Sean Crocker. Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

DP World Tour: Sean Crocker secures wire-to-wire Hero Open win at St Andrews

Matt Smith — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 17:14:02 +0000

By Matt Smith
American Sean Crocker had to be at his best and secure a maiden DP World Tour and edge Eddie Pepperell for a wire-to-wire victory in the 2022 Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews.

Crocker began the day with a two-shot lead but was joined at the summit early on as the chasing pack closed in on him at Fairmont St Andrews.

He led by one at the turn before starting the back nine with three birdies in four holes to reach 22-under par and stretch his advantage back to two.

But with Englishman Pepperell in the clubhouse on 21-under, Crocker endured a nervy finish as he parred his way home to sign for a closing 68 to win by a single shot.

Crocker, who started the 2022 season with eight missed cuts and a retirement in his first nine events, was visibly relieved as he holed his four-foot par putt at the last to secure the trophy.

Pepperell finished alone in second one shot behind Crocker after firing a brilliant Sunday 65, while home favourite David Law and Dubai-based Spaniard Adrian Otaegui shared third place on 19-under.

Swede Jens Dantorp and Denmark’s Oliver Hundebøll were a shot further back, while another Dane in Soren Kjeldsen, Wilco Nienaber of South Africa and Englishman Callum Shinkwin rounded out the top 10 at 17-under.

“Winning a golf tournament is not easy,” said Crocker. “Eddie did not make that easy for me either.

“After the three putt par on 15 I thought I still had a little bit of room. They are not easy holes coming down the stretch. Great save on 17. I thought I could then make it pretty easy — it’s a par five coming in, but I don’t think it’s ever easy to make a par to win a golf tournament. That was pretty special.

“I have felt pressure like that before but this is my first pro tournament win. That putt looked like it was 20 feet, the hole looked like it was half an inch wide. Right off the face I knew it was a well-struck putt. As I looked up and I saw it drop, I was just telling myself — don’t start crying.”

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US Open 2022: These scores were ridiculously low, even in a US Open qualifier

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 25 May 2022 07:22:38 +0000

Matthew NeSmith, shown playing in the 2022 RBC Heritage, shot 62 in the US Open qualilfier in Dallas. Jared C Tilton

By Tod Leonard
These days, it usually takes going exceptionally low to win on the PGA Tour, and it’s apparently no different in qualifying for the US Open.

In the first final qualifier played in North America on Monday at two courses in Dallas, 11-under for 36 holes was the number to be the medallist — and there were four players who achieved that — while seven-under was the score that got players into next month’s major at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

In a qualifier that featured numerous PGA Tour pros, the top 13 out of 98 entrants advanced, and a six-man playoff was required for the final two spots. Those positions went to Davis Shore and Roger Sloan, while Adam Hadwin and Austin Cook were the first and second alternates, respectively.

The day’s low score was a 62 fashioned by Matthew NeSmith, who made nine birdies in the morning round at Royal Oaks Country Club. NeSmith, a third-year PGA Tour player who has competed in only one major, shot 69 in the second round at Lakewood Country Club and joined Americans Kurt Kitayama (65-66) and Sean Crocker (64-67), and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma (68-63) at 11-under.

Among the notables not advancing were 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Aaron Baddeley, Rory Sabbatini and James Hahn.

The other more recognisable names to advance were Canadians Mackenzie Hughes (nine-under) and Nick Taylor (nine-under) and American Scott Stallings, who was solo 11th at eight-under.

There was one amateur who reached from this final: University of Texas junior Travis Vick, who shot nine-under. Vick was a semi-finalist at last year’s US Amateur at Oakmont.

The remaining nine final qualifiers — eight in the US and one in Canada — will be contested on Monday, June 6.

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European Tour pros shatter world record for fastest hole played

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 23:21:05 +0000

By Brendan Porath
The European Tour is back at it. Their social channels have become regular stops for exotic golf feats of strength, speed, and persistence, whether it’s hitting golf balls into speeding cars or day-long hole-in-one challenges.

This week at Valderrama, they pulled four of their players together from four different continents to try and break a Guinness World Record for the fastest golf hole played. The record had been just a tick under 28 seconds. This was not the European Tour’s first rodeo for this speed stunt, and they’ve done this four-man relay at Valderrama before pitting two different countries against each other.

The foursome this week included Sean Crocker of the United States, Min Woo Lee of Australia, Wilco Nienaber of South Africa, and Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark. Nienaber, who may be the biggest hitting pro out there, sensibly took the driving duties, while the expletive-prone American, Crocker, hit the approach shots. It took many arduous reps and prompted many groans and curse words, but these world-class pros started to get the hang of it. After a few close calls, they shattered the old record.

27.88 seconds to beat

The Fastest Hole of Golf returns.#HeroChallenge | @GWR pic.twitter.com/8H5AsEsdx1

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 16, 2021

Nienaber’s length is certainly an advantage, but the fulcrum of this operation rests with the approach shot. It’s got to be stuffed and Crocker, who was hitting wedges with some spin that elongated the process, converted.

Is this the most important accomplishment? No. Do you wonder at least once why this exists? Yes. But it makes for an entertaining watch and it’s certainly a feat that you and three of your hack friends could not pull off at your local spot.

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European Tour pro with harrowing backstory pulls out impressive win in home country

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 20:29:56 +0000

Richard Heathcote
Christiaan Bezuidenhout celebrates on the 18th green after rallying to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.

By John Huggan
Often enough, the winning of golf tournaments at the professional level is more about the elimination of serious error than the making of plentiful birdies and eagles. An eventful Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek turned out to be one of those times. While those around him floundered amidst a flurry of bogeys, doubles and triples over the closing nine holes, the only member of the top-five finishers making steady progress was eventual champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout. The combination of some evil pin positions and an ever-freshening breeze proved to be too much test for the rest.

Bezuidenhout’s bogey-free back-nine 34, three under par over the picturesque lay-out that sits across the Crocodile River from the stunning array of African animals populating the Kruger National Park, was at least three shots better than anyone else in that top five. And that steadiness under pressure proved to be the key to the 26-year-old South African’s second European Tour victory. His beautifully constructed closing 69 took him to 14-under-par 274 for the week, four shots better than the four runners-up, Jayden Schaper, Adrian Meronk, Richard Bland and Sean Crocker.

“This is incredible,” said Bezuidenhout, who suffers from a stutter resulting from his ingestion of rat poison as a 2-year-old. “This tournament has been close to my heart ever since I played here for the first time. It is one I have always wanted to win. So to pull it off is very special to me, especially on a such a difficult day. That was a two-and-a-half club wind out there. It swirled a lot and led to my double bogey on the seventh. I actually hit a decent shot, but it just drifted way right on the breeze. But I’m proud of myself. It was all about sticking in there today.”

Still, making his Masters debut two weeks earlier, where he finished T-38, also turned out to have some lasting benefits.

“I had a plan this week,” Bezuidenhout revealed. “I played a practice round with Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel at Augusta National. They told me to play the course as I would have done with the previous grass on it. I thought of it that way and played it as if it was firm and fast all week, which is how it was here today. I’m really pleased to have pulled it off.”

In contrast to the winner’s obvious excitement at triumphing in his homeland, there were obvious moments of regret for all of the second-place finishers.

Some examples:

• Standing on the 18th tee at 13 under par and one stroke back, Crocker badly pulled his tee shot on the 552-yard par 5, the ball rebounding out-of-bounds off the roof of a cart path. It all added up to a triple-bogey 8 for the Zimbabwe-born former USC All-American.

• Leading with nine holes to play, Schaper—widely viewed as the next star of South African golf—hit three balls off the 10th tee. Although he found the first one unplayable, the 19-year-old could do no better than a triple-bogey 7. Eight holes later, another drive flew OB off the 18th tee, the eventual bogey costing Schaper the chance to finish alone in second.

Warren Little
With his runner-up showing, Jayden Schaper, a 19-year-old South African, had the best finish of his nascent European Tour career.

• Long-time leader Adrian Meronk’s quest to become the first Pole to win on the European Tour came to an end with a 6-6 run (bogey, double bogey) on the 13th and 14th. That he found water again on the final hole cost him, like Schaper, second place on his own.

• Bland was the steadiest of the four runners-up, playing the back nine in level par. But the experienced Englishman, winless in 468 European Tour starts, wasn’t quite mistake-free. The 47-year-old’s lost ball off the 15th tee led to a scrambled bogey on the 580-yard par 5.

Such catastrophic events weren’t all down to the pressure that comes with contention either. Far down the leader board, Englishman Eddie Pepperell’s closing 81 contained a back-nine of 47 marked by a pair of triple bogeys, one double and two other dropped shots. At least for one day, the Crocodile River separated not only golf course from national park, but wildlife from wild shots.

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