Maybe Justin Thomas was just being a good guy or maybe he was looking for a little good karma (hat tip to Emiliano Grillo). Either way, he let an 11-year-old boy hit a shot with his golf club during a Tuesday practice round at the 3M Open — and it resulted in one of the best shots hit with any of his clubs all year. Sorry, Justin. But really just a slight exaggeration there.

It has been a struggle for JT this season. So much so that he may be on the outs for the Ryder Cup and he’s currently outside the number for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Which is the only reason why he’s in Minnesota this week, and why he added next week’s Wyndham Championship to his schedule.

But maybe things will turn around for him thanks to … Tommy? Thomas plucked this kid out of the gallery and let him under the ropes on Tuesday. And despite having to grip wayyyy down on an iron, he stuck one to 10 feet, much to the amazement of Thomas and everyone else in the group. Have a look:

During his practice round, @JustinThomas34 brought in 11-year-old Tommy inside the ropes to hit a shot.

Using JT’s club, he stuck it to 10 feet @TPCTwinCities ? pic.twitter.com/QOAGlrjEr3

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 25, 2023

Talk about seizing the moment and coming up clutch! Maybe Zach Johnson should consider a captain’s pick on Tommy! It’s not the best angle, but you can hear the reaction from everyone as Tommy got high-fives all around, including from JT. And he took a photo with the two-time major champ shortly after:

JT is out here making dreams come true ? #GreaterThanGolf pic.twitter.com/7qg8tL6m9s

— TPC Twin Cities (@tpctwincities) July 25, 2023

Aww. You love to see it. And golf fans would love to see JT start hitting more shots to 10-feet as well. And back on Team USA. And, well, this cool moment can’t hurt.

The post Watch: Justin Thomas lets 11-year-old hit shot with his golf club, is amazed by the result appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Within the scorecard holder which sits in my back pocket every time I play golf is a piece of paper. On that piece of paper are 13 different numbers, one for each club in my bag. It’s been there since last year, after I went through a relatively painstaking process of hitting 20 shots with each club, on a launch monitor, and averaging out the distances for every club in my bag (minus my putter, of course).

I’ve come to depend on it. I’d probably surrender half the clubs in my bag before that piece of paper. Knowing my exact yardages with every club has legitimately helped me — until last week.

Sneaking in a few rounds in the neighbouring links courses around Royal Liverpool with some fellow Golf Digest staffers (we call these “research rounds”), it immediately became clear how worthless that piece of paper was on those courses. For the first time since I jotted those numbers down, I played golf never bothering to consider it.

So much golf, from the PGA Tour et al. is a game of execution. Picking a spot, and trying to hit it to that number. Like throwing a dart at the centre of a dartboard, your success or failure starts and ends with you alone.

Links golf is different. A certain wind will send a driver across a fairway, rather than down it. Or float it high and away into nowhere. Links courses can turn a 9-iron into a 5-iron, and a 5-iron into the best sand wedge in your bag.

Mastering most golf courses means imposing your will as a golfer on to the layout. Links golf requires a meshing with what’s in front of you, in that current moment. Sometimes that means putting the driver away for good, as Tiger Woods did when he won at Royal Liverpool in 2006. Other times, it may mean calling upon a shot you may have never played before. Never does it require scribbling numbers on to a piece of paper.

“There are several different options to play each golf hole,” Brian Harman said of Royal Liverpool. “If you’re into the wind you can hit way more club and send it up in the air to try to stop it, or you can try to finesse something lower. I enjoy the variety of shots you have to hit.”

There’s a famous quote from the legendary British golf writer, Bernard Darwin, that the elements at Hoylake make Royal Liverpool a “breeder of great champions”. The history certainly backs it up, from Walter Hagan to Bobby Jones, to Peter Thompson, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Brian Harman isn’t the name you’d expect to follow on that list. But standing in the rain as the 36 year-old hoisted the claret jug, Hoylake had done it again. Brian Harman was the man who forsook the formulas and mastered his feel instead. It’s the only way to conquer the elements of links golf. And in doing so Harman proved he is, undoubtedly, a great champion.

1. Good putting is boring putting

There was a lot of talk about putting at Royal Liverpool. Scottie Scheffler couldn’t make putts. Neither could Rory McIlroy, or Tommy Fleetwood. Brian Harman could, so he won.
Harman was, indeed, a tremendous putter at Royal Liverpool. But what, exactly, does that mean?
When most of us think about “good putting”, we think of draining long putts, and walking in 20-footers for birdie. Harman’s stats tell a different story. He gained 11.57 strokes on the green last week, but the longest putt he dropped all week was just over 30 feet. Rory McIlroy dropped two putts longer than that over those same 72 holes. So did Scheffler, and 29 other players.
Harman’s elite putting performance instead was predicated on making the boring, extraordinary. He didn’t have a three putt. He missed just one putt inside 10 feet, and none inside of five feet. When you do that, no one else can stand a chance.
“I expect to make those putts,” he said.
The problem the rest of us have is that we expect to make the wrong putts. Sure, it’s fun to drop 15 and 20 footers, but missing those doesn’t really matter, in the scheme of things. Making more of those putts five and 10 feet. Missing those are the killer of good rounds, and the key to avoiding bad ones.
Good putting doesn’t mean dropping bombs. It means making lots of little ones.

Travis Smyth. The Open Twitter

2. Know how to ditch spin in a hurry

Every time a golfer hits a ball, it flies into the air with backspin. It’s backspin that keeps the ball in the air. Of course, that’s not what you want when the wind starts gusting, as it did early during Open Championship week.
Killing lots of spin in a hurry strikes me as a pretty essential skill, for all golfers. This week, most pros I talked to said they generally settle on a combination of taking more club, swinging softer, and teeing the ball slightly higher (the ball being propped up in the rough has the same effect).
“When you’re trying to hit a low one, you are coming in quite steep. It’s easier off a tee, so you’re not catching the ground instantly at impact, which will create spin, which into the wind you don’t want to do,” said Travis Smyth after his hole-in-one on the 17th hole. “I took an extra club and chipped it.”
Simple enough, and something to keep in mind the next time you find yourself facing a stiff breeze.

3. Distance varies way more than you think

Of course, reducing your spin only mitigates the effects of an into wind shot. Ultimately, if you’re into wind, the ball is going to go shorter. Same with if it’s raining. Watching the pros slog it out on Sunday made me realise that the rest of us have a woeful under-appreciation for how much the rain, or wind, will affect our shots.
The reality is a player could be capable of hitting it 320 yards one day, but put that same player in certain elements, and they may struggle to crack 250 yards — as Rory McIlroy proved.

Rory's drive on the first hole in calm weather yesterday:

316 yards, 132 yards in

Rory's drive on the first hole in pouring rain today:

250 yards, 208 yards in pic.twitter.com/WMeOLASphr

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) July 23, 2023

“If it’s raining a little heavier, an iron could easily go 20 yards shorter,” Sepp Straka, who finished T-2.
Sure, into the wind, the rest of us will take an extra club. Maybe two. Really, there should be time when we take five extra clubs, or expect a 70-yard decrease on a given drive. It’s uncomfortable to think about, but it’s half the battle when playing in the elements. And it’s something pros don’t think twice about.

4. It’s the external factors that kill you

If you’ve noticed so far, a lot of the things I learnt have to do with external factors. All the stuff that’s out there. There are lots of things out there, especially during Opens, and it’s easy to let them screw us up.
Even for pros.
For Emiliano Grillo, it was the wind on the driving range. It was blowing left-to-right most days. Perfect to counteract his draw. Then he stands up on the second hole, and for the first time, finds the wind blowing right-to-left toward out of bounds. That baby draw which was flying straight on the range is about to turn into a hook.
“It’s so hard to make the switch,” he said. “Standing on the second hole, I bailed out right both days. I probably hit my ball 100 yards right.”
For Max Homa, it was the hassle of moving everything around in the rain.
“The umbrella to the glove to the yardage book to the umbrella, it just gets tiring holding the dang thing and shuffling it around,” he said after I asked him the most difficult part of playing in the rain. “You just feel very out of sorts. It takes a few holes to get going.”
Yet both those players had their best Open Championship finish ever. As did Ben An, who says it was always unlucky bounces that would often send his rounds into a mental, downhill spiral. He said things only started to change recently, when he accepted those will happen and there’s nothing he’ll be able to do about it. The central skill in golf isn’t avoiding them altogether, but sucking them up and moving on when they do happen.
“I realised I usually get beaten by the golf course, not by other players,” he says. “I still have to work very hard on it, but I don’t lose my mind as much as I did before … It’s not perfect, but you have to learn to let it go, like what are you going to do next.”

5. Go short or long of trouble, but never around

The third hole is a quirky layout where an old racetrack used to be. A wall signifying out of bounds cuts in from the right at about 250 yards. During the previous two Opens at Royal Liverpool, players would hit a no-brainer iron miles short of it. This year, for the first time, players had introduced a third strategy: Sending a driver over the out of bounds, over the fairway, into the rough. Amateur Christo Lamprecht, who won the silver medal for low amateur after leading through 18 hole, opted for that strategy on day one. He birdied the hole.

 

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“It makes sense,” Bryson DeChambeau says. “You can take the OB out of play every time that way.”
While some players opted for ‘over it’ strategy the first two days, they abandoned it once the weekend rain came. But this was an interesting insight how they think about avoiding absolute, no-go areas like out of bounds: When trying to avoid a hazard, you need to either hit something short that has no chance of going into the hazard long, or something so long that it has no chance of catching the hazard short. Don’t flirt with it, and don’t try going around it.
On a slightly separate note, many proponents of a golf ball rollback would point to something like this as evidence the golf ball does need to get rolled back. I’m not unconvinced by that argument, but in this case, I’m just not sure that would tell the entire story.
Being able to go over everything does give this hole different shot options, which is the guiding principle for so much of the rollback debate. And because that ‘go for it’ option only requires a carry of about 260 yards, it’s a feat most long hitters could accomplish even with a persimmon driver — especially with the right wind.
Rather, this strategy exists now and not before because golfers in 2023 understand the statistical value of being in the rough, if it means being closer to the hole.
“There is typically something bad in play, constantly, so you might as well get it as close to the hole as you can,” says Scott Fawcett, the founder of Decade Golf. “Especially in major championship golf.”
Intentionally trying to hit your ball in the rough is simply not an idea which made sense until we had data that proved why it can. Wherever you may land on the rollback debate, that genie isn’t going back in the bottle.

6. Fully commit to a feeling that works

As often happens with these articles, I’m quickly approaching my word limit, so a quick note on how much I love that Adrian Otegui put this rehearsal practice backswing move into play because he liked the feeling of it in a practice round. He noticed his backswing getting too short. This helped him commit to the feeling of a full turn, in the final seconds it was time to swing.

Instead of waggles, Adrián Otaegui makes a full backswing while he’s over the ball. Then stops, resets, and swings.

“It’s new. It’s a feeling I had in practice rounds. I quite like the feeling, used it on the driving range, then introduced it into my routine.”

Practice vs real pic.twitter.com/QEBWIDHnLd

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) July 21, 2023

A good reminder, that it doesn’t matter how something looks if it helps your swing feels.

7. Trust the process

I find it increasingly weird how, whenever Rory McIlroy gets into major contention and doesn’t win, pundits immediately reach for some mental platitude. It’s always some variation of Rory not being able to handle the pressure, or wanting it too much, or not wanting it enough, or lacking the killer instinct.
But what, exactly, does that mean?
Rory isn’t standing over a golf ball, thinking about how much making this putt would mean to him. None of these guys are, and they shouldn’t be, either. They may feel nervous, but that’s natural and normal. Even when they feel the nerves, they’re not trying to do anything different. “Process” was the word Rory McIlroy kept returning to during his Hoylake victory in 2014. It’s the same process he’s focusing on in 2023.
The truth is, the whole ‘he can’t handle the heat’ mental stuff is just a thing that people say who don’t want to look at the real reasons, so they make up catchy ones instead.
As far as I can see it, in Rory’s case, he’s a very, very good player (obviously). The key reason McIlroy is so good is because of his golf swing. He’s not the biggest guy, but he can hit his ball enormous distances because of how dynamic his golf swing is. But that dynamism also leads to occasional streaky ball-striking patches, especially off the tee. That’s what we saw during the early part of this season. That’s why to some outsiders, Rory can run hot and cold from round to round. It’s worth the trade.
Other times, he’ll struggle with consistent contact on his putting — that’s what happened on Saturday. Every player has different tendencies which pop up from time to time. This is Rory’s.

 

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Occasionally Rory also has a tendency, I think, to play too safe at certain times. Some variation of all of the above can explain most of McIlroy’s recent major near-misses.
The only way to win majors in the modern era is to fire on all cylinders. The fields are just too deep not to, as Brian Harman proved this week. Rory is one of the few exceptions: A player good enough to get himself into contention, even when he’s not firing on all cylinders. Just as Jack Nicklaus did, whose record doesn’t just include 18 major wins, but 19 other major top threes.
It’s not a bad thing, so save the mental game platitudes about Rory. Any minute now things will align, and Rory will get his major. Then many more after that.

The post Seven things learnt from players at the 2023 Open Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

We admit to being guilty from time to time of overusing the terms “bizarre” and “rules incident” in a same sentence. But we’re not entirely sure how to more aptly characterise what happened to Emiliano Grillo on the 72nd hole of the Charles Schwab Challenge than as, well, a “bizarre rules incident”.

It all becomes more, ahem, bizarre thanks to the fact that Grillo overcame the double-bogey six he would make on the 72nd hole to win in a playoff anyway, ending a nearly eight-year PGA Tour victory drought when he looked like it was drifting away down that aqueduct along the 18th hole.

Here then is our attempt at explaining what went down and why it was so … again, sorry, bizarre.

The set-up

Grillo started the day at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth four shots back of Harry Hall and Adam Schenk but made a furious charge, birdieing four of his first seven holes. As Schenk and Hall struggled down the stretch, both searching for their first PGA Tour wins, Grillo took a two-shot lead with another birdie on the par-3 16th. That was his advantage as he stood on the 18th tee at 10-under for the tournament.

All wet off the tee

Despite being ahead by two, Grillo used a driver off the tee, the ball leaking quickly to the right. It eventually found its way into a penalty area to the right of the fairway, in an aqueduct with water about two to three inches deep.

Emiliano Grillo. PGA Tour

Downstream issues

The aqueduct tilted downhill back toward the tee, so as the ball entered the water, it started following the flow and moving backward. Slowly. Very slowly …

Grillo’s ball. PGA Tour

The rules explained

Mark Dusbabek, the PGA Tour rules official working the broadcast, helped explain to Jim Nantz, Trevor Immelman and the CBS crew what was going on in real time as he was also listening in to the rules team’s discussions. Dusbabek explained that they had identified where the ball had entered the penalty area (roughly 187 yards away from the hole), which was the likely place Grillo would take a drop and play what would be his third shot with the penalty stroke. However, as the ball continued moving — as we said very slowly — down the aqueduct, there was the potential that Grillo could actually play the ball while it was moving.

Rule 10.1d notes that “A player must not make a stroke at a moving ball.” However, there are a few exception also listed. Exception 3 states, “When a ball is moving in temporary water or in water in a penalty area, the player may make a stroke.”

Dusbabek noted the potential for Grillo to hit the moving ball, but did Grillo know he could? Turns out he likely did, since he’d been in this aqueduct before.

“I’ve hit it there,” Grillo said after the round. “I knew, as soon as I saw the ball going right, I was like: ‘This is going to be a very long hole.’ I’ve been through that pain of watching the ball just roll 120 yards back.”

An overhead view of the aqueduct. PGA Tour

Decision time

As the ball kept moving, however, Dusbabek explained that eventually Grillo had to make up his mind on how he wanted to proceed. He couldn’t wait forever to see if the ball would stop in a more advantageous spot or not or if he was set to hit it while it was moving. And after roughly seven minutes, Dusbabek even interjected that the committee had decided enough was enough and that Grillo would have to decide to play the ball where it entered the penalty area (or presumably take a stroke and distance penalty and go back to the tee).

“We as a committee have been talking about it but enough time has taken place and he has been given enough time to make a decision here, so we’re going to make him go back to where it last crossed,” Dusbabek said.

Moments later, the ball did stop against a rock, roughly 140 yards or so from where it entered the penalty area.

Bizarre scenes on 18.

Leader Emiliano Grillo’s tee shot finds a water stream and takes five minutes to eventually come to a stop.

Grillo takes a penalty stroke and plays where the golf ball entered the stream @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/cc3XibhSwR

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2023

Third shot off a cart path?!?

The camera eventually showed Grillo taking a penalty drop just outside the aqueduct but the ball rolling back in. He did this twice and then placed the ball on the concrete, which got the curiosity of Immelman.

“Dus, why was he allowed to drop it on the path right there?”

Dusbabek alerted everyone that the red line for the penalty area was right of where he took the drop. So the cement path was not in the penalty area, and is considered an immovable obstruction. Grillo didn’t seem to be phased by it as he showed no hesitation in what was going to happen next.

Sparky!

Grillo played his third shot off the concrete, getting a pretty clean shot off. The ball advanced 146 yards, leaving him 44 yards left to get up-and-down for a bogey, that would still have given him a one-shot lead. But the fourth shot stopped 19 feet from the hole and he missed the bogey putt.

A wet and wild finish for Emiliano Grillo on 18.

Double bogey to drop into a tie for the lead. pic.twitter.com/oygu04Wa26

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2023

The rest of the story

To his credit, Grillo didn’t mope around after his stumble, signing for a two-under 68 and waiting to see what would happen to Schenk and Hall as they played the 18th hole. Sure enough, Hall also found water, although the more traditional sort, as he pulled his drive into a small pond left of the fairway. He’d eventually make a bogey to finish tied for third.

Schenk had a chance to win in regulation with a birdie try from 15 feet but just came up short, forcing a playoff. They both replayed the 18th for the first sudden-death hole, Grillo finding the fairway this time. Pars from both sent them to the par-3 16th, where a birdie from Grillo would clinch the victory.

The post Emiliano Grillo could have hit a moving ball and other crazy things we learned from his bizarre rules incident appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It had been eight years since his last PGA Tour victory, and in professional golf eight years is almost forever. So when Emiliano Grillo made a birdie putt at Colonial’s par-3 16th Sunday afternoon, he chased after his ball with an undercut that encapsulated the pain and disappointment and doubt experienced between then and now, on the precipice of capturing his second career title.

Ninety minutes later, Grillo was back at the 16th, that presumed victory very much in jeopardy and a moment that underlined why it is so darned hard to make a living in a game that traffics in heartbreak.

But for the second try in as many attempts on Sunday, Grillo walked off the par-3 16th with a 2. This time there was no punch to the heavens, instead a muted fist pump and a major exhale after surviving a dramatic stumble, and for that the 30-year-old from Argentina is the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge champ.

“Obviously it’s great. It made everything worth it,” Grillo said after a final-round two-under 68. “The playing, all the hours practising, the effort from my family. It makes you think when you started playing all the emotions come through your head.”

Starting his day four back of the lead, Grillo opened with four birdies in his first seven holes to get in the mix, adding a birdie at the 12th to jump alone atop the leaderboard. When he walked off the 16th the first time, he held a two-shot advantage at 10-under, one that didn’t seem in jeopardy with his closest competitors in Adam Schenk and Harry Hall having the toughest time making red figures.

But there is an aqueduct to the right of the 18th hole. It is mostly dry, its brook maybe an inch deep … and yet deep enough to almost sink Grillo. Still holding a two-shot advantage, Grillo sliced his drive at the 72nd into the aqueduct, and the channel’s stream caught Grillo’s ball — and the hopes and dreams that rode with it — and didn’t let go.

Bizarre scenes on 18.

Leader Emiliano Grillo’s tee shot finds a water stream and takes five minutes to eventually come to a stop.

Grillo takes a penalty stroke and plays where the golf ball entered the stream @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/cc3XibhSwR

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2023

For seven minutes, Grillo waited for the stream to decant his ball but the stream would not abide. For seven minutes, Grillo studied his options, searching for a question that would keep the final outcome the same. For seven minutes, we were reminded why tournaments of consequence are awarded not after 70 or 71 or 54 holes, but a minimum of 72. Grillo ultimately took a drop off cement, his third shot finishing short of the green. The chip never looked good and neither did his save for bogey. There had been just four double-bogeys on the week at the 18th until that moment. There was now a fifth, and a birdie by Schenk at the 16th created a tie at the top.

“I knew, as soon as I saw the ball going right, I was like this is going to be a very long hole,” Grillo said. “I’ve been through that pain of watching the ball just roll 120 yards back.”

If there was any solace for Grillo he was not alone in his 18th hole stumble. Hall was the 54-hole co-leader with Schenk at 10-under and birdied his first two holes on Sunday to get it to 12-under. But the 25-year-old tour rookie from England failed to birdie another hole in the final round and played his last 14 holes in five-over. That included a bogey at the 18th after snap-hooking his drive into the water, when a par would have been good enough for a spot in a playoff. Only two players out of the 72 that teed it up Sunday found the water on the 18th, and it just happened to be Grillo and Hall, players in the final two groups.

“I learned a lot, and you don’t have to play great golf to win on a hard golf course coming down the stretch,” Hall said after his 73. “You’ve just got to hit it in the middle of the green and not do anything stupid.

“I did a few things stupid today.”

Schenk had a shot at the win in regulation, but his birdie putt at the 18th slid just by the hole, setting up overtime with Grillo after he posted a closing two-over 72. On the first hole of sudden death, both men found the fairway at the 18th, with Grillo again blocking his tee shot to the right only to receive a fortuitous bounce off a hill and back into the short stuff. Grillo’s approach went right but for the second time received a generous hop, this time his ball finishing 30 feet from the pin. Schenk’s approach followed suit on a similar line, hitting and rolling back just inside Grillo’s ball. Both birdie putts missed, sending the playoff to the 16th.

Grillo went first on the par 3, his approach again going right for the third straight swing and again getting a lucky break, his ball ricocheting off a mound that guarded a greenside bunker and on to the green that started to funnel his ball to the pin .. and kept funneling … and funnelled some more, until the ball came to rest four feet from the pin.

“Yeah, the shot wasn’t that great,” Grillo admitted. “Obviously it was a bit right of where I wanted. I took the entire slope and got close.”

Schenk could not match, his tee shot flying the green something fierce. Though he made a marvellous pitch to two feet, Grillo decided he had enough theatrics for one afternoon, converting the remaining 4 feet, 8 inches to claim what looked to be his just an hour before.

It is Grillo’s second victory, his aforementioned first coming at the 2015 Frys.com Open in Napa. That was the campaign in which Grillo won PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honours and finished 11th in the FedEx Cup, and a campaign that catapulted him to the 2017 Presidents Cup team. Since that breakthrough Grillo has had a solid but far from spectacular career, never losing his tour card yet finishing better than 59th on the FedEx Cup standings just once. This week at Colonial showed he has the game and form to be one of the game’s better international players, to be the performer that was promised so many years ago.

“It’s been tough, but it’s worth every second,” Grillo said. “People ask me if I would have done something different, obviously looking back, I wouldn’t. This is just worth it.”

What a moment

In the midst of preparing for a playoff, @GrilloEmiliano invited two young fans to hit some shots @CSChallengeFW. pic.twitter.com/naBLusQyyj

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 28, 2023

That may ultimately come to fruition, and the security that Grillo earned will give him the chances to take those next steps. However, Sunday may not be remembered for Grillo’s almost collapse but how he responded to it, and we’re not referring to his play. Cameras caught Grillo warming up on Colonial’s first hole as he awaited his fate. What the cameras showed was not a player coming to grips with the unthinkable or preparing for a playoff battle, but a player who invited a couple of kids to join him on the range. Grillo was seen giving his club to one child and watched the little guy do his best to whack a ball as hard as he could, smiling and offering encouragement. After a few shots the kid handed the club back to Grillo, as Grillo exchanged a couple of high fives and bumps.

Yes, this is a game that traffics in heartbreak. Grillo reminded us it can be a heckuva lot of fun, too, and he didn’t need a win to prove that to us or himself.

The post A dramatic stumble, a heroic bounce-back and a sweet viral moment highlight Emiliano Grillo’s crazy victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The highest-ranked player to reach the weekend in Blaine, Minnesota, Finau overcame a five-stroke deficit to veteran Scott Piercy, who for 61 holes appeared poised to turn professional golf upside down not quite as seismically as Greg Norman but nevertheless with momentous consequences. Ranked 297th in the world, Piercy was attempting to win his first individual stroke-play title since 2015 after showing up with a new swing — from a new swing coach — a new caddie, a new driver and a new putter.

Oh, and also a new pair of shoes, which proved to be the only, ahem, misstep over the first three days while he was setting the 54-hole tournament record of 18-under 195. Piercy developed a painful blister on his right heel near the end of Round 2, which forced him to walk most of the third round carrying the shoe and only wearing it when he was hitting a shot.

But just imagine the chaos next week in Detroit for the Rocket Mortgage Classic with everyone making wholesale changes in the faint hope of duplicating the Piercy plan. Who needs reps, routines and established rapport with a trusty looper?

Unfortunately for the Las Vegas native, his final-round tour of TPC Twin Cities conjured the words of Charles Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And he felt the spring of hope before … despair. After seeing his lead increase to five strokes, Piercy played his final 11 holes in seven over par to soar to a 76. Finau, meanwhile, sprinted home with a series of birdies to card a four-under 67 and won his third PGA Tour title with the largest final-round comeback in the brief history of the tournament.

Order restored.

“Man, talking about the last few hours, I think I’m still trying to catch up, still trying to figure out. I think the win is finally settling in,” said Finau, whose 17-under 267 total was three better than Emiliano Grillo and Sungjae Im. “I was just chasing all day, that’s all I remember. Really all week. Scott played amazing golf and the thing about out here, I just know that you just have to keep playing. Anything can happen and that’s what I did.”

On a temperate but blustery afternoon, Finau, 32, was the player most under control and thus most likely to take advantage of an opening. He regularly ranks among the leaders in birdie average and the Utah native converted four birdies in six-hole stretch that made all the difference.

Especially clutch were the three straight he dropped starting at the 14th hole when he knocked in an eight-footer and then followed up from 31 feet and nine feet, respectively, to quickly construct an insurmountable lead.

“When I really needed to hole putts, I did starting on 11, again on 14, 15, 16. I mean, I made some really crucial putts when I really needed them,” Finau said. “Then a little bit of some heroics on the stretch on 17 and 18. A crazy bounce on 17. I called bank in the air, so I think that cancels everything out, but I did get a great bounce there and I took advantage of that.

“My game is as good as it’s ever been in really all aspects. I expected myself to contend and win again this year, so to be able to do it this late in the season when you’re running out of tournaments and you put that type of expectation on yourself, it’s so satisfying. That’s what makes the game so great, so satisfying, when you get the job done because you know that it doesn’t happen very often, but this one’s very special.”

Piercy was hoping for his fifth career win, but will settle for getting on the right side of the FedEx Cup Playoff bubble with a T-4 finish. David Berding

As for Piercy, you, dear reader, might want to skip these next two paragraphs or at least send the kids into another room while you read them.

When Grillo, who began the day four back, triple-bogeyed the par-4 seventh hole, Piercy found himself sitting on a five-stroke cushion, having reached 20-under par thanks to birdies at Nos. 2 and 6. He three-putted the eighth for only his fourth bogey of the tournament. No big deal. But then he missed the green at No. 9 for another bogey and three-putted again at the 11th to drop another shot.

A kick-in birdie at the par-5 12th offered only fleeting comfort. Piercy proceeded to sandwich a triple-bogey between bogeys at the next three holes. The problem at the par-4 14th started with a plugged lie in a fairway bunker that he could only move a few yards. From there, the man with one red heel pulled his third shot into the water, spun his fifth shot off the front of the green and then nearly saved double-bogey except the darn ball stopped three inches short of the cup.

OK, the kids are allowed back in now.

Im posted a final-round 68 for his seventh top-10 finish of the year while Grillo, after a slow-play warning at the turn, recovered from his misadventure at the seventh to salvage an even-par 71.

“Obviously, Scott made a horrible hole there and gave everybody a chance,” said Grillo, who notched his second T-2 finish in his last three starts and five times has been runner-up since his only tour win at the 2015 Fortinet Championship. “But then just Tony pressed really hard on the gas, and he just made it very hard for everybody.”

Finau nearly made it hard on himself at the end just as he found himself, stunningly, in the lead. As he alluded to earlier, he got a huge break on the par-3 17th when he airmailed the green, but his ball caromed off the grandstand and somehow found dry land just two feet from the penalty area. When he tapped in for par, he staggered off the green patting his heart. That escape made his bogey at the 18th hole inconsequential after he blocked his tee ball into the water. Not the prettiest finish, but he’d already staked his claim to the $1.35 million first prize with his rush of birdies.

Tony Finau poses with his wife Alayna and their five children after dad’s victory at TPC Twin Cities. Stacy Revere

Piercy, 43, who either was not interviewed or declined comment after the round, showed a touch of class by giving Finau a congratulatory hug after signing his card. The four-time tour winner had to be content with a consolation prize — a T-4 that enabled him to jump from 138th to 112th in the FedEx Cup standings with two events left in the regular season. That should be enough to make the playoffs for the 13th time in the last 14 years.

Sportsmanship at its finest.@ScottPiercyPGA congratulates @TonyFinauGolf shortly after the win. pic.twitter.com/HLVq8Yh2Wo

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 25, 2022

Finau, meanwhile, moved up to 17th in the FedEx Cup standings, 16th in the world and is a lock for the US Presidents Cup team, which was one of his goals for the season. Another was winning again after his playoff victory at last year’s Northern Trust, and he figured his game was trending well when he walked off the Old Course at St Andrews in last week’s Open Championship with a closing 66.

“I made a clutch putt on Friday just to make the cut and then I kind of pushed my way up towards the middle of the pack. I finished 28th last week, but it was like a good 28th,” he said. “Anytime you can do that in a major championship, in a major championship set-up, I think it gives you some confidence.

“I just kind of knew my game was good going into this week. I played about as clean a tournament as I’ve ever played from tee to green. I hit a lot of fairways, I hit a lot of greens and I stayed patient with my putter. It didn’t go my way a lot, really all week I didn’t make a lot of putts, but when I really needed them today, they fell. Last week, I made a lot of putts on Sunday, and out here, if you want to pick a day that you want putts to fall, Sunday’s probably the best day.”

And Finau finished the day as this week’s best.

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The post PGA Tour: How Tony Finau brought order to an otherwise chaotic finish at 3M Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Lies like no other at #TheOpen @Paul_Casey ?‍ pic.twitter.com/aHnkXHqrIy

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2019

But never fear, golfers. There are low scores out there, too. In fact, we’ve already seen the lowest score possible.

Emiliano Grillo wasn’t having much of a day until he reached the par-3 13th hole. But he found the funnel on the back-left portion of the green from 194 yards out made an ace. Check it out:

HOLE-IN-ONE! @GrilloEmiliano with the 1st ace at The Open since 2016 #TheOpen
Live coverage ? https://t.co/V5gkRJCUkC … pic.twitter.com/msunSxlDaU

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2019

Kinda sounds like Sir Nick knew that was coming. . .

Anyway, Grillo wound up giving those two strokes back and finishing with a two-over-par 73, but he’ll always have this highlight. And for those with later Thursday tee times watching the coverage on TV, that’s how you play that hole.

The post The Open 2019: Watch Emiliano Grillo’s hole-in-one from Day 1 at Royal Portrush appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Branden Grace finished T-34 on Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, shooting a one-under 287 for the week at Leopard Creek Golf Club, but it was as good as a victory for the 30-year-old South African. The finish, 13 strokes back of winner David Lipsky, in the last European Tour event of 2018 will likely be enough to keep him at the No. 48 spot in the World Ranking when the year’s final list comes out in two weeks.

And with that he’ll be playing in the Masters in April.

All players in the top 50 in the year’s final ranking earn invitations to compete at Augusta National Golf Club. Grace is one of 13 golfers in the projected top 50 who hasn’t already qualified for the first major of 2019.

Here’s a look at the projected final ranking of the year:

The Top 50 at the end of 2018! #OWGR pic.twitter.com/vKkYtvDJTj

— Nosferatu (@VC606) December 16, 2018

And here’s a list of the others that are projected to qualify who weren’t in the field already:
Alex Noren
Tyrrell Hatton
Rafa Cabrera-Bello
Eddie Pepperell
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Ian Poulter
Li Haotong
Thorbjorn Olesen
Matt Wallace
Lucas Bjerregaard
Emiliano Grillo
Branden Grace

No. 51 on the projected final ranking is Aaron Wise, who already is going to Augusta by virtue of his AT&T Byron Nelson win in May. Of those between Nos. 51 and 60, seven must now find another way to earn a spot into the Masters.

52 Ben An
53. Shugo Imahira
54. Brian Harman
56. Abraham Ancer
57. Luke List
59. Alexander Bjork
60. Daniel Berger

Between January and April, winners of any PGA Tour event awarding full FedEx Cup points will earn a spot. Also players inside the top 50 in the World Ranking a week before the Masters will be added to the field.

To those still on the outside looking in, best of luck gentlemen. You’ve got your work cut out for you.

The post 13 golfers projected to earn Masters invites through the final World Ranking of 2018 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
As much as the United States has struggled in the Ryder Cup in recent years—particularly on the road—it hasn’t had the worst record in men’s professional team competitions of late. That goes to the International team in the Presidents Cup, which is currently on a seven-match losing streak as it eyes the next competition 14 months from now at Royal Melbourne.

So how can the International team stop its own slide? Well, performances like the one Marc Leishman delivered on Sunday at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia would certainly help.

Leishman broke free from a three-way tie at the start of the final round with four birdies in his first five holes. It was the start of a tidy seven-under 65 performance at TPC Kuala Lumpur that allowed Leishman to cruise to a five-stroke victory over Emiliano Grillo, Chesson Hadley and Bronson Burgoon. Leishman’s final 72-hole score—26-under 262—matched the tournament scoring record, with the victory becoming the fourth of his PGA Tour career and third in his last 44 starts.

It will give the Aussie a big boost when the next Presidents Cup standings come out (he was 16th at the start of the week), as he tries to make the team for a fourth time. This time it will carry extra meaning as the event is played in Leishman’s home country.

“Being back at Royal Melbourne’s going to be awesome,” Leishman said. “I’ve played three President Cups so far, two in America, one in Korea, so to play one in Melbourne again with all my friends and family there is going to be awesome. [I’m] hoping I can continue this form, be a leader on that team.”

Fourteen months is a long way off, but he’ll need to be one of the leaders if there’s any chance of the International team ending a losing streak that included an eight-point defeat at Liberty National last fall that was so bad the competition was nearly over before ever reaching the singles matches.

Scott Halleran

The good news for the International team in the next go round, aside from a suddenly reeling and somewhat disjointed U.S. team (can you say Patrick Reed?) is that Leishman might not be the only player it can turn to.

Grillo opened Sunday’s final round by going out in 30 before stalling on the back and finishing with a 66. Still, it was the 26-year-old Argentine’s best finish on tour since a runner-up at the 2016 Northern Trust, and his second top-10 in his last four worldwide starts.

Then there was India’s Shubhankar Sharma, who was one of the three players tied with Leishman at the start of the final round in Malaysia. He stumbles on Sunday, with two bogeys in his first six holes and five overall on his way to a disappointing 72 to tie for 10th. Still, it was the 22-year-old’s second top-10 on the PGA Tour in the last eight months in a still burgeoning career. He’ll get another chance to impress 2019 International captain Ernie Els with a practice round next week in Korea.

“He’s told me it would be great if you can make [the team],” Sharma said of Els. “That’s always enticing for a kid my age.”

A few other players also had performances in Malaysia that should be encouraging for Els. Mexico’s Abraham Ancer finished T-5 with a closing 65, fellow South African Louis Oosthuizen was T-5, and South Korea’s Siwoo Kim shots a Sunday 65 to finish T-10.

It’s still a long way out, but any little bit of optimism is a welcome one for the Internationals.

The post Marc Leishman takes an early first step toward his big goal for 2019 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall

JERSEY CITY, N.J.—This season will be remembered as the Year of Justin Thomas. Fitting then that the 24-year-old will kick the festivities off at Liberty National.

Captains Steve Stricker and Nick Price announced their pairings for Thursday’s action at the 2017 Presidents Cup, which will be played in foursomes (alternate shot) format. In the first group, the Americans will send out Thomas and Rickie Fowler against the duo of Hideki Matsuyama and Charl Schwartzel.

Aside from the Thomas-Fowler combo, the United States is highlighted by Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, the supergroup that’s been effective for the U.S. in past team events. Spieth and Reed will face Si Woo Kim and Emiliano Grillo, both rookies for the Internationals.

“It’s always difficult with the rookies because they have never been on a team before and trying to figure out who is going to play with who,” said Price. “Si-Woo and Emiliano are two incredibly talented young players. They played well in the practice rounds.”

The matches are rounded out by Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar taking on Adam Scott and Jhonattan Vegas, Brooks Kopeka and Daniel Berger against Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace (who went a perfect 4-0 together in Korea), and Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner joining forces to battle Jason Day and Marc Leishman.

Kevin Chappell and Charley Hoffman are on the sidelines for the U.S., which is not necessarily a surprise: both have been under the weather this week. For the Internationals, Adam Hadwin and Anirban Lahiri will sit out the Thursday proceedings.

The 12th Presidents Cup begins at 1:05 PM on Thursday in Jersey City. The United States has won the last six matches.

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By John Strege
Phil Mickelson’s streak of playing on every U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup since 1994 will continue, courtesy of U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Steve Stricker, who made him one of his two picks overnight.

Stricker also chose another native San Diegan, Mickelson’s friend Charley Hoffman, to round out his 12-man team. Hoffman, 40, will be playing in his first Presidents Cup.

The International team Captain Nick Price added Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Anirban Lahiri of India.

“We all know what Phil brings to the table,» Stricker said. «He’s been on 20 plus teams. He’s an important part of all these teams. He, too, is starting to play better. He guarantees me he’s on the right track.

The Presidents Cup begins on Thursday, Sept. 28, at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

Mickelson, 47, seemed to have been a lock, notwithstanding his having finished 15th on the points list. His experience, along with the fact he’s beloved in the New York area, made him an easy choice. Moreover, he tied for sixth in the Dell Technologies Championship on Monday.

“It really has been special the way the people [in the New York area] have treated me and my family,” Mickelson said.

“They’re incredible sports fans. It’s a great place for the USA to play and complete. I don’t know what sparked it, but I’m certainly very appreciative”

This will be Mickelson’s 12th Presidents Cup. He also has played on the last 11 U.S. Ryder Cup teams.

“My excitement to be on this team is as great as it’s been for any team I’ve been on,” Mickelson said. “It means a lot to me. What means a lot to me this year is that they wanted me there even though I didn’t get the spot on my own. I really love being around these guys. I respect how great they are. This is a special team and to be a part of it is very meaningful to me.”

Hoffman, meanwhile, finished 11th on the points list, edged out by Kevin Chappell in the final round of the Dell on Monday.

“[Kevin] Chappell and I were sort of going back and forth that last day in Boston,” Hoffman said.

“I’m glad it’s finally over and I finally made an American team and I can’t wait. It’s a very special moment. Phil and I have played a lot of golf in San Diego and he talks a lot about it. It’s sort of one of the things that drove me to get on this team was sort of the ribbing he gave me put on the golf course out in San Diego and knowing how special it would be to be a part of this Presidents Cup.”

The International team has not won a Presidents Cup since 1998 and has lost six in a row after a tie in 2003.

“We can’t be complacent,» Mickelson said. «If we play our best and are prepared I believe we’ll come out on top. But they are an incredibly talented team and if we take some things for granted we’ll get beat.”

The rest of the U.S. team: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner, Patrick Reed and Matt Kuchar.

The rest of the International team: Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Marc Leishman, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim, Jhonattan Vegas and Adam Hadwin.

The post U.S. Captain Steve Stricker adds Phil Mickelson, Charley Hoffman to Presidents Cup team appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.