By Joel Beall
Gary Woodland, Doc Redman and Scott Piercy are out of the Honda Classic after testing positive for COVID-19.

All three competed in the Players Championship last week, which admitted 20 percent of its maximum spectator capacity last week as professional sports begin to welcome fans back to arenas, stadiums and fields. Piercy played in all four rounds, finishing T-69, while Woodland (70-76) and Redman (73-73) missed the cut.

“Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from the Honda Classic after testing positive for Covid-19,” Woodland wrote on Twitter. “I’m grateful to be feeling good and disappointed to not be in the field this week. I’m working with the tour in regards to safely returning to competition and hope to be back soon.”

The positive test is the latest blow to Woodland. The 2019 U.S. Open champ has missed the cut in six of 11 events this season as he continues to battle back woes, sitting at 169th in the FedEx Cup standings. Redman opened the season with a third-place showing at the Safeway Open and followed up with a fourth-place finish at the Bermuda Championship, but has not finished better than T-61 since November. Piercy also had a strong fall start with three top 25s but has not posted a finish better than T-50 in 2021.

According to the tour, both players are in their self-isolation period under CDC guidelines.

The Honda Classic announced Sebastian Cappelen will take Woodland’s spot in the field, with D.J. Trahan subbing in for Piercy. Kiradech Aphibarnrat will replace Redman in the field.

The post Three players test positive for COVID-19 after Players Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
The last two weeks on the PGA Tour were more or less a case of the rich getting richer—limited field Invitationals, no cuts, pristine golf courses, perfect scoring condition. And, apart from some lesser-known Asian players getting exemptions, fields of mostly established players.

This week’s Bermuda Championship has a distinctly grittier feel. Apart from an unseasonably calm day on Thursday, there’s been a multi-club wind for players to deal with all week. And these players—most of the names at the top of the leaderboard are not exactly superstars. It’s a mix of up-and-comers, journeyman 40-somethings and guys trying to regain form they’ve lost.

Here are four takeaways from Saturday at Port Royal Golf Club:

Someone’s getting a life-changing win on Sunday
Only three players in the top 10 heading into Sunday have won a PGA Tour event—Brian Gay, who has four wins but none since 2013, and Matt Jones and Ryan Armour, who have one each. The remaining seven are chasing their first victory, and because this Bermuda Championship is no longer an opposite-field event, the victory comes with the full plate of riches: 500 FedEx Cup points (up from 300 last year), a spot into next year’s Masters and PGA Championship, and a two-year exemption that would essentially function as a three-year exemption for someone like Ollie Schniederjans, who does not have status on the PGA Tour this season.

Gregory Shamus Doug Ghim plays his shot from the eighth tee during the third round of the Bermuda Championship

Schniederjans is two back of Doc Redman, who holds the 54-hole lead at 10 under after an impressive 67. Redman, 22, won the 2017 U.S. Amateur at Riviera and left Clemson University after two years to turn pro. Since then, he’s quietly established himself as one of the better young players on tour—sure, he’s been completely overshadowed by the Morikawa/Wolff/Hovland triumvirate, but those guys are unicorns, and Redman’s progress has been fantastic by any reasonable standard. The next step for him to take is getting that first victory, and he’ll have a great chance to do that Sunday.

The man Redman beat in the finals of that U.S. Amateur, Doug Ghim, is three back heading into Sunday. Gay is two behind, and at 48, a victory would make him fully exempt until he’s old enough to play the Champions Tour, which is kind of the dream. Hickock has just one top-10 finish in his 51 starts on tour. We could go on here, but you get the picture—a bunch of guys fighting for a career-changing victory. It’ll a different type of drama than what you saw last week, with three top-15 players fighting for another piece of hardware for their ever-expanding trophy cases.

Gregory Shamus
Kiradech Aphibarnrat plays his shot from the first tee during the third round of the Bermuda Championship.

Kiradech is back, we hope

You won’t find a more popular player among fans or fellow players than Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the lovable Thai player with a … relatable … physique. He was a fixture in the top 100 for a half-decade and reached as high as world No. 29, but the Barn Rat has been struggling big-time for the better part of a year—he’s missed eight of his last 11 cuts around the world and does not have a top 10 since last year’s CJ Cup. As such, he’s dropped all the way to No. 236 and only has conditional status on the PGA Tour. He’s three back heading into Sunday. A victory would be his first on the PGA Tour, but a high finish would go a long way in helping him qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs and get his career back on track. We—and everyone else—are rooting for you, Kiradech.

Gregory Shamus
Will Zalatoris plays his shot from the 17th tee during the first round of the Bermuda Championship.

Will Zalatoris is officially a PGA Tour player … kind of
As a colleague pointed out, the current leader in top 10s on the PGA Tour this season is not even a PGA Tour player. Will Zalatoris has been one of the better golfers anywhere since the June restart—the 24-year-old Wake Forest product was the best player on the Korn Ferry Tour this year and has continued his success on the Big Tour, with three top 10s on the young season already, including a T-6 at the U.S. Open. As a result, he’s now ranked No. 59 in the world, the highest-ranking of anyone without PGA or European tour status and ahead of guys like Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Corey Conners and Cameron Champ.

Zalatoris entered this week needing just over three FedEx Cup points to achieve Special Temporary Membership status, which would allow him to receive unlimited sponsor’s exemptions, rather than being capped at seven. He’s tied for 15th heading into Sunday after a third-round 67, meaning he has the Special Temporary status all but locked up. One of the best parts of professional golf is that at its core, it’s a meritocracy. Zalatoris is way too good a player to not be on the PGA Tour, and so the Golf Gods are seeing that he gets his tour card.

First Sunday with fans!
It’s not exactly a Sunday-at-a-normal-Masters atmosphere, but this week marks the return of fans to the PGA Tour. There aren’t grandstands or anything, but tomorrow will be the first Sunday back nine with (limited) fan noise as a soundtrack.

There’s been a lot of talk as to whether not having fans has benefitted younger players. The thought is, the kids don’t have experience closing the deal on a noisy Sunday, and the quiet finishes don’t feel markedly different from college tournaments, where they obviously had success. And again, Sunday won’t be electric, but it’ll be interesting to see whether having spectators will have any impact at all.

The post Life-changing win likely in Bermuda and three other takeaways from Day 3 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Despite the fact it lacked its usual playing-for-your-PGA-Tour-card drama, the Wyndham Championship was still plenty dramatic down the stretch on Sunday. Incredibly, a journeyman pro who had not finished any higher than T-27 in 18 starts this season came out on top. Why do we bother predicting golf?

As out of left field as Jim Herman’s victory felt, he sure didn’t act or play like it came out of left field. He executed some world-class shots under pressure, as if he’d done it a million times before. The win was well-deserved, especially for a grinder like Herman.

Here are our five takeaways from the final round of the Wyndham Championship.

Jim Herman came out of nowhere
Coming into the Wyndham, Jim Herman was sitting at 192nd in the FedEx Cup standings. To get into the playoffs, he pretty much needed to win the tournament or finish in second place. Judging by his record this season—11 missed cuts in 18 starts, no finish inside the top 25 and just barely cracking $200,000 in earnings—there was a better chance of seeing a pig take flight.

But in the latest edition of “golf is the dumbest sport ever,” Herman did win, throwing up a 61 and a 63 on the weekend from the damn clouds. He hit 63 of 72 greens in regulation and made 444 feet of putts, two things that usually help your chances to win. Before this week he ranked outside of the top 165 in every major strokes-gained category but one: strokes gained/off-the-tee. On Friday he was hovering around the cut line for much of the day, but then he birdied four of the last six holes. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The win jumps Herman from 192nd to 54th in the FedEx Cup standings, the largest jump in the playoff format’s 13-year history. He now has three wins on the PGA Tour, which, as Action Network’s Jason Sobel pointed out on Twitter, is more than Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay … combined.

Not sure I’m ready for a world where Jim Herman has as many PGA Tour titles as Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau combined.

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) August 16, 2020

Mind blown. Golf is so dumb.

Jared C. Tilton

It’s Billy Horschel SZN
On one hand, you could look at what happened Sunday and say Billy Horschel really let one get away. On the other, you could say he’s just about ready to rip off a few playoff wins like he did in 2014.

Horschel absolutely should have won at Sedgefield C.C. on Sunday. Other than a few wayward drivers, he was absolutely locked in, but he didn’t play enough club on the par-3 16th and paid the price with a bogey. Even after that, though, he still had two great looks at birdie at 17 and 18, and wasn’t able to get either to fall. It could take a little while to get over this one.

Then again, Horschel was incredibly upbeat afterwards, and even said he feels like this is his time of year. History would show he’s correct. For golf bettors, he’s going to be a very enticing play at TPC Boston, as he’ll probably still have some juicy odds given the strength of the field. If you believe in “close,” Horschel is very, very close.

Jared C. Tilton

Speaking of close, Doc Redman is going to win soon

There’s so much young talent on the PGA Tour right now that it’s easy to forget about Doc Redman, who won the U.S. Amateur in 2017, then nearly won the Rocket Mortgage Classic in just his fifth career start on tour in 2019. If you asked an avid golf fan on the street to rattle off the best young players right now, I’m not sure Redman makes that person’s top five.

Well, he should, as he continues to prove on a weekly basis. If not for a pair of brutal lip outs and two ugly bogeys on Sunday at Sedgefield, he might have found himself in a playoff with Herman. Surprisingly, this was his first top 10 of the year, but his seventh finish inside the top 25. His T-3 moved him to 60th in the FedEx Cup standings, which is a great position to make a serious run at East Lake. He may not get the media love that the likes of Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff get, but the 22-year-old should be able to change that soon with a victory.

Jared C. Tilton

Webb Simpson tied for third at the Wyndham. Stunning!
Unfortunately, Simpson didn’t finish in fourth, which would have put him one step closer to finishing in each position 1 through 10 in the same event. Now he still needs a fourth, a seventh, a ninth and a 10th. Thanks for wrecking this ridiculously random stat with a birdie on 17, Webb.

Chris Keane

The other big FedEx Cup movers (besides Jim Herman)
Obviously, no one made a bigger move than Herman. Like, no one ever in the history of the FedEx Cup. But there were some other notable names who vaulted into TPC Boston thanks to some clutch play in Greensboro. Si Woo Kim, the 54-hole leader, didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday but still fought hard to shoot even par and nab a T-3 finish, which jumped him from the bubble (121st), to safely inside the top 100 at 82nd (he also earned a spot into the U.S. Open). Zach Johnson, who started the week on the outside looking in at 129th, vaulted to 104th with his T-7. Kevin Kisner didn’t have much to sweat about this week, but he did go from 52nd to 40th thanks to his T-3.

On the flip side, there were a handful of guys who went from in at TPC Boston to out: Fabian Gomez dropped from 122nd to 126th after he missed the cut; Russell Knox went from 124th to 127th after he tied for 72nd; and Charl Schwartzel went from 125th to 128th after he missed the cut. Brutal.

The post Jim Herman crashes the FedEx Cup Playoffs and four other takeaways from Sunday at the Wyndham Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
When it comes to amateurs playing in the 118th U.S. Open, it’s not who is in the field at Shinnecock Hills that’s impressive, but how many.

Twenty are competing this week, the most since 1962 at Oakmont and five shies of the record set in 1959. (There could have been as many as 25 in the field, but three who qualified as amateurs decided to ditch the “little A” next to their name and play as pros, and Joaquin Niemann and U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman gave up their exemptions when they turned pro this spring.) This marks the sixth straight year at least 10 amateurs are competing and the 11th time in 12 years.

Are we seeing an amateur renaissance? Well, let’s not get too carried away. None of these players is going to end the streak of 85 years since an amateur won the U.S. Open (Johnny Goodman has that trivia answer locked up for good). But as we have seen in the recent past (Beau Hossler in 2012; Michael Kim in 2013; Cameron Champ a year ago), amateurs on the leaderboard in the U.S. Open is a real thing and there are plenty of good candidates to play that role this week.

Of course, if the potential for an amateur to be in the mix exists, then obviously one is going to make the cut at Shinnecock Hills, right? The simple answer is yes; an amateur has made the cut every year since 2007. But the number to stick around for the weekend is not quite as large as you’d think. Consider that in the last five years with double-digit numbers of amateurs competing in the Open, just twice has there been more than two to make the cut.

There is a consistent theme among this year’s amateur class. Save for reigning Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale and 2016 Mid-Am winner Stewart Hagestad, the others are all in college or just graduated. And only three of these players (British Amateur champ Harry Ellis, U.S. Amateur runner-up Doug Ghim and qualifier Will Grimmer) have major experience. The “newness” of being inside the ropes at such an event may make for tougher sledging for the play-for-pride set this year.

So how does the race for low amateur stack up? Here’s my break down of the players into categories of confidence, with 5 being my bets to make the cut, down to 1 being the least likely.

Confidence Level 5
Shintaro Ban, 22, San Jose, Calif. (UNLV 2018 grad)
Doug Ghim, 22, Arlington Heights, Ill. (Texas 2018 grad)
Braden Thornberry, 21 Olive Branch, Miss. (Mississippi)

Ghim earned low amateur honours at this year’s Masters. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

These three are all coming off impressive college seasons, Ban and Ghim earning first-team All-American honours. Ghim, who just graduated from Texas and turns pros next week at the Travelers Championship, not only has experience in major but good vibes from his T-50 showing at the Masters, where he earned low amateur honours. (He’ll have his dad, Jeff, on the bag again here this week.) Thornberry (photo above), the 2017 NCAA champ and an eight-time winner in college, just had a T-26 finish playing as an amateur at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. This trio all has the game to handle Shinnecock Hills’ links-style layout and the confidence to block out the distractions of playing in a major championship.

Confidence Level 4
Stewart Hagestad, 27, Newport Beach, Calif.
Theo Humphrey, 22, Greenwich, Conn. (Vanderbilt 2018 grad)

Hagestad resurfaced when he advanced at Sectional Qualifying in New Jersey after having the dream amateur season in 2017. You’ll recall he made the cut at the Masters and played in the U.S. Open, then capped things off by being part of the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team while playing a home game at Los Angeles C.C. He missed the cut at Erin Hills last year, but living on Long Island and having played a time or two at Shinnecock Hills makes the task of making the cut a little less steep. Humphrey was a semifinalist at last year’s U.S. Amateur and earned SEC player of the year honours this last season at Vanderbilt. His lack of experience in pro events is offset by a quiet confidence that propelled him throughout his college career.

Confidence Level 3
Philip Barbaree, 19, Shreveport, La. (LSU)
Jacob Bergeron, 20, Slidell, La. (LSU)
Harry Ellis, 22, England (Florida State)
Luis Gagne, 20, Costa Rica (LSU)
Noah Goodwin, 17, Corinth, Texas (SMU)
Matt Parziale, 31, Brockton, Mass.
Garrett Rank, 30, Canada

If you’re an LSU fan, you’ve got plenty to root for this week. Tiger teammates Barbaree, Bergeron and Gagne all advanced through Sectional Qualifying. Barbaree is a former U.S. Junior champ (having rallied from 5 down with eight holes to play to claim the title) and is playing in his sixth USGA championship. Goodwin, meanwhile, is the reigning Junior champ taking advantage of the USGA allowing the Junior winner’s a spot in the U.S. Open field for the first time. Parziale and Ellis are looking to build off their experience at the Masters, but it’s Rank that is arguably the most intriguing story of this year’s Open. The Canadian is on summer break from his full-time work of being an NHL referee.

Icon Sportswire

Confidence Level 2
Will Grimmer, 21, Cincinnati, Ohio (Ohio State)
Franklin Huang, 22, Poway, Calif. (Stanford)
Rhett Rasmussen, 19, Draper, Utah (BYU)
Tyler Strafaci, 19, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Georgia Tech)
Chun-An Yu, 19, Taiwan (Arizona State)

Grimmer qualified for 2014 Open at Pinehurst, where he shot a 77-80 to miss the cut (although he also once shot a 59 at the North and South Amateur at the North Carolina resort). Strafaci has a USGA pedigree of sorts going for him; his grandfather, Frank, won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links title.

Confidence Level 1
Ryan Lumsden, 22, England (Northwestern)
Kristoffer Reitan, 20, Norway
Timothy Wiseman, 21, Corydon, Ind. (Ball State)

Reitan will make history on Thursday, becoming the first golfer from Norway to ever play in the U.S. Open and the first Norwegian to compete in any major since 2006. Lumsden took the difficult route to Shinnecock as the only amateur to advance through the Columbus, Ohio, sectional qualifier.

The post U.S. Open 2018: Everything you need to know about the 20 amateurs playing at Shinnecock Hills appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Steve Scott took Tiger to extra holes in the 1996 U.S. Amateur final at Pumpkin Ridge. And Woods needed some heroics of his own to send the match past regulation. So after CBS’ Kyle Porter tweeted “A 60-foot eagle you had to have on the 35th hole of the U.S. Am at freakin Riviera? This is unbelievable,” Scott had this perfect response:

Never seen that before…oh, wait…. https://t.co/tDQmr5cUzF

— Steve Scott (@sscottpga) August 20, 2017

Although, it wasn’t quite as long or quite as late in the round, Scott, now the head pro at Paramount Golf Country Club outside New York City, was referring to the eagle putt Woods dropped on him in their epic 38-hole match. Scott held a five-up lead with 16 holes to go, but Woods drained a 45-footer on Pumpkin Ridge’s par-5 11th hole to best Scott’s birdie and cut the lead to one. Sound familiar?

Scott held a two-up lead with three to play, but after a memorable moment of sportsmanship (Scott reminded Woods he had moved his mark out of his line before he putted from the wrong spot), Woods birdied 16 and made another birdie on 17 from 35 feet to tie the match. Woods eventually won with a par on the 38th hole to claim his third consecutive U.S. Am title. He turned pro with his famed “Hello, World” press conference the following day.

“That was probably the best Amateur final match ever,” Scott said after. “Just to be a part of it, I feel completely a winner.”

Twenty-one years later, Ghim had similar thoughts, calling it “an incredible match” and saying, “As disappointed as I am not to win, I still had a lot of fun. I’m definitely gong to look back at this as one of the best accomplishments that I’ve had and move on.”

Like Scott, at least Ghim walked away with an incredible story to tell and a pretty nice consolation prize: A trip to the Masters.

The post One of Tiger Woods’ U.S. Amateur victims sends out perfect tweet during championship match appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman and runner-up Doug Ghim both were named to the 10-man U.S. Walker Cup team that will face a Great Britain & Ireland team at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, Sept. 9-10.

USGA president Diana Murphy made the announcement in the immediate aftermath of Redman’s victory over Ghim on the 37th hole of the Amateur at Riviera Country Club.

RELATED: Doc Redman rallies to win ‘an incredible match’

Joining Redman and Ghim are Maverick McNealy, Stewart Hagestad, Braden Thornberry, Norman Xiong, Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris.

McNealy is No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the only player on the U.S. roster with previous Walker Cup experience. Thornberry is No. 3 in the world after winning the NCAA individual title and the Sunnehanna Amateur this summer. Hagestad is the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion who in April became the first Mid-Amateur champion to make the cut in the Masters.

The captain is Spider Miller.

“It’s a committee decision,” he said, “but the committee has always held a spot for our current U.S. Amateur champion. But Doc went out and earned that spot, and I’m very proud of him. I’m looking forward to a great competition. I have a wonderful team and I’m very excited.”

Missing from the U.S. team was a second mid-amateur representative, with Scott Harvey believed to be on the short list for the team. Also on the outside looking in was LSU’s Sam Burns, college golf’s Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year honoree in June who announced he would turn pro in September in hopes of still having a chance to play on the U.S. team; Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke, the 2016 U.S. Amateur runner-up, Illinois’ Dylan Meyer, who won the 2016 Western Amateur, was a semifinalist at 2016 U.S. Amateur and is currently ranked No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

The post U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman, runner-up Doug Ghim selected to U.S. Walker Cup team appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Welcome to the Dew Sweeper, your one-stop shop to catch up on the weekend action from the golf world. From the professional tours, trending news, social media headlines and upcoming events, here’s every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of August 21.

Americans lap Europeans at Solheim Cup

This year’s Solheim Cup lacked the drama and theatrics of its predecessor, but — thanks to the exploits put forth by the Americans — the event did not fall short in entertainment. After an utterly dominating two-day display in Des Moines, Juli Inkster’s squad took care of business on Sunday, earning six of 12 available points to win and retain the cup by a 16½-11½ margin.

Entering the day with a five-point lead, the Yankee tone was set early by Lexi Thompson, who recovered from a 4-down deficit to halve her match. Followed up by Ws from Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr, the Europeans’ comeback bid was effectively kaput.

Afterwards, all the players credited Inkster for bringing out their best.

“It was my job to bring fun back to the Solheim Cup. And whether we win or lose, you know what? It doesn’t matter,” she said. “It’s the memories you create. It’s the bonding you create. It’s the atmosphere you create.”

Judging by the record crowds, team camaraderie and the butt-whoopin’ on the score board, safe to say Inkster’s mission was a success.

Ain’t love grand?

With just two weeks left in the Web.com Tour regular season, Martin Piller sat in 26th in the circuit’s earnings, right on the precipice of securing his tour card for 2018. But instead of competing at the News Sentinel Open, Piller was at the Solheim Cup last week, and with good reason: he was cheering on his wife, Gerina.

My handsome date @solheimcupusa ??

A post shared by Gerina Piller (@gerinampiller) on Aug 16, 2017 at 9:31pm PDT

Making her third appearance for Team U.S.A., Gerina scored two points for her country in the resounding victory.

As for Martin, he has one tournament left to grab a promotion to the big leagues, although will need a top-10 finish and a little help. And, on the bright side, he now has a comeback for life if Gerina every gives him hell for playing too much golf.

Chris Keane

Just what the Doctor ordered

Los Angeles is known for manufacturing its share of sensational endings. On the stage of Riviera, Doc Redman delivered a performance worthy of a standing ovation.

The Clemson sophomore, down 2 to Texas senior Doug Ghim with two holes to play, drained a 60-foot eagle putt at the par-5 17th (35th hole of the match) and backed it up with a birdie on the 18th, winning both holes and sending the match to overtime. In sudden death, Ghim struggled in the greenside bunkers on the 10th, conceding Redman’s birdie putt for the win.

“It was a lot of fun to be a part of it,” Ghim said. “As disappointed as I am not to win, I still had a lot of fun. I’m definitely gong to look back at this as one of the best accomplishments that I’ve had and move on.”

It wasn’t a total lost cause for Ghim; he still earned an invite to the 2018 Masters, and was named afterwards to the American Walker Cup squad.

Nevertheless, it was Redman who walked away victorious from what Walker Cup captain Spider Miller called, “the greatest match that I’ve witnessed in my four years of following intently the amateur game.”

“It was about never giving up and believing in myself,” Redman said afterwards. “You never know what can happen.”

An ending, and summation, straight out of a Hollywood script.

Jared C. Tilton

Stenson, sans driver, wins Wyndham

The Wyndham Championship had not been kind to Henrik Stenson: in three previous visits, the Iceman had two missed cuts and a WD. However, the 41-year-old needed another event on his schedule to fulfill the tour minimum requirement, which is how Stenson found himself at Sedgefield. The Swede made the most of his visit, leaving Greensboro with the one-shot victory over Ollie Schniederjans for the tournament title.

“Sometimes it’s just a coincidence why you decide to go to a tournament and make a change in your schedule,” Stenson said after his round, “and this time it certainly worked out for a lot of good.”

Stenson accumulated his 22-under score thanks to a curious strategy: keeping the driver in the bag. He didn’t make a single swing with the big stick, choosing the precision of his 3-wood over distance. The game plan worked: Stenson was eighth in the week in driving accuracy, setting up clean approaches (third in GIR) and plenty of birdie opportunities.

Proving chicks may dig the long ball, but money is made in the iron game.

Pro earns card via hole-in-one

Bubble boy J.J. Henry birdied his final hole to just make the cut into the postseason and, more importantly, secure his tour status for another season. Martin Flores also gained entrance to the Northern Trust, albeit in slightly more spectacular fashion.

Outside the Wyndham top 20 at the start of Sunday, Flores needed a miracle to capture enough points to move from 139th into the top 125. He got it at the par-3 16th, thanks to this beauty:

What a time to make an ACE!

This hole-in-one may get Flores into the #FedExCup Playoffs!#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/2qpM0oUNW5

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 20, 2017

The ace, along with a birdie at the 18th, moved Flores inside the cut for the PGA Tour postseason. Now THAT is how you finish strong, sports fans.

The post Dew Sweeper: U.S. Amateur drama, America’s big Solheim Cup win and a hole-in-one for the ages appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Here in the entertainment capital of the world, steps from the renowned Sunset Blvd., on a course with a Hollywood pedigree, two amateurs put on a show worthy of their surroundings.

Doc Redman, a Clemson sophomore, even delivered a dramatic ending befitting the stage, the United States Amateur Championship at Riviera Country Club. He came back from 2 down with two to play, then defeated Texas senior Doug Ghim with a conceded birdie on the 37th hole that followed 36 holes of entertaining punching and counterpunching.

Spider Miller, the captain of the U.S. Walker Cup team, called it “the greatest match that I’ve witnessed in my four years of following intently the amateur game.”

Ghim called it “an incredible match. We didn’t give each other anything all afternoon. We worked for everything. It’s match play, right? It was do or die for him, and he did it.”

Redman’s own summation: “We were both playing so well. I played really well on that back nine, and he stuck with me shot for shot, and I stuck with him. It was about never giving up and believing in myself. You never know what can happen.”

You never know. The remarkable comeback Redman authored included his holing a downhill 60-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 17th hole, followed with his holing a 10-foot birdie putt at 18, winning both holes and sending the match to overtime.

On the extra hole, the par-4 10th, Ghim drove left and into a terrible lie in the “hay,” as he called it. “I had never been in that area all week,” he said. “I didn’t even know there was hay there.”

His following shot put him in more trouble, his ball finding the bunker that fronts the green, leaving an extremely difficult shot to a shallow green sloping away from him. His third shot went into a bunker behind the green.

He wound up conceding Redman’s birdie putt, an anticlimactic ending, but given everything that preceded it, it did nothing to detract from the entertainment value of the match.

“It was a lot of fun to be a part of it,” Ghim said. “As disappointed as I am not to win, I still had a lot of fun. I’m definitely gong to look back at this as one of the best accomplishments that I’ve had and move on.”

Neither player led by more than two holes. Redman held a 1-up lead following the morning 18, increased it to 2 up by holing a long birdie putt on the second hole of the afternoon 18. Ghim evened the match with a par at the 11th hole, the 29th of the match and went ahead with another par on the 13th hole. He increased the lead to 2 up at the 16th hole.

At the par-5 17th, the 35th hole of the match, Redman faced a 60-foot eagle putt, while Ghim had a six-foot birdie putt.

“All that was going through my head was about making the putt and putting a good stroke on it,” he said. “Honestly, I was just going, ‘You’re going to make this, you’re going to make this.’ ”

Still, the likelihood of his doing so was remote and it seemed inevitable that Ghim was going to prevail, but Redman’s putt darted into the hole for an eagle to win the hole.

“I wouldn’t be entirely truthful to say that I expected him to make the putt, but I did entertain the possibility,” Ghim said. “When it did go in, it was like, ‘Wow, OK. That’s quite a blow.’ I reminded myself that i was still 1 up with one to go.”

At the 18th hole, Ghim hit an anemic approach that stopped short of the green, while Redman hit his approach to about 10 feet of the hole. Ghim’s pitch shot left him with a short par putt that was for naught when Redman holed his birdie putt.

“I didn’t hit a particularly great iron shot coming into 18,” Ghim said, “but I thought I did just that with the chip. I chipped it close enough. I felt like I did everything that I could to force him to make incredible shots. He stepped up and did it. And kudos to him. I’m very happy for him.”

Redman was similarly gracious toward Ghim. “I would just like to congratulate Doug as well. He played awesome. He’s such an awesome competitor and deserves all the praise in the world as well.”

They both do, for putting on a memorable and dramatic performance in an area that more than most has an appreciation for great entertainment.

The post Doc Redman rallies to win ‘an incredible match,’ defeats Doug Ghim on 37th hole appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
The American dream is alive, its manifestations varied, and for Jeff Ghim, a South Korean immigrant, it has played out with the successes of his son.

Doug Ghim will play for the U.S. Amateur Championship at Riviera Country Club here on Sunday, and following his 2-and-1 victory over Theo Humphrey, he and his father embraced.

“We made the Masters,” Jeff said to him.

The two finalists receive Masters invitations. Doc Redman, a Clemson sophomore, earned the other one by defeating Mark Lawrence Jr., 1 up. Ghim and Redman will play in the 36-hole final beginning at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) Sunday.

The happiest man on the premises on Saturday likely was neither Ghim nor Redman, but Ghim’s father, his son’s caddie and the only golf instructor he’s ever had.

“The Bible says the child is the crown of the parents,” Jeff said. “This is my crown. This is kind of my American dream.”

Together, they take on Augusta National next April.

“I’m not really sure if I can quantify what it means to me to be out there with him tomorrow,” Ghim said. “We’ve shared so many good moments and so many really difficult ones. To mention in 2014, that night after, I think I was OK, but I don’t think the significance dawned on me, what I just did in blowing a 1-up lead on the 36th hole.”

Three years ago, Ghim made the final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and wound up losing to Byron Meth. Only the winner was invited to play in the Masters.

“The difficult part was knowing that I could have walked out on the fairway of Augusta with my father, and that was kind of basically taken away from me,” he said. “That was difficult. Then when that putt on 17 dropped [Saturday] it was the first thing that popped in my head. We’re going to the Masters.”

Ghim had a 2-up lead on Humphrey going into the par-5 17th hole. He hit his third shot to the fringe, leaving him with a downhill, left-to-right putt that he ran 5½ feet past the hole. Humphrey had a shorter birdie putt on a similar line that he narrowly missed.

So it came down to Ghim’s par putt and the demons with which he acknowledged wrestling.

“I was just trying to feel my hands,” he said. “I’m sure it was visible I was trying to calm myself down. So many thoughts in your head are going at that moment. For me, I’ve got a little bit of demons because of the Pub Links from three years ago. I was just trying to make sure I stay calm. Don’t make the putt more than what it was.

“I’m a spot picker, so I picked a spot. I said, If it starts on this line it will go in.”

And now, Ghim, a University of Texas senior, has an opportunity to deliver an Amateur double for the Longhorns. Last Sunday, Sophia Schubert, a Texas senior, won the U.S. Women’s Amateur at San Diego Country Club. (And Riviera is a course where the Longhorn men also won their last NCAA title in 2012.)

Any final at this elite level promises to be a difficult one. Redman, 19, is less experienced than Ghim, but formidable nonetheless. He finished second in the prestigious Western Amateur earlier this month and also tied for sixth in the Northeast Amateur.

“He’s a sneaky match-play guy,” Ghim said.

Redman said he played “horrendous” in the 36-hole stroke play and snuck into match play in a playoff.

“I’m so excited to be able to compete for the championship tomorrow, especially after how I played in stroke play,” he said. “I didn’t think after I finished it I had any chance of moving on to match play.

“I think, as everyone knows in golf, you can’t play well every week and stuff like that happens. It was disappointing more than anything that I didn’t play better. But I knew if I could get in match play that it would be kind of the reset button and I would be OK.”

The post Doug Ghim is playing in the U.S. Amateur final and taking his dad to Augusta National appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Match play — once Tiger turned pro, at least — is susceptible to what often is described as vagaries, which, in golf circles, means only that anything can happen. Nonetheless, a favourite has emerged in the U.S. Amateur heading into Saturday’s semifinals.

It is Doug Ghim, 21, a senior at Texas, who was a 2-and-1 winner over Connor Syme of Scotland at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Friday. Ghim has momentum that includes a victory this summer in the Pacific Coast Amateur. He is the highest-ranked player left in the field, No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. And on the experience front, he once reached the final of a USGA event, the U.S. Amateur Public Links in 2014.

His next opponent will be Theo Humphrey, who defeated Chun An Yu of Chinese Taipei, 1 up, on Friday. In the other semifinal match, Mark Lawrence Jr. will play Doc Redman. Lawrence defeated Dawson Armstrong, 3 and 2, while Redman beat Travis Smyth of Australia, 1 up.

Neither Ghim nor Syme were especially sharp in their match. Ghim made six bogeys, Syme four and one double bogey. Smyth had never trailed in his previous three matches, but fell behind at the third hole and never led. Ghim won the par-3 16th hole with a bogey to go 2 up, then finished it off with a par at 17.

“The wind definitely showed up today,” Ghim said, attempting to explain the quality of play. “It was a little stronger than yesterday. And whenever you’re in the quarters or the semis or the finals, its gets a little bit more nervy. I think both Connor and I had tremendous respect for each other. It just made it that much more difficult because we knew how good the other side was. Fortunately it ended up in my favour.”

Humphrey, 21, a senior at Vanderbilt, is No. 42 in the World Amateur Ranking and was the fourth seed entering match play. He is playing in his fourth U.S. Amateur.

“I’ve played many times with Doug over the past five, six years,” Humphrey said. “Doug’s an excellent player, so it should be a great challenge. I know I’ll have to play my best tomorrow.”

Lawrence, 21, who plays college golf for Virginia Tech, has to qualify as the long shot among the four semifinalists. He is No. 386 in the World Amateur Ranking, though earlier this year he won the Virginia State Amateur, a tournament his father won in 1980.

His semifinal opponent, Doc Redman, 19, is a Clemson sophomore who is No. 70 in the World Amateur Ranking. He has had a strong summer, finishing second in the Western Amateur and tied for sixth in the Notheast Amateur.

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