with par at 16, then closed with birdies at 17 and 18, to returne to 15-under par. The X Man will tee off again in the final pairing, and take a run at his first major title. The fifteenth hole might loom large again in the outcome; hopefully, a lesson has been learned!
This ball wanted to build some suspense!
Xander Schauffele holds on to the top spot with this putt from distance ???#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/kM4LZwUSLu
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024
2. Morikawa can taste another PGA
For two years, Collin Morikawa was that guy. He won this tournament in 2020, then collected the Open Championship jug at Sandwich in 2021. Win two majors, and everyone heads down the career grand slam discussion. Three years on, Morikawa has the same number of majors on his dossier, and two more professional wins to show. He’s probably antsy for another major.
The California native stumbled early on Saturday. He made bogey at the two-shot second hole, then dug in with everything he had. A birdie at three balanced the card, and four more came his way. None was bigger than the three that he made at the 15th, as the leader was making double bogey in his group! Morikawa took a one-shot lead there, then closed with birdie at the last to reach Sunday morning tied at the top with Xander Schauffele.
Sunday will fill with drama, but it won’t involve just that grouping. When Morikawa tees off at 2:35 Louisville time, a move will have been made. Someone close by (one at -14, three at -13, two at -12) will be a few under par, and the thermometer will have risen. Our guess, simply, is that Morikawa will need 66 to win outright on Sunday. 20-under par should get it done, and to go down as one of the greats, he’ll need to be great.
Bounce-back birdie for Collin Morikawa at the 3rd ?#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/enpc0mkbcc
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024
3. Shane shares PGA record
Shane Lowry goes down as one of the most popular major champions of this era. His Open Championship win at Royal Portrush in 2019 kicked off a massive celebration of Irish pride and delight. Lowry hasn’t added to that major total of one, but the cask-chested, smile-and-a-beard doesn’t need to. He’s the sort who can take a two-man win, as he had this season with Rory McIlroy in New Orleans, and elevate its worth. He’s the sort who anchors an international side, as he does every two years in the Ryder Cup.
This week in Kentucky is different. Lowry has the chance to keep the hot hand and claim a second major title. These opportunities don’t come around that often. Lowry was fire on Saturday. He posted the first, sub-thirty nine of the tournament on the outward half. HIs six birdies and three pars gave him 29, and he looked for all the world to be the man to chase. The inward half wasn’t quite as volcanic, but the card was clean, and he came home in 33. His score matched Schauffele’s opening round, for the all-time low, 18-hole score, in PGA Championship history.
What’s to do? Make putts early. Find a way to get back in the zone and ride that spaceship to the final green. Lowry most likely needs to finish Saturday in 65 strokes or fewer, and posting 127 on a major championship weekend is unheard of. That’s why they play, though, isn’t it? Why not Shane, why not today?
A fist pump we’ve been waiting for! ?
Shane Lowry loves it too. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/BysfhGOeZ3
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024
4. Theegala lost, then found
As far as I was concerned, Sahith Theegala was yesterday’s news. Consecutive bogeys at five and six, supported by zero birdies through eight holes, destined him for the also-ran section of the leader board. I was frightfully incorrect.
Theegala found some inspiration at the ninth tee. Maybe it was a kick in the arse by his caddie, or by him, but a flame ignited. Theegals made the first of six birdies at the outward home hole, and posted 31 coming home. Birdie at the final hole ensured that he would tee off in Sunday’s penultimate group, with Shane Lowry.
It is often written that all should be wary of the wounded, as they fight for survival. Theegala dislocated a rib two weeks ago, at Quail Hollow. This week, he has been under the weather with some bug. With his mind focused on health, rather than score, he has done quite well. If he stays that course, one last round, he might have to do a heavy lift on Sunday, with the Wannamaker trophy in his hands.
Sahith Theegala with the magic touch!#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/jYu5dZcig0
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024
5. The Prediction!
Despite all the kind words I’ve written about the aforementioned four gentlemen, none of them will exit Louisville with the happiest of visages. The winner, however, will not let us down in the smiles department. Viktor Hovland teed off in the final pairing last year, at Oak Hill, and had a front-row seat in the Koepka Koaster, as Brooks Koepka showed the Norwegian how to win a major championship. Rest assured that Hovland took copious notes. His frustration at a Masters missed cut in April has been channeled into his performance this week.
What will go down? Hovland will have at least one holed shot from off the green on Sunday’s outward nine. He’ll find a groove and the putter will warm up quickly. Hovland will sign for the third 62 of the week, but will have to wait as each of the final four golfers has a chance to tie at the final hole. One will, and they will head to a play-off, where Hovland will emerge in overtime.
Viktor Hovland has made back to back birdies to move to T3 ? pic.twitter.com/bdEbcz6DS1
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) May 18, 2024
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