To be fair to the 10-time DP World Tour winner, the choice wasn’t that quite that easy, with Noren being the first alternate for the final major of the year. That being said, it was an interesting decision to fly to California for a few reasons. A decision the 40-year-old Swede is undoubtedly kicking himself over now.

On Thursday morning, Justin Rose withdrew from the Open, leaving the door open for someone else. With Noren not there, the coveted spot in the field went to Rikuya Hoshino. Ouch. Later, Erik van Rooyen became a second WD and he was replaced by Aaron Rai. Again, ouch.

Look, being an alternate at a golf tournament is like flying on standby. It’s a bit of a risk because you can go through a lot of effort and get nothing out of it. But, again, Noren, one of the highest-ranked players in the world (No. 66) not in the field at St Andrews, was the first alternate. And this is the Open Championship. At St. Andrews! And he was already in Scotland after finishing T-30 at last week’s Scottish Open! Instead he flew halfway around the world! To play in the Barracuda Championship!

Making the decision even more questionable is the fact that Noren is currently No. 75 on the FedEx Cup points list and in no danger of losing his PGA Tour card for next season. And yet he passed up a possible opportunity to play in an Open Championship at the Home of Golf. Pretty wild.

At least he wouldn’t have gotten a fun pairing. Wait, never mind! Noren would have played with Ryder Cup teammates Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. It doesn’t get much more fun than teeing it up with Moliwood!

Of course, if Noren winds up winning the Barracuda Championship, he’ll have made the right decision. Maybe.

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The post Open Championship 2022: Alex Noren has to be kicking himself for questionable decision that cost him his tee time appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Jared Goldstein
At one time 10 points behind the leader during Sunday’s final round, Erik van Rooyen took advantage of a four-hole stretch that included two birdies and an eagle to vault himself into contention—and eventually the winner’s circle—at the Barracuda Championship.

The mid-round burst was good for nine points under the modified Stableford scoring system used in this unique PGA Tour event. After finishing the front nine in the equivalent of four-under 32, van Rooyen played the back nine bogey free, earning six points for his three birdies to claim his first career PGA Tour win, defeating 2018 champion Andrew Putnam by five points.

Van Rooyen’s clean card did not come, though, without a bit of drama. Holding a three-point lead on the 72nd tee, the 31-year-old from South Africa only needed a bogey to clinch his win. Not one to shy away from playing aggressive golf, van Rooyen took out his driver only to hit what he’d later describe as “probably the worst shot I hit all week.” The pull hook went into the trees left of the 18th fairway, but a fortuitous bounce sent his ball tumbling back into the fairway. From there, he hit a 7-iron approach shot to close range and converted a closing birdie to set a tournament record with 50 points.

“Yeah, massive break, especially on 18. But when it’s your day it’s your day,” van Rooyen said. “I got a really great bounce and sometimes you need a little bit of luck when you’re trying to win the tournament and today was my day.”

Van Rooyen’s win continues a six-year trend of the Barracuda Championship producing first-time PGA Tour winners. Going back to 2016, Greg Chalmers, Chris Stroud, Putnam, Collin Morikawa, Richy Werenski and now van Rooyen have all earned their first career PGA Tour wins at the Tahoe Mountain Club.

Van Rooyen’s win moves him up in the FedEx Cup standings from No. 139 to No. 78, safely inside the cut for the 125-man field for The Northern Trust at Liberty National two weeks from now. He’ll have a bit of work to do there to get inside of the 70-man field for the BMW Championship the following week.

But for van Rooyen, above all that, this win is a dream come true.

“I mean, it’s everybody’s dream to play here. And if you look at my career … started out in South Africa, won there. Won on Challenge Tour Europe. And now here, I’m over the moon.”

The post Erik van Rooyen wins first PGA Tour title in style, setting tourney scoring record appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Impatience has become the hallmark of this iteration of the next generation in professional golf, represented by a trio of players determined to prove that the future already has arrived.

Collin Morikawa, 22, emphasised the point previously made by Matthew Wolff by birdieing the final three holes at Montreux Golf & Country Club in Reno to win the Barracuda Championship in only his sixth start as a professional.

Victory was still a few minutes away in this tournament that employs a modified Stableford scoring system and Troy Merritt had an eagle chip at 18 that had he made it would have won the tournament, but it slid past the hole.

“Speechless,” Morikawa said, explaining his reaction. “My heart was beating really fast. To be in that position is something I wanted to do all summer.”

He was asked what this victory that gives him a two-year PGA Tour exemption does for him looking ahead. He could have been speaking for the threesome that also includes Viktor Hovland.

“I think the gates are open,” he said.

Morikawa turned professional in June, at the conclusion of his college season at Cal-Berkeley, and made the cut in each of his six starts. He tied for second in the inaugural 3M Open, losing only when the 20-year-old Wolff holed an eagle putt from off the green to win in his third start as a professional. Morikawa followed with a tie for fourth in the John Deere Classic in his next start, then won in Reno.

Hovland, meanwhile, is the reigning U.S. Amateur champion who must wonder when his time will come. Only 21, Hovland tied for 12th in the U.S. Open, turned pro and has made the cut in each of his four PGA Tour starts and finished in the top 20 in the latter three of them.

Wolff and Morikawa headline this remarkable threesome by virtue of their victories that together have allowed them to accomplish something never before done on the PGA Tour. For the first time, two college players earned PGA Tour cards in the same year without having to endure PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour qualifying.

Morikawa was hovering a few points off the lead for much of the day, then elevated his game over the final five holes. He birdied the 14th by making a seven-foot putt, birdied the par-3 16th with a 237-yard 6-iron to the front fringe, then holing a 10-foot putt. On the par-4 17th, he holed a 29-foot birdie putt that gave him the lead.

“When I hit it it was definitely firm, but I knew it was a good putt,” he said. “I knew when I hit it was dead centre. It felt good to make that putt, but obviously, it wasn’t over. I knew I had business to do on 18 and I hit three good shots and was able to tap in for a birdie.”

He won with a score of +47, three more than Merritt, the 54-hole leader.

“I’ve been knocking on the door the past month or so and the game’s felt really good,” Morikawa said. “I think when I got to hole 13, the par-5, I kind of got out of my rhythm. I didn’t trust my shots, and I knew I was still in it. It took me a couple of holes, but once I got to 16 I hit a really good shot. Just believed in myself and was able to hit some good shots and come through.”

Coming through, that too is the hallmark of this, the next generation.

The post Collin Morikawa, 22, wins the Barracuda Championship, reaffirms that golf’s next generation already has arrived appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Garcia’s response?

“He said just, ‘Take it easy,’” Stroud recalled Sunday night. “It will come to you.”

Sunday, it finally did for the 35-year-old journeyman. After 290 starts, Stroud picked up his first PGA Tour victory at Montreux Golf and Country Club, where he emerged from a three-man playoff to win the Barracuda Championship.

“It’s been a long time,” said Stroud, who made three birdies and an eagle over his final five holes of regulation in the Modified Stableford format, then had to wait out a weather delay and the conclusion of the rest of the tournament to see if it would be enough. “Eleven years I’ve waited for that. It’s got a great ring to it.”

Stroud’s 20 points in the final round landed him in a sudden-death playoff with Greg Owen, who was making his 265th start without a victory, and Richy Werenski, a former Big Break champ who had missed the cut in 10 of his 23 starts in his first year on the PGA Tour this season.

In the playoff, the three returned to the par-5 18th and Stroud and Werenski each made birdie. Owen managed just par and was eliminated.

A few minutes later on the same hole, Stroud hit his second shot to 12 feet, while Werenski went over the green and chipped to 25 feet but missed the birdie putt. Stroud two-putted for the birdie and the win.

“This time of my career you don’t get many more chances, so disappointed,” Owen said. “But I’ve got vacation with the kids next week.”

Stroud, meanwhile, will have a change of plans, too. The victory earned him a spot in next week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow — his first major in three years — and helped secure his job. Playing on limited status this year, Stroud locked up his card for the next two seasons.

“I don’t think he even realized how important that was for me,” Stroud said of Garcia’s words of encouragement. “I didn’t push so much to try to win a golf tournament. I just did the best I could to prepare and to show up every week ready to play. And it just came to me.

“My caddie said today before we teed off, he said, do the best you can today, let the trophy come to you. Can’t say any more than that.”

The post Chris Stroud, with encouragement from Sergio Garcia, wins first PGA Tour event in 290th start appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.