By Alex Myers

Welcome to another edition of The Grind where we’ve learned a lot during our eighth(!) year of doing this. You can go from not being able to break 80 to winning the Masters. You can drink as many proteins shakes as you want without risking harm to your organs (Actually, we’re not sure about that one yet). And you can’t touch Tiger Woods’ coffee:

Who's stealing a cup of this coffee? ?

Stay tuned for more with @TigerWoods coming soon. pic.twitter.com/ergZwHz6v5

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) December 3, 2020

Oh yeah, we also found out global pandemics are no joke. But hopefully, we were able to at least share a few laughs through all the weird and tough times. So thanks as always for reading, and grab a cup of joe as we take one final spin in 2020. Just not Tiger’s cup of Joe.

WE’RE BUYING

Viktor Hovland: Not only did the 23-year-old win his second PGA Tour title, he broke the “Curse of Coco Beach” by becoming the first golfer to win another tournament after winning the Puerto Rico Open. And, of course, this engaging young star was well aware of that fact.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Viktor Hovland (@viktor_hovland)

Hang in there, Tony Finau. There’s still hope for you! Plus, when Hovland wins, we get to hear these Norwegian announcers go nuts!

The Norwegian call of Viktor Hovland's winning putt @MayakobaGolf is EVERYTHING. ??? pic.twitter.com/CObVto6YYk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 7, 2020

“YES! He makes it—again! Our boy! Look how ice cold he is!” Absolutely electric stuff, just like when Viktor won for the first time in February. Apparently in Norway they don’t abide by the whole “there’s no cheering from the pressbox” motto. Hey, we’re not complaining.

The Class of 2019: About 18 months ago all three (Hovland, Collin Morikawa, and Matthew Wolff) were still in college and now they all find themselves in the top 15 of the Official World Golf Ranking. And it’s not just the six PGA Tour wins between the bunch that have gotten them there. Morikawa already has a major, Wolff finished top five at his first two majors, and Hovland holds the tour record for most consecutive rounds in the 60s. These (young) guys are good.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout: But don’t forget about the Class of 2015! BEZ! Two weeks in a row! Man, this South African is absolutely cooking right now after some serious home cooking the past two weeks on the European Tour, claiming the South African Open after the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his native land.

Richard Heathcote

Our new favourite player—if you didn’t see the giant wine glass he was drinking from last week, check it out—showed he can rally after a big celebration too. Impressive stuff. He’s got an even bigger event on tap this week as the Race to Dubai wraps up:

Probably a smart move to stick to normal-sized glasses with so much at stake.

WE’RE SELLING

Peter Alliss passing away: Sadly, 2020 has claimed another. Since as far back as I can remember, my favourite part of waking up early and watching the Open Championship was when Alliss would join the American telecast for a bit. Man, was he cheeky in the booth. Like Johnny Miller, Alliss is a Hall-of-Famer on two fronts, with a lot of younger fans not realizing how great of a player he was with 31 professional wins and eight Ryder Cup appearances. I encourage you to read the fantastic pieces by our own John Huggan and John Feinstein. And here’s a touching tribute from the European Tour:

Peter Alliss – A Tribute ?

The voice of The Open ? pic.twitter.com/wc1uc0hOeg

— The Open (@TheOpen) December 7, 2020

REWIND: Golf Digest Middle East’s 2014 conversation with the ‘voice of golf’

Also, anyone would get a kick out of Alliss calling Jean van de Velde’s 72nd hole collapse at the 1999 Open Championship. Even Jean himself:

RIP to a true legend.

Putting like Happy Gilmore: We’d love to hear Peter Alliss’ take on what Joel Dahmen began doing late in the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic:

2020 Mayakoba Rd. 3.
No quote today, but a story instead:
Before the round, Joel was messing around putting like Happy Gilmore. Split handed-right hand way down the grip. He was making EVERYTHING! He told me he was going to bust it out during the round. Did it on 17 and here: pic.twitter.com/ngWeiII3OE

— Geno Bonnalie (@GenoBonnalie) December 5, 2020

Then after continuing to use the unique method on Sunday, Dahmen felt confident to lobby U.S. captain Steve Stricker for a spot on the American Ryder Cup team.

Here's some more evidence @stevestricker! #RyderCupBound pic.twitter.com/uBgILAqMdS

— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) December 6, 2020

As always with Dahmen, who at another recent tournament channelled Russell Crowe’s “Gladiator” character, we are entertained. But good luck with that, Joel. We haven’t seen Adam Sandler tearing up the celebrity golf circuit.

Getting a job at MJ’s new course: If you’re looking for a gig driving around a beverage cart at Michael Jordan’s The Grove XXIII, don’t bother sending your resume. That’s because the new ultra-exclusive course is using drones instead:

Michael Jordan's new course, The Grove XXIII, delivers drinks by drone. ?

Learn more about the NBA superstar's exclusive club: https://t.co/iFXqdGGwtF
(?:Instagram/@Chadilac_FSU) pic.twitter.com/N6SPUhaXNk

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) December 7, 2020

What a world.

ON TAP

With the PGA Tour officially heading into the off-season, the LPGA and European Tour take centre stage. The U.S. Women’s Open is being held in Houston and the DP World Championship, the conclusion of the season-long Race to Dubai is in, you guessed it, Dubai.

Random tournament fact: Lexi Thompson will be using Bryson DeChambeau’s caddie, Tim Tucker, this week. If anyone needed an off-season, you’d think it would be Tim, but that’s a tough bag to turn down. And we’re pretty sure he’d make history by becoming the first person to win two U.S. Opens in the same year.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tim Tucker will spend as much time as usual deliberating shots this week: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
—Joel Dahmen will make the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team: 10-to-1 odds
—If Joel were European, he’d not only make Team Europe but go 4-0-1 against Team USA: LOCK

PHOTO(S) OF THE WEEK

This beach wedding stole the show during the second round of the Mayakoba:

nothing screams "final event of the year" like the PGA Tour broadcast repeatedly cutting to a half-dozen people setting up for a wedding, which will apparently be taking place on this beach volleyball court pic.twitter.com/sv912MUZFD

— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) December 4, 2020

Genius move to save money on a photographer/videographer. I could have probably joined Michael Jordan’s golf club for the amount I spent on ours.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIbTTb8peju/?utm_source=ig_embed

We’ve all been there, but that’s rough. Even Mike Davis thinks that’s an unfair pin position.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I don’t know if I could say that without getting fined.” —Brooks Koepka when asked to describe a disappointing year. And that was before he missed the cut in Mexico. Rough.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Angela Stanford for winning a seventh career LPGA title, but a first in front of her parents. Talk about coming through under pressure. . . . According to the National Golf Foundation, there will be an increase of 50 million rounds of golf played in this country compared to last year. The last time there was a bigger increase was 1997, when Tiger Woods won his landmark first Masters. . . . Speaking of Tiger Woods, his World Golf Hall of Fame induction has been postponed until 2022. The good news is he’ll have more time to work on his speech. . . . Jason Day said he kept his ATM receipt for a couple months the first time he made a withdrawal after his first PGA Tour win. Hope he saved some of that money because now he’s about to have a fourth kid. . . .And, finally, speaking of kids, I put together this bookshelf for my daughter all by myself:

If Rory McIlroy or any of the other new PGA Tour dads need help with this stuff, let me know. Kidding. I’m miserable at it and you’d have to pay me. A lot.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Will I spend more on college tuition or Pottery Barn furniture?
Can 2020 please just be over already?

The post Viktor Hovland breaks a curse and a PGA Tour pro channels Happy Gilmore appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
In what has been arguably one of the oddest years in golf, and a trying one in the everyday sense, immense kudos to Viktor Hovland for accomplishing the implausible. He changed the way we think of 2020.

With a birdie on the 72nd hole Sunday at El Camaleon Golf Club, the smiling Norwegian beat Aaron Wise for a one-stroke victory in the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Hovland finished at 20 under par for his second PGA Tour title.

He won his first in February at the Puerto Rico Open. He birdied the last to do it. He finished at 20 under par in that one, too.

And, lo and behold, there it is—2020 in a whole new light.

With rain hammering Playa del Carmen, Mexico, early Sunday, completion of the $7.2 million tournament was in doubt. Then when the leader board bunched up like a 2019 buffet line at Golden Corral, it appeared that extra holes might be required to determine the outcome. Then Hovland decided to drain a 12-footer—and all the suspense with it—to stuff his Christmas stocking with $1.296 million and break the dreaded “Puerto Rico Curse” that had kept all previous winners from capturing another tour event.

By coincidence, after closing with a six-under 65, Hovland also avenged a bit of personal frustration at El Camaleon, where he missed the cut by a stroke in his two previous appearances, the first in 2018 as an amateur. “Even though I missed the cut my first two times,” Hovland said, “I had a blast being here. … It’s really one of my favorite spots, and to play here for the first time as an amateur on the PGA Tour and to then win it later, I think that’s pretty cool.”

Hovland is pretty cool for being all of 23 years old. The 2018 U.S. Amateur champion rose to 15th in the world and became the seventh player with multiple victories in 2020, a group that includes Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Webb Simpson and Colin Morikawa.

And in just his 35th tour start, Hovland became the fifth European player since 1945 with multiple tour wins before turning 24. The others: Seve Ballesteros, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.

Hector Vivas
Hovland’s most anxious moment on Sunday came after hitting this approach shot wayward on the 16th hole. But he got up and down for par, then finished par-birdie to win for the second time in nine months on the PGA Tour.

Hovland might be the most changed man in golf this side of the beefed-up DeChambeau since he drilled that 30-footer to win in Puerto Rico just a few weeks before golf’s season was halted for three months due to the ongoing pandemic. Actually, he might be Bryson-light when he talks about abandoning fad diets, eating more protein and gaining speed with his driver by “just practicing swinging hard, dedicate 20 minutes to just hitting it as hard as I can.” Hmmm. Sounds very familiar.

In addition, he altered his approach to pitching and chipping, going to a 10-finger grip for everything inside 40 yards, which he says helps him feel the release of the clubhead. Since The Northern Trust in Boston, Hovland has been working with Indiana-based swing coach Jeff Smith to make “refinements” in his swing. Finally, he recently incorporated the aim-point method into his putting routine.

The one thing he didn’t change was his approach to the game. He works at it. And he likes to work at it. During the shutdown, he hung out at Karsten Creek Golf Course in Stillwater, Okla., home course for Oklahoma State’s golf team, where he and another tour hotshot, Matthew Wolff, led the Cowboys to the NCAA title in 2018.

“I’ve always kind of been a grinder, I really like to play golf,” he said. “Luckily, in Oklahoma we didn’t close down any golf courses, I was able to practice at Karsten and my roommates and the guys on the Oklahoma State golf team were able to play almost every day. So it was like, you know, COVID wasn’t really affecting us that much. I felt like I was able to make some good gains in my golf game during that period.”

Good gains, no pain. Hovland has finished in the top 25 in 12 of the 16 events he’s entered since the restart at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

One of the few tournaments he missed was the Masters for which he was not eligible after finishing low amateur in the 2019 edition. “Yeah, I didn’t think it was going to bother me that much, but it did just watching a little bit,” he said. “Knowing that I’m in there next year and I had a nice off week, kind of relaxed a little bit, I think it just motivated me a little bit more to just keep working harder and hopefully I have a good chance when I get back there in April next year.”

Hovland was likely to get back to Augusta, Ga., without a win, coming into the week 25th in the world. Wise needed the victory more at 236th in the world. Also seeking his second tour title, Wise, 24, shot a closing bogey-free 63, but he missed 12-foot birdie tries on his final two holes to come up short at 19-under 265.

Hoping for a playoff, Wise had to watch as Hovland, after a “soft” 9-iron from 142 meters, converted from that same exact distance. Hovland admitted he was “shaking there at the end.” But then he gathered himself.

“Yeah, when I was standing on the 18th tee I knew I had to make a birdie to win, and I told myself, ‘OK, I was able to do it in Puerto Rico, hopefully I can do it today.’ ”

It’s always good to draw on experience.

And, well, you know what they say about hindsight. It’s, well, THAT number.

The post Closing out a year we’re happy to see end with a win, Viktor Hovland has us looking forward to 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The final putt is usually the image we remember from a victory, especially when it’s a must-make for birdie. Viktor Hovland now has two of those on his PGA Tour résumé, the first coming last February in Puerto Rico, the second coming on Sunday in Mexico. Two birdie putts, two winning fist pumps, two huge smiles from the former U.S. Amateur winner. Those are the two images we’ll remember from the 23-year-old Norwegian’s first two tour wins.

But on this Sunday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, the far more important moment for Hovland came at the par-4 16th. With Aaron Wise having already chased him down en route to a closing 63, Hovland could not afford to drop a shot. That appeared to be exactly what was going to happen at 16, where Hovland badly blocked his approach into the bunker right of the green.

Despite him “sucking” at chipping (his words, not ours), Hovland was able to splash one to about seven feet, then poured in the par putt. That kept him in a tie for the lead at 19 under, and he was able to finish par-birdie to win for the second time in 2020. Under intense pressure, Hovland came up with his best stuff.

If Hovland admitting he sucks at chipping last February wasn’t brutally honest enough, he was even more blunt after the final putt dropped in Mexico. If he looked comfortable out there as he shot a closing 65, allow him to assure you that he most certainly was not.

“I don’t really feel like I’m good at those pressure situations, honestly,” Hovland said. “I was shaking there in the end. I thought I lost it after the second shot on 16. Made an awesome par there, missed a putt on 17 and knew I had to make birdie on 18, and it just happened to go in. Yeah, don’t feel comfortable in those moments at all.”

All evidence is pointing to the contrary so far in his young career. He was absolutely locked in when he won the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach in 2018, then made a bomb of a putt on the 72nd hole in Puerto Rico for his first pro win. Down the stretch Sunday, he executed every shot that was required to win, including the tournament-winning putt, a right-to-left 10 footer to seal the deal.

The W was within reach and he went after it.

He’s the first player to birdie the 72nd to win @MayakobaGolf. pic.twitter.com/NGHjGK2xNd

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 6, 2020

“Obviously there is a lot of up and down in your body that you’re feeling, but my golf was very steady today,” Hovland said, finally giving himself some credit. “It could have been a lot more stressful.”

With the win, Hovland ended one of the strangest curses in professional golf. Prior to Sunday, no former winner of the Puerto Rico Open had gone on to win another PGA Tour event. Based off his amateur résumé, Hovland figured to be the guy who eventually would put that one to bed. Next up: Tony Finau.

Here are three other takeaways from Sunday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Hector Vivas

It’s easy to forget about guys like Aaron Wise
With the number of young players currently playing well on tour right now, it’s so easy to forget about a guy like Aaron Wise. He’s only 24 and he already has a PGA Tour win (2018 AT&T Byron Nelson), but a quiet 2019-’20 caused him to fade out of the picture. Sunday’s 63, which earned him solo second, was a nice reminder that this former NCAA individual champion has a ton of game, and is deserving of mention among the Hovlands, Morikawas and Wolffs of the sport right now.

Cliff Hawkins

Billy Horschel should win in 2021
The problem with declarations like this is you could say it about so many guys right now. Harris English, Kevin Kisner, Abraham Ancer, Tony Finau, etc., etc., etc. They all can and should win in 2021, but nothing in this sport is guaranteed no matter how many top 10s you’ve had in your last 10 starts. There are so many good players and not enough wins to go ’round.

That being said, we’d be stunned if Billy Horschel doesn’t pick up a sixth career win in 2021, and what would be his first since the 2018 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event he grabbed with Scott Piercy. Horschel, who shot 65-64 this weekend to tie for fifth, has now finished T-7 or better three times since the restart, including a runner-up at the Wyndham, where it looked like he had it in the bag until Jim Herman came out of nowhere. As long as he keeps putting himself there, he’ll eventually pick one off again to end an almost three-year drought.

Cliff Hawkins

Back-to-back brutal back nines killed Tony Finau’s chances
We said yesterday that we hoped to see some killer instinct from Tony Finau on Sunday, and we did early. For the second straight round, he went out in five-under 31, appearing poised to take charge.

Then, for the second straight day, he fell apart on the way home. On Saturday it was a birdie-free 38 that put him five shots back heading into Sunday. After essentially erasing that deficit with his final-round front nine, he played the back in one over, bogeying the 16th and 17th holes when he had a chance to make a serious late push. Finau is too nice of a guy to pile on, but this is becoming an alarming trend. He’s the king of the top 10, a great way to get very rich on tour, but you are judged on how many wins you have. Finau, 31, is still stuck on one. Though, now that the Puerto Rico Open curse is officially broken, maybe the door will open for him.

The post Viktor Hovland breaks this unusual PGA Tour curse, caps off wild 2020 with his second victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
On Thursday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, Justin Thomas shot arguably his worst round in three months, a one-over 72 that put him in an early hole. But if you ask him, Friday’s four-under 67, a five-shot improvement to make the cut, was far more frustrating.

“I very easily could have shot 62 yesterday,” said Thomas. “That was, I would say, I told my dad, the worst 67 in the history of golf.”

Hyperbolic, sure, but not without merit. Thomas finished bogey-bogey on Friday, undoing a ton of great work to get back into the mix. He also bogeyed the easiest hole on the golf course, in addition to missing a number of makeable birdie putts. The most maddening 67 in the history of golf may have been the more applicable phrase.

Thomas made up for it on Saturday at El Camaleon, skyrocketing up the leader board with a nine-under 62 to reach 12 under. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t satisfied with that either.

“It’s crazy to say that I left some out there,” Thomas said, “but I finally made some putts and felt a little better over it.”

This time Thomas was bogey-free, something he’ll likely need to do again on Sunday. He’s four back of leader Emiliano Grillo, with three players sandwiched in between. Lurking is the operative word here, and it would surprise no one if he throws up another 62 and wins this thing, which is exactly the plan.

“I can’t really worry about what anybody else is doing,” he said. “I just need to try to go out tomorrow and shoot another low one because you kind of can’t put a ceiling on this place when you’re playing it, you’ve just got to try and make as many [birdies] as you can.”

Hector Vivas
Viktor Hovland plays a shot on the second hole during the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Viktor Hovland is trying to steal Daniel Berger’s storyline
Leading up to the November Masters, the player getting all the “how could he NOT be in the field?” love was Daniel Berger, which he deserved. Few players were better during the PGA Tour’s restart, and if anyone ever deserved a special invite it was him.

The other guy missing was Viktor Hovland, who finished low amateur at Augusta National in 2019 and won on the PGA Tour in 2020. Of course, his victory came at the Puerto Rico Open, which, as an opposite-field event, does not earn you a Masters invitation. Hovland was on the doorstep of the top 50 in the OWGR in the weeks after his win, but couldn’t quite get inside it to earn a last-minute spot.

Coming into Mayakoba, Berger was supposed to be Mr. Motivated after sitting at home and watching the Masters on the couch. Turns out, that guy is Hovland, who shot an eight-under 63 on Saturday and sits two off Grillo’s lead. Hovland has been incredibly consistent over the last 12 months, but did not have the summer and fall of fellow young studs Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa. And yet, a win on Sunday would give him two victories in 2020, the same amount as Morikawa and two more than Wolff.

Hector Vivas
Emiliano Grillo reacts on the eighth green during the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

This is still Emiliano Grillo’s to lose
Yes, he only has a one-shot lead over Tom Hoge and has a number of world-class players lurking close behind, but Grillo is still the man to beat on Sunday. His infamously balky putter has been scorching hot, which is exactly why he’s leading through 54 holes. His ball-striking is good enough to put him in the mix every week; it just comes down to making putts. If he makes a few on Sunday and limits any big mistakes, we like Grillo’s chances at career win No. 2.

Hector Vivas
Tony Finau reacts to a shot on the third hole during the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

It was Tony Finau time until it wasn’t
Speaking of guys desperate for a second career win, Tony Finau appeared primed and ready to position himself for just that on Saturday. After going par-par-par to begin his day, Finau aced the par-3 fourth:

He followed that with three birdies in his next four holes, turning in five-under 31 to get to 14 under. With plenty of birdie opportunities left on the back, Finau had a chance to make a run at the solo 54-hole lead.

That’s when he went completely cold, shooting a three-over 38 on the back nine and putting himself five shots back heading into Sunday. It’s seemingly always two steps forward, one step back for Finau, who needs a small miracle to get that second W on Sunday. He has the talent to get it done, but does he have that killer instinct like, say, Justin Thomas has? We haven’t quite seen it from him … yet.

Hector Vivas
Patrick Rodgers plays his shot from the third tee during the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Three players we can’t ignore
First up we have Hoge, who is just one off Grillo’s lead thanks to a six-under 65 that included five birdies in his last six holes. Hoge is hungry (no pun intended), has a ton to play for (a win would get him into the Masters for the first time) and has some experience in contending, particularly at seaside courses. It’d be a mistake to simply write him off on Sunday.

The next is Adam Long, who, you may recall, stared down Phil Mickelson at the 2019 Desert Classic. He’s at 13-under and has proven of late that he is far more than just a flash in the pan. Lastly, there’s Patrick Rodgers at 12 under. Rodgers was a phenom in college, but has never quite found the same consistency as a pro. He does, however, have the game to go flat out LOW, something he did at the 2018 RSM Classic when he went 61-62 on the weekend and lost to Charles Howell III in a playoff. Don’t be shocked if the winner comes from this trio.

The post After a 62, Justin Thomas is officially lurking at the Mayakoba Golf Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Despite the importance of distance on the PGA Tour, there remains plenty of room for guys who “play their game.” The Zach Johnsons, the Brendon Todds, the Brian Gays. Shorter, accurate drivers with elite short games will always be able to contend no matter how high Bryson DeChambeau’s ball speed gets.

Abraham Ancer, who played in the final group at the Masters last month, had trouble coming to this realisation early in his career. To compete with the big boys, you have to play like them, or so he thought.

On Wednesday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, where Ancer is making his sixth start in his home country of Mexico, the 29-year-old described just how difficult it was for him to get over this mental leap early in his career. Back at the 2015 Frys.com (now Safeway) Open, Ancer’s PGA Tour debut, a certain four-time major champion saddled up next to him on the practice range. Ancer couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.

“So I was playing my first event ever on the PGA Tour,” said Ancer. “It was in Napa, the Safeway. Rory [McIlroy] — I was hitting balls on the range, hitting 7-irons and it was kind of cold in the morning and Rory sets up next to me. I think it was the first time ever that he played that event. I was like, man, this is awesome.”

It was awesome only for a short period of time, however. Once the Northern Irishman began smashing high 5-irons that flew 210 yards into a cold wind, Ancer knew he was in trouble.

“I was like, ‘oh, my God, I can’t do that.’ I started thinking I need to hit it higher and farther, so I started tinkering and that was a terrible idea, but I just didn’t know better. I struggled for a long time, just missing cuts, just was trying different things and it wasn’t really going my way.”

The tinkering sent Ancer into an early-career slump. He missed nine straight cuts to begin his PGA Tour career, then managed just one top 20 finish in his next 10 starts.

“I got to the PGA Tour and I quickly realized that I made huge mistakes trying to play golf like other golfers,” he said. “I didn’t play my game. I switched equipment, I did a bunch of things trying to play like the top guys in the world and that really hurt me. I mean, it went downhill quickly.

“But I’m thankful I did that and I learned a lot of lessons really quickly. In those five short months I just played terrible golf. I learned so much, and right after that I was like, you know what, I’m going to go back to playing my game.”

It paid off the following year on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he racked up three runner-ups and three other top 5 finishes to earn his tour card back. In three seasons since, he’s gone from 272nd in the Official World Golf Ranking to his current position of 22nd, though he was as high as 17th at one point.

Ancer is still in search of his first career win on tour, and he has to like his chances on home soil this week. In his last three Mayakoba appearances he’s gone T-9, T-21 and T-8. In five starts this season, Ancer has made every cut, including a high finish of solo fourth at the Shriners and a T-13 at the Masters.

The post How Rory McIlroy inadvertently caused Abraham Ancer to miss nine straight cuts to start his career appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
With the Mayakoba Golf Classic coming the first week of December, it marks the latest an official PGA Tour event has been played in a calendar year since 1971. Not surprisingly, then, when the deadline to enter the event passed on Friday, only four of the top 15 players on the Official World Golf Ranking (Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger and Tony Finau) had signed up to play in the last tour event of 2020, others having already started their off-seasons.

Also not surprising, perhaps, is how many tour pros hovering around 50th in the OWGR decided to compete in Mexico. There is probably a simple and understandable explanation for this: Anyone ranked in the top 50 on Dec. 31, 2020 receives an invitation into the 2021 Masters. And with only four weeks left in the calendar year to maintain/grab a place in the top 50, time is of the essence.

Below are the list of players currently ranked 46th to 60th on the World Ranking. Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the only one playing this week at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on the European Tour, and he’s in contention so he has the potential to jump into the top 50 with a top finish. The rest of the players below would slip a spot if that happened, but otherwise, they are all projected to remain in their current place when the next ranking is released on Monday. Those players competing in Mayakoba are in bold.

46. Brendon Todd
47. Lee Westwood
48. Rickie Fowler
49. Mackenzie Hughes
50. Matt Wallace
51. Kevin Streelman
52. Erik van Rooyen
53. Chez Reavie
54. Corey Conners
55. Russell Henley
56. Henrik Stenson
57. Sebastian Munoz
58. Lanto Griffin
59. Will Zalatoris
60. Christiaan Bezuidenhout

Of the players heading to Mexico, Todd, Conners and Munoz have spots saved already for Augusta in 2021. Todd and Munoz qualify thanks to playing in the Tour Championship in September, and Connors by virtue of his T-10 finish at the 2020 Masters earlier this month.

The most intriguing name among the group is Fowler. The five-time PGA Tour winner has played in the Masters every year since 2011, and has had three top-10 finishes including a second-place finish in 2018. But a T-29 a few weeks ago meant he is still in need of an invite for 2021.

Making things more interesting is the fact the European Tour has three more events after this week remaining to be played in 2020, including the DP Tour Championship in Dubai on Dec. 10-13. That tournament is likely to have a strong field, which would provide the opportunity for more players from outside the top 50 to sneak inside the number just before the end of the year. So playing, and playing well, in Mexico is certainly a hedge against this.

Of course, there will be other opportunities to earn a Masters invite—most notably winning a PGA Tour event before the scheduled April event or being among the top 50 on the World Ranking later in the spring. But when you’re so close to capturing one right now, you understandably want to do your best to take advantage of the opportunity.

The post This ulterior motive is likely driving some players to compete in the PGA Tour’s final event of 2020 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Early in Sunday’s final round at the El Cameleon course in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, defending Mayakoba champion Matt Kuchar holed this shot on the par-3 eighth hole.

Wow!

Matt Kuchar dials up the perfect shot. ?#ULTRAace pic.twitter.com/AuP4HVXSdk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

This video here didn’t capture the audio that Golf Channel cameras did, when you could hear Kuchar lamenting that it “didn’t go in but it’s close,” unaware that it actually had gone in the hole. Not until Kuchar got closer to the green did he realize the ball had indeed gone in.

Five minutes later, Brian Gay stepped to tee on the par-3 10th hole and watched as this happened.

Another one. ?@BrianGayPGA makes an #ULTRAace on the par-3 10th moments after Matt Kuchar’s hole-in-one on No. 8. pic.twitter.com/XUBlfHcv00

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

Obviously from his reaction, there was no doubt that Gay knew the outcome of his shot.

Pretty amazing, right? How often do you see a pair of holes-in-one in such a short span?

Well, actually it happened just two days earlier at Mayakoba. On Friday during the rain-delayed first round, Cameron Tringale and Chase Seiffert made holes-in-one on the par-3 fourth … in consecutive groups. According to PGATour.com, the last time players in back-to-back groups made holes in one came in the third round of the 2013 Northern Trust on the 14th hole at Liberty National (K.J. Choi and Greg Chalmers). Prior to that it had at the 2004 Masters with Padraig Harrington and Kirk Triplett.

The four aces made in Mexico nearly doubled the number recorded on tour during the fall season. In the first nine tournaments of the 2019-’20 campaign, there had been five holes-in-one made. Last season, there were 36 aces.

Meanwhile, less than an hour before Kuchar made his ace, Matthew NeSmith did this on the eighth.

Are you kidding? ?

You were robbed, @Matt_KneeSmith. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/1bi78QH4rI

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 17, 2019

Ordinarily, we’d be pretty impressed. But given the success of his fellow tour pros, we’re not sure if this one even warrants a “Nice shot”.

Meanwhile, Gay’s effort won him more than applause. Because an ace on the 10th hole also meant the pro would win a Kia Stinger, Gay drove off with a new automobile.

The post For the second time in three days, PGA Tour pros make holes-in-one in a matter of minutes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Now he’s in position for another.

Todd was 20 under par and tied for the lead with Vaughn Taylor with four holes left in regulation at the Mayakoba Golf Classic when play was halted because of darkness on Sunday night.

Inclement weather on Thursday had left everyone playing catch up the rest of the week. Players completed the first round on Friday, the second round on Saturday and attempted to play the third and fourth rounds on Sunday, knowing they were unlikely to get everything finished. The final round will resume at 7:30 a.m. on Monday.

“I feel good about my game,” said Todd, who will face a 15-footer when he returns to El Camaleon Golf Club. “I’m excited to tee it up in the morning and see if we can get another W.”

Considering where Todd was a year ago, it’s a miraculous turnaround. The way he has played lately, though, it’s hardly a surprise.

Over his last eight rounds, Todd is a cumulative 47 under par, with nothing higher than a 68 in that span. Leaning on his ball-striking, Todd this week leads the field in greens in regulation.

“I think [winning in Bermuda] helped a lot today,” said Todd, who had four birdies through his first dozen holes in the final round before a bogey on the 14th, his second-to-last hole of the day, dropped him into a tie with Taylor. “I felt really comfortable out there, was in control of my game and made a lot of birdies and pulled ahead.

“But it’s totally different now. I had a four-shot lead [in Bermuda], maybe even a five-shot lead, so I wasn’t feeling much pressure. Now that I’m tied for the lead, it’s kind of a new ballgame and I’ll have to go out there and hit good shots and try and fight them off.”

With a bevvy of challengers lurking close behind it won’t be easy.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
Harris English hits his drive on the seventh hole during the final round of the 2019 Mayakoba Golf Classic.

First, there’s Taylor. His round was perhaps saved when he got a drop from a fence that was in play on the seventh hole. He went on to save par, then rattled off birdies on Nos. 9 and 10 and added another at the par-5 13th to get within one of the lead at the time. Then came Todd’s bogey.

Like Todd, Taylor’s ball-striking, along with his driving and some hot putting, carried him, especially on Sunday. Through 14 holes in the final round, Taylor has hit 10 of 11 fairways, 11 greens in regulation and has nary a bogey against four birdies.

Right behind Todd and Taylor are Harris English and Carlos Ortiz, the sentimental favourite from Mexico. Both golfers are just a stroke back.

Ortiz, who opened the final round with a double-bogey before bouncing back with seven birdies over his next 14 holes, had just made a nervy par save on the 17th on Sunday when his playing partners, Zach Johnson and Mark Hubbard, sprinted ahead to tee off on 18. Neither was in contention, and they were in a hurry to get their balls in play before the horn sounded so they could finish. The 28-year-old Mexican wisely didn’t want to be rushed, though. By the time he got to the tee box, Johnson was already halfway down the fairway, and it was too dark with too much on the line, so he chose not to tee off.

“From the last shot, it was hard to see,” Ortiz said. “Putts were hard to even read.”

A putt to take a share of the lead is what English, who won this event in 2013, will have when he returns on Monday. On the par-3 15th when the horn sounded, he teed off and hit it pin high, 20 feet right of the flag. Taylor, meanwhile, will face a five-footer to save par on the same hole.

Finally, there is Adam Long, who is alone in fifth, two strokes back. He’s looking for his second victory of 2019 but will have a testy putt to save par on the 16th when he returns for the final round.

So after a long slog for four days that included no shots being hit on Thursday and sun-up-to-sun-down golf since, Monday figures to a sprint. And with that in mind, Todd had perhaps the best advice: “Make that first putt, go from there.”

The post Tight leaderboard leaves potential for dramatic Monday finish at the Mayakoba Golf Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

If you got him at that number, you have to be feeling really good right now. Through two rounds, the betting longshot is the solo leader at 13 under. He opened with a six-under 65, then backed it up with a seven-under 64 on Saturday that included a birdie-birdie finish, the second of which was a chip-in from off the 18th green.

“That last hole is playing tough, I hit driver-4-iron, and that’s all you want on that hole.,” English said. “Just tried to chip it up there close and when you get one to go in it’s just icing on the cake. Felt good about the round, think I might have missed two greens today, just hit it well. Iron game was on, wedge game was on and got hot with the putter a little bit, it was awesome.”

English hopes the good vibes continue on Sunday (and likely Monday) at El Camaleon Golf Club, where he claimed his first tour victory in 2014.

“It’s huge, I’ve had a lot of success here at this place, love the greens. Feel like if I can get it on the dance floor and hit 14, 15, 16 greens a round I can give myself a chance. With this wind, anything can happen. But if I keep hitting it like I am I’m in a good spot.”

Just one back is Vaughn Taylor, who shot a five-under 66 on Saturday. Brendon Todd is alone in third at 11 under, having shot rounds of 63 and 68. Danny Lee, the first-round leader, shot a one-under 70 and sits in a tie for fourth at 10 under.

The post Former Mayakoba winner Harris English shoots second-round 64, leads by one in Mexico appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.