Weekly Wrap - Week 29

PGA Tour and DP World Tour

Images courtesy of PGA Tour

Tournament: THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

Dates: 16-19 July

Course: Royal Birkdale golf Club, Southport, England

Purse: USD $17,750,000

Ozzies in the field: Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Travis Smyth, Cam John, Cam Smith, Lucas Herbert, Ryan Fox (NZ), Dan Hillier (NZ), Kazuma Kobori (NZ)

What a fantastic Sunday at Royal Birkdale. Cam Young finished with 64 to have the clubhouse lead at nine under par whilst the last group was just starting the back nine. Fortunes ebbed and flowed, bounces went with and against the players and in the end, it was Kiwi Ryan Fox who prevailed.

Fox’s back nine was full of drama. On 15 Fox had to play backwards from a bunker and then hit his approach to six feet and made a fantastic bogey. On 16 he hit a great tee shot to 1o feet and drained the birdie putt to draw level with Young. On 17 Fox took an iron to avoid the fairways bunkers only to see his ball dribble into one which ended hopes of a birdie on that hole.

Stepping onto the 72nd hole Fox was tied with Young and needed birdie to lift the claret jug. There had only been three birdies on 18 all day up to that point so the odds were not in his favour.

Fox stepped up and in his inimitable fast paced style smoked a driver down the narrow 18th fairway avoiding all the bunkers and then hit a nine iron from 160m to about 10 feet to set up the winning putt. Just twenty two seconds after Sam Burns picked his ball out of the hole Fox was sending his putt toward the hole and victory. The ball fell into the left side of the hole and Fox was the Champion Golfer of the Year.

Hometown hero Tommy Fleetwood’s charge was stalled by bogeys on 9, 10 & 11 and he finished in a tie for fourth. The crowd support for Fleetwood was lovely to see and hear and a great reflection on the Southport crowds.

Overnight leader Burns had bogeys on 4, 5 & 6 had his chances but could only manage 12 straight pars coming home and slipped back to outright third with a closing two over par, 72.

Si Woo Kim held the lead for much of the middle stanza but he came undone with bogeys at 11, 12, 16 & 18 and couldn’t find any redeeming birdies and finished in a tie for sixth with Ozzie Lucas Herbert and South African Casey Jarvis. Herbert got to eight under par after the 10th but then bogeys on 11 and 17 ended his run.

Cam Young might be ruing his second shot on the 18th but as we celebrate Fox for taking on the hole then we should celebrate Young for giving it a go. Young's chance of par or bogey was probably pretty similar whether her punched out from the fairway bunker of tried the almost impossible to clear the lip and get to the green. As it was his ball caught the bunker and her made a good bogey.

Perennial Ozzie favourite Adam Scott finished in a tie for ninth with four others. That finish gets him into next years Open and with his guaranteed start at Augusta he looks like adding another four majors to his consecutive start tally.

Cameron John playing his first major had a really good week. Rounds of 70, 67, 69, 72 saw him finish in a tie for 28th.

So in typically Ozzie style we will claim the Kiwi as one of our own and record it as an Ozzie win!!

1st Ryan Fox (NZ) - USD $3.2M

T6 Lucas Herbert - $550,883

T9 Adam Scott - $336,380

T28 Cameron John, Kazuma Kobori - $102,817

T59 Min Woo Lee - $43,025

MC Cameron Smith, Daniel Hillier (NZ), Travis Smyth, Jason Day

EPSON TOUR

Tournament: Greater Toledo Classic

Dates: 17-19 July

Course: Highland Meadows Golf Club, Sylvania, OH

Purse: USD $250k

Ozzies in the field: Jennifer Elliot, Caitlin Peirce, Su Oh, Fiona Xu (NZ), Hira Naveed

Hazardous air quality forced the cancellation of the first round and the tournament was reduced to 36 holes. American Annnabelle Pancake-Webb was the winner by two shots from Lauren Olivares from Mexico. Best of the Ozzies was Jennifer Elliott at T25.

1st Annabelle Pancake-Webb – USD $37,500

T25 Jennifer Elliott - $2,384

T33 Caitlin Peirce, Hira Naveed - $1,644

MC Su Oh, Fiona Xu (NZ)

PGA Tour

Tournament: Corales Puntacana Championship

Dates: 16-19 July

Course: Puntacana Resort & Club

Purse: USD $4.0M

Ozzies in the field: NIL

At Ozziegolf we usually only list tournaments with Ozzie's playing but it is the PGA Tour so we will give this a mention. It also has a great story for the winner.

Italian player Stefano Mazzoli was the winner by one shot from Gordon Sargent. Prior to this tournament Mazzoli was 127th on the DP World Tour OOM with no guarantee of starts from his position in category 15 and needing to accumulate points to retain his card. This win gives him not only a 2 years exemption on DP World Tour but 2 years on the PGA Tour and this week instead of practising back home in Italy he is teeing it up at the 3M Open in America.

1st Stefano Mazzoli – USD $720,000

Amateur Tournaments

Two great amateur tournaments going on this week and Ozzies are firing.

US Girls Junior Championship

The US Junior Amateur is being played at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina.

Ozzies in the field: Amelia Harris, Lara Thomsen.

The format is two rounds of strokeplay with the top 64 qualifying for matchplay. After the two stroke play qualifying rounds, Amelia Harris was in 5th place and Lara Thomsen was in a tie for eleventh, which means they both qualified for the matchplay section of the tournament. Harris comfortably won her round of 64 match 6&5 against Rebecca Wang from China. Unfortunately Thomson went down 4&3 to American Erin Le Nguyen. Harris now plays Canadian Shauna Liu in the round of 16 on Thursday.

Unfortunately Harris fell in the round of 16 but it is still a fantastic result to get that far in this exclusive competition.

PNGA women’s Amateur

The Pacific North West Women’s Amateur is being played at OGA Golf course, Woodburn, Oregon.

Ozzies in the field: Reagon Denton, Grace Rho,

The format is 36 holes of strokeplay from which the top 32 players qualify for matchplay. Ozzie Raegan Denton was the medallist following the strokeplay with rounds of 70 and 69 to finish three shots ahead of the second placed competitor.

As medallist Denton received a bye in the round of 32 and then won her round of 16 match 8 & 7. She now faces Yvonne Vinceri from USA in the quarterfinal. Rho also got a bye straight in the round of 16 which she won 5 & 4 and now plays Thanyanate Bhummabhuti from Thailand in the quarterfinal.

Both Rho and Denton won their respective quarterfinals and then faced each other in the semifinals. Denton prevailed 3&2 and then WON the final 5 & 3. Congratulations to our South Australian star.

The Porter Cup

The Porter Cup has been played at Niagara Falls Country Club in western New York State since 1959. This year Jazzy Roberts won this prestige amateur title. The tournament was reduced to 54 holes due to storms on the final day and Roberts, the leader after three rounds, was declared the winner.