By Ryan Herrington
It was all tied at 2-2 in the final of the NCAA Women’s Championship on Wednesday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale between No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Oregon, but there was an air of inevitability as well. Cardinal freshman Rose Zhang, the No. 1-ranked women’s amateur who won the NCAA individual title on Monday and the Annika Award for national college player of the year on Tuesday, held a 2-up lead over Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen with two holes to play in the fifth and deciding match. A miracle comeback would be needed to change the pending outcome.

Instead of a miracle, the Ducks stumbled upon a penalty stroke after a rare rules violation.

As Nielsen, using a push cart in the Arizona heat, was walking up toward her ball in the rough off the tee on the par-4 hole, she mistakenly ran over Zhang’s ball, which was also in the rough. Under the Rules of Golf, Nielsen had to add a one-stroke penalty to her score for violation Rule 9.5b, which states: “If the opponent lifts or deliberately touches the player’s ball at rest or causes it to move, the opponent gets one penalty stroke.”

The rules official informed Nielsen and Zhang of the penalty after both hit their second shots, Zhang on the green but 40 feet from the hole Nielsen short left of the green facing a tricky pitch.

The individual champion delivers the team championship for @StanfordWGolf!

?: Golf Channel | @Stifel pic.twitter.com/jNL1YTm2Wa

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 26, 2022

Nielsen, now hitting her fourth shot, left the ball 14 feet short of the hole and failed to make what was officially her bogey putt. When Zhang two-putted for par, she had clinched the match, 3 and 1, and earned the winning point for the Cardinal.

“I just reminded Rose that nobody wants a tournament to end that way, but it didn’t,” Stanford head coach Anne Walker said afterwards. “At the end of the day, Sofie made 5, Rose made 4, and I want that to be for both Sofie and Rose to be the focus because no one wants a title to end that way.”

Interestingly, the penalty is only applicable in match play. The penalty was put into place during the most recent update of the Rules of Golf in 2019.

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The post Rare rules mishap adds to drama to NCAA Women’s Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Maverick McNealy would have been a unicorn: A national college player of the year not swayed by the lure of the PGA Tour’s big bucks, the first in more than two decades to remain an amateur.

Ultimately, though, the Stanford All-American, who graduated last spring tied with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers for the most school wins at 11, came to the conclusion most expected. After playing for the U.S. in his second Walker Cup next month, the 21-year-old will in fact pursue a career as a tour pro. His debut as a professional is set for the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open, Oct. 5-8 not too far from where he grew up in Northern California

For much of his college career, McNealy professed that turning pro wasn’t the obvious matter of when, but if, the idea of following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father Scott, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, appealing to him. So what ultimately swayed Maverick to take the road more traveled?

“I think one of the big things is if I don’t do it now, I’ll never be able to,” McNealy said during a phone interview on Wednesday shortly after making his decision known via a post on the Stanford golf website. “That was the thing. I said if I look back in 30 years at this time in my life, I think more likely than not if I didn’t turn pro, I would have wondered and maybe even regretted it.”

Mind you, McNealy says that he’s not just “trying” pro golf, but that he’s completely committed to this as his career, something his father professed he needed to be before deciding to give this a go. “I’m going to give this my full effort,” McNealy said before laughing. “Maybe 40 or 50 years down the road, the Stanford degree will come in handy. That’s what I’m planning for.”

As part of this commitment, McNealy will move next week to Summerlin, Nev., and begin working on his game out of TPC Summerlin.

McNealy’s competitive schedule after the Safeway will include spots in five other PGA Tour events in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (at TPC Summerlin), the Farmers Insurance Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where he’ll play with his father as his partner), AT&T Byron Nelson and the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, a spot he secured by virtue of winning college golf’s Ben Hogan Award in May.

Additionally, McNealy intends to play at the second stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying School (he should be exempt into it through being in the top five on the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the Walker Cup).

Partially why McNealy hemmed and hawed so much about turning pro was an honest uncertainty that he had the game to make it on tour. In high school, he split his time between golf and hockey at the expense of a fancy junior resume on the links.

Finally focused on the former in Palo Alto, McNealy’s game developed quickly. He played fifth man behind Rodgers and NCAA champion Cameron Wilson as a freshman, then won six times and earned the Fred Haskins Award as college player of the year as a sophomore. Eventually he rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking. He also has had modest success playing as an amateur in pro events; he memorable sat T-5 at one point during the third round of the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic in 2015.

“I promptly hit it in the hazard on 17th and didn’t play well on Sunday,” McNealy said. “But that was cool to see my name on the leader board.”

Moreover, seeing the quick transitions of several recent college players to the pro ranks help crystalize in his mind that his game was in better shape to make the leap than he might have thought. Specifically, watching his former Pac-12 rival Jon Rahm from Arizona State, who McNealy played against for three years of college golf, swayed him about his chances of success.

“Right before he went pro, I played with him probably five or six rounds his senior year, my junior year. And I was going ‘Wow, this guy is on it. He’s playing really, really good right now.’ And it was really cool to see how that translated into the pro ranks.

“It’s cool to see the success those guys have had, and I think it makes me believe it’s possible with an incredible amount of hard work, and time and effort and doing things the right way.”

The post How a college rival of Maverick McNealy helped sway him to turn pro after all appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Rodgers, 25, has had plenty of highs and lows in his young tour career. He’s finished in the top five four times over the last three years, but has also missed 13 of 22 cuts in 2017 alone. Friday’s round at TPC Deere Run was his lowest of the season and came at a course he’s had mixed success at, having missed three cuts and finishing in the top 30 twice in five tries. A breakthrough week for the Indiana native would not only give him his first tour title, but also earn him a spot in next week’s Open Championship.

Two strokes back is another player with a decorated amateur career, Bryson DeChambeau, who posted a six-under 65 and sits at 11-under 131. Much like Rodgers, DeChambeau has struggled with expectations in his limited time on tour, but is beginning to find the form that won him the NCAA individual championship and U.S. Amateur in 2015. In his last three events, DeChambeau has finished T-26, T-17 and T-14. A win this week also would be the first of his career.

Zach Johnson and Charles Howell III are three back at 10-under 132. The two veterans have already wrapped up spots in next week’s major at Royal Birkdale.

Four players are four strokes back at nine-under 133, including Chesson Hadley, fresh off his Web.com Tour victory a week ago at the LECOM Health Challenge. Hadley, 30, posted a bogey-free seven-under 64 that featured birdies on three of his last five holes. The former Georgia Tech All-American went from PGA Tour winner and rookie of the year in 2014 to losing his card at the end of the 2016 season, but has shown resilience, and is taking advantage of his latest opportunity this week. It’s just his fifth start on the PGA Tour in 2017.

Kevin Tway, also at nine under, shot an eight-under 63. The former U.S. Junior Amateur winner made seven straight birdies beginning on the par-3 16th (his seventh), the most in a row on the PGA Tour this season. He’s tied with for fifth with Hadley, Chad Campbell and J.J. Henry.

The post Patrick Rodgers shoots 64, leads by two at the John Deere Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.