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Tour Rundown: Tri-Eagle Fleet, Todd, Celia

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We’re going to give you a preview of next week’s events, before running down the trio of tournaments from last week. In Naples, Florida, the LPGA Tour season will close at the CME Group Tour Championship. The European Tour will arrive in Dubai for its Race To Dubai finale. Along Georgia’s coastline, the PGA Tour will conclude official 2019 play at the RSM Classic. The weekend before the USA’s Thanksgiving holiday will bring an enviable conclusion to this calendar year’s top-shelf tournament golf.

Back to the present! Three events figured in this week’s touring schedule. The PGA Tour was hosted by Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, at Mayakoba. The European Tour’s penultimate event took place at Gary Player’s joint in South Africa. Finally, the Silver City of Argentina, Buenos Aires, hosted the 2nd-last tournament of the PGA Tour Latinoamerica schedule. Without further delay, have a tasty read of our Tour Rundown for Monday, November 18th.

Tri-Eagle Fleet fleeces Kinault for Nebank Championship

Tommy Fleetwood has 5 European Tour wins. Given his Ryder Cup record, we’re always surprised it isn’t a larger total of triumphs. In South Africa this weekend, Fleetwood saved his best for last, a Sunday 65 that took him from 12th place to a tie for 1st at round’s end. Joining him at that number was Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, 1 of 3 players to post 4 rounds below par (none of them won, sadly.) Fleetwood absolutely decimated the par five holes at GPGC in round 4: 3 eagles and 1 birdie allowed him to figure in 3 bogies (plus 3 more birdies) in his 65. On Kinhault’s part, 68 should have been good enough to claim a  2nd Euro Tour win for 2019, but along came Fleetwood. On playoff hole 1, the Englishman made par to the Swede’s bogey, and matters were resolved. On to Dubai, and the Tour Championship.

For those who love suffering, the Gary Player Golf Club is their cup of tea. The final threesome, consisting of Zander Lombard, Louis Oosthuizen, and Thomas Detry, played its final round in a combined 12 strokes above par. The kikuyu rough usually doesn’t swallow orbs, but it does redirect club heads in an exasperating manner. Same goes for chipping around the green (reference Graeme McDowell’s putter-toe chip on Saturday.) The closing stretch enjoys a dalliance with water, compelling errant shots to lay up in regulation. Purists eschew such disastrous hazards, but there is no denying their ability to change the course of a round in an instant.

Mayakoba held up a day by darkness

Brend0n Todd just became Steve Stricker’s 1st Ryder Cup nightmare. With his 2nd consecutive win on the PGA Tour, Todd jumped to the front of the Ryder Cup list for 2020. His resurrection is the talk of the fall, but will it sustain through September of 2020? Between us, I love this type of story! The Mayakoba event finished Monday morning, thanks to delays and darkness. Todd went to sleep in a tie with Vaughn Taylor, at -20. When things resumed, the Bermuda champion was able to finish with pars for a 264 on the week. Unfortunately for Taylor, no birdies and one crushing bogey came his way. Taylor fell into a tie for 2nd with Carlos Ortiz, the home-country favorite, and Adam Long. Both Long and Ortiz finished cleanly, but each lacked that one birdie extra to catch Todd. Cone to think of it, perhaps Stricker looks forward to having Todd on his team. Like Todd, Stricker traveled the comeback trail on multiple occasions, and played his best golf after dealing with swing demons. Here’s to Wisconsin in 2020, and the appearance of Brendon Todd in RWB and stars and stripes.

Open de Argentina to Celia in playoff

After rounds of 69-67-63, not much good was happening for Augusto Nunez on Sunday. He was even par through 10, still in the lead, when the wheels fell off. The coming 5 holes brought 2 bogies and 2 doubles, and the Argentine hope was dashed, as he tumbled to -6 and a 7th-place tie. With the door wide open, Colombia’s Ricardo Celia and the USA’s Brandon Mathews took full advantage. They clawed their way to -11, one shot clear of Jarod Wolfe, and away they went to a playoff. After two turns across the 18th, the duo dropped to the par-3 17th. Celia ended it there, with a delightful birdie for the win. The title moved the Colombian from 55th to 13th in the Order of Merit standings, giving him an outside shot at a Korn Ferry Tour promotion. More than likely, a 2nd consecutive victory at the tour championship next month will be needed. Surprising, too, was the final-nine collapse by Nunez. More was expected from the OOM leader, but the stumble confirmed that even the finest professional golfers are human.

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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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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

WITB Albums

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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