TRUCKEE, California: Nick Dunlap became the first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a professional in the same year, rallying Sunday for a two-point victory in the Barracuda Championship.
In January at The American Express in La Quinta, the 20-year-old Dunlap — then a sophomore at the University of Alabama — became the eighth amateur to win a tour event and the first in 33 years. He turned professional days later.
“I never thought that I would have my name next to that, but it’s definitely an honor,” Dunlap said about the amateur-pro double. “It’s been a little tough after AmEx. You kind of lose a little bit of confidence and wonder if you can do it again.”
On Sunday at Tahoe Mountain Club in the only PGA Tour event that uses the modified Stableford scoring system, Dunlap took the lead with a 55-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th.
Players receive eight points for a double eagle, five for eagle and two for birdie. A point is deducted for bogey and three for double bogey.
“I hadn’t made an eagle yet this week, so that was kind of the goal, and just play aggressive, not reckless,” Dunlap said. “This course, it allows you to make a lot of birdies if you’re in position.”
Dunlap added a birdie on the par-4 17th, cutting the dogleg with a 304-yard drive and chipping to 3 feet.
Nine points behind leader Mac Meissner entering the day, Dunlap had 19 points in the bogey-free round to finish with 49. He birdied six of the first 12 holes on the tree-lined Old Greenwood course.
“The only sour thing about this is that winning moment goes quickly,” Dunlap said. “It doesn’t stay as long as you may think, just because tomorrow I’m flying to Minnesota and trying to repeat and do the exact same thing.”
Vince Whaley finished second, making a 17-foot birdie putt on par-4 18th for a nine-point day.
“I didn’t hit it very good the whole day and I kind of kept myself in it with the short game,” Whaley said. “Then missed a couple I felt like I could have made coming in.”
Patrick Fishburn had 46 points, holing a 10-footer for birdie on 18 to cap a 12-point round.
“It was a great week,” Fishburn said. “This is probably one of my favorite stops of the year.”
Meissner was fourth at 44. He closed a five-point round with a bogey.
“I’m definitely pretty bummed,” Meissner said. “It was a frustrating day. I had a couple good looks early for birdie through the first 10 holes and didn’t capitalize. It was just tough.”
Taylor Pendrith and Patrick Rodgers tied for fifth at 43.
With two events left in the regular season, Dunlap jumped from 95th to 63rd in the FedEx Cup standings. The top 70 will advance to the playoffs.
“It’s been a goal,” Dunlap said. “It’s, honestly, one of the reasons I played here.”
Dunlap becomes first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a pro in the same year
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Dunlap becomes first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a pro in the same year
- On Sunday at Tahoe Mountain Club in the only PGA Tour event that uses the modified Stableford scoring system, Dunlap took the lead with a 55-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th
Nelly Korda rallies in Florida for her seventh LPGA win of the year
- Korda now has won four times this year when trailing going into the final round
BELLEAIR, Florida: Nelly Korda was back to competition for the first time in nearly two months and didn’t miss a beat. She ran off five straight birdies on the back nine to stage another Sunday comeback, closing with a 3-under 67 to win The Annika for her seventh LPGA Tour title this year.
Korda had a rough start and said she didn’t have many happy thoughts when she made the turn at 2 over for the day, two shots behind Charley Hull. Starting with a birdie on No. 11, she made five in a row on her way to a three-shot victory.
The only big surprise was seeing her younger brother, Sebastian, who has been charting his own career in tennis that kept him from seeing his sister win until Sunday at Pelican Golf Club.
Korda, who earlier this year tied an LPGA record with five straight victories, became the first player to win seven times in a season since Yani Tseng in 2011. No other American had won seven times in a season since Beth Daniel in 1990.
Korda now has won four times this year when trailing going into the final round.
Hull, going for a wire-to-wire win, simply couldn’t keep up with Korda’s birdie blitz. Coming off her first win worldwide two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia, Hull closed with a 1-over 71 and tied for second with LPGA rookie Jin Hee Im (68) and Weiwei Zhang (70).
Zhang moved up 24 spots to No. 82 in the Race to CME Globe to keep her card for next year. The top 60 advance to the CME Group Tour Championship next week in Naples, where the winner gets $4 million. Carlota Ciganda moved up three places to secure the final spot.
Korda last played Sept. 22 in Ohio. She was planning to play twice during the Asian swing until a minor neck injury kept her at home. She was eager to get back in time to play Pelican, where she had won two of the previous three years.
“After taking some time off with an injury, it feels great to be back out here,” Korda said. “Nothing like being in the hunt, the adrenaline feeling on the back nine, and being in contention. I love it so much.”
The victory puts her over $4 million for the year, and she can nearly match that with a win next week at Tiburon Golf Club. The ranking does not matter for the season finale — all 60 players have the same shot at one of the biggest prizes in women’s sports.
Rory McIlroy ends his year with another win in Dubai and a 6th title as Europe’s best
- He birdied two of the last three holes Sunday for a 3-under 69 to win by two over Rasmus Hojgaard
DUBAI: Rory McIlroy capped off a tumultuous year by winning the World Tour Championship and his sixth title as Europe’s No. 1 player. He birdied two of the last three holes Sunday for a 3-under 69 to win by two over Rasmus Hojgaard.
McIlroy hit wedge to within a foot on the 16th hole to break out of a tie with Hojgaard, then closed with a 6-foot birdie for his third title in the European tour’s season finale.
He won the Race to Dubai — previously known as the Order of Merit — for the sixth time in his career, leaving him two behind the record held by Colin Montgomerie and tying him with the late Seve Ballesteros.
Hojgaard, who rallied to stun McIlroy in the Irish Open in September, didn’t make a birdie over the final 11 holes and had to settle for a 71.
McIlroy was emotional when he came off the 18th green, his final event of a year memorable for so many reasons. He won four times — twice on the PGA Tour — but went a 10th consecutive year without a major when he threw away a late lead in the US Open.
He announced he was getting a divorce before the PGA Championship, and then scrapped those plans and said he and his wife would try to reconcile.
“I’ve been through a lot this year, professionally and personally,” McIlroy said. “It feels like the fitting end to 2024. I’ve persevered this year a lot.”
‘Bright is an understatement’ says Golf Saudi CEO about the sport’s future in the Kingdom
- Noah Alireza speaks to Arab News about the Aramco Team Series, the GoGolf programs and producing homegrown talent
On a weekend that included the start of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, WWE Crown Jewel, as well as the Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam derbies in the Saudi Pro League, you could be forgiven for thinking there was any space left for any other sporting event to shine.
But golf’s Aramco Team Series — Riyadh, however, more than held its own and even drew in higher crowds than some of the rival events. The aim, said Golf Saudi CEO Noah Alireza, is to spread the golfing gospel.
“Our focus on global events comes with a primary objective of growing the game locally,” Alireza said. “(At Aramco Team Series) we (saw) a really vibrant crowd thatwas really getting into it.
“It’s all about creating the right environment and with this crowd being here as a captive audience, we, as much as possible, push towards them signing up for GoGolf, the program, and converting them into future golfers.”
As the 2024 golf season draws to a close, Alireza said that his federation’s mandate is to act as an “catalyst and incubator” to create a golf industry.
“For us in Saudi, we have a blank canvas,” Alireza told Arab News. “We’re starting from scratch, and that provides an opportunity not to catch up, but hopefully to leapfrog because as is everything (in the Kingdom) today, Saudi doesn’t look at things in terms of just taking what was there and bringing it here. It’s taking and learning from what was, and doing it better.
“So for us to grow the game in Saudi Arabia, our primary focus today is on the development of innovative supply and infrastructure, and hopefully when we build it, the demand will catch up and that’s how we're going to hopefully be creating a viable ecosystem for golf.”
One of the ways that Golf Saudi is looking to increase participation in the game, in accordance with Vision 2030, is through its GoGolf programs.
“GoGulf is for us a complete product from end to end to get people from Saudi and living in Saudi Arabia to get into Golf. So we’re starting with a program that answers the question why golf? What is golf? And then a call to action is GoGolf. GoGolf is a three-month (program), maybe you can look at it as getting a license to drive.”
Alireza appreciates that taking up golf comes with a significant sporting and financial dedication, and GoGolf aims to give budding players an early advantage.
“Golf is not an easy game to play. In order to break that barrier, three months’ worth of free lessons, or a package of 12 free lessons, will get you the license to be able to play on golf courses and other areas. So it’s a teaching methodology, but beyond the teaching phase, there is other infrastructure under the GoGolf brand that we will be deploying in addition to other things we’ve launched outside golf courses, like Top Golf — a project that’s going to be taking place over the next year and a half.”
Alireza has a message for parents looking to introduce their children to new sports and activities: “The choices are plenty to get kids into sports, and all sports will teach kids certain traits,” he said. “Whether it is discipline, motivation and so many other traits.
“Growing up around golf, I had the opportunity to see it first hand, and golf is slightly different from other sports in that it takes up so much time and you’re moving an object, you’re not reacting to a ball, you’re having to impart impact on to a ball and a lot of time in between there are so many things that you have to exercise. Patience, resilience, determination, the seeking of perfection and getting better every day, and I believe those traits are really good traits to start to ingrain into kids, and hopefully one day from that some of the kids will specialize in golf and create those future champions that we’re looking to create.”
Alireza is bullish about golf’s trajectory in the Kingdom over the coming years.
“Bright is an understatement,” he said. “With the incredible support that we’re seeing in Saudi Arabia today across all the sectors, we have an incredible opportunity to bring the world of golf here to co-innovate with us on creating a platform that defines what future golf will be in terms of the infrastructure, golf courses, practice facilities and beyond.”
While there are several Saudi golfers already making moves in the professional game, Alireza’s aim is to see a whole generation of golfers emerging from the Kingdom over the next decade.
“I think it's important that we focus on building that generation for two important reasons,” he said. “No.1 is that creating champions is an element that we’ve seen as a story throughout history that helps generate future generations of champions.
“So when Saudi beat Argentina in the World Cup, that was a generational moment that not only created future football stars but athletes in general,” Alireza said. “Everyone could now believe if somebody that I know of that is from my city, my country can do it, then so can I. And that element, that barrier, as a threshold is extremely important. So for us, the focus on creating those champions is really important because then it goes to the second reason.”
“The second reason is that that tipping point, when that champion is created, inshallah, and our goal is to have that happen within the next five to 10 years, is that it creates a whole new generation of golfers that sustains the golf economy that we’re seeking to create.”
Hull clings to one-shot lead over Korda, Zhang at LPGA Annika
- Hull found water at the 18th hole and made bogey but kept the lead alone when Korda three-putted for bogey in near-darkness at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida
MIAMI: England’s Charley Hull fired a two-under par 68 and clung to a one-stroke lead over top-ranked Nelly Korda and China’s Zhang Weiwei after Saturday’s third round of the LPGA Annika tournament.
Hull found water at the 18th hole and made bogey but kept the lead alone when Korda three-putted for bogey in near-darkness at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
“Played pretty solid. I felt like I played well all day,” Hull said. “But finishing in the dark wasn’t that fun. Shame to finish on a bogey but it was a good up-and-down.”
That left Hull on 12-under 198 with US star Korda, a six-time winner this year, shooting 67 to stand second on 199 with Zhang, who fired an LPGA career-low 62 to leap into contention.
“I just felt it was amazing day,” Zhang said. “I don’t know how to play that well today. Just keep patient and just like normal and then I holed a lot of putts. That made me so surprised on some holes.”
Thailand’s Wichanee Meechai and South Korea’s Im Jin-hee shared fourth on 201 with Germany’s Olivia Cowan fifth on 202 and a pack on 203 including Japan’s Minami Katsu, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Americans Rose Zhang and Bailey Tardy.
World number 12 Hull, a two-time LPGA winner seeking her first tour victory since October 2022, won her fourth Ladies European Tour title — and first in three years — two weeks ago at Riyadh.
Korda, in her first event after a neck injury sidelined her last month, seeks her first victory since June.
Hull opened with a birdie, added another at the par-5 seventh and had three birdie-bogey runs in the final seven holes — at the par-3 12th and par-4 13th, the par-5 14th and par-3 15th and the par-4 17th and 18, where she sank a four-foot bogey putt after a splashdown on her approach.
“It was kind of dark. Then it got the wind up, and I hit a really good 7-iron in and hit it pure. It just come up short in the water,” Hull said.
“Tricky little up-and-down, but my putt, I could barely see the hole. I couldn’t see the break or anything. So it was pretty dark to finish in.”
Korda stumbled early with bogeys at the second and fourth holes but closed the front nine with back-to-back birdies. She added birdies at 11 and 14, birdied 16 and 17 then had a three-putt bogey at 18 after a four-foot par putt miss.
“I had a good middle of the round. Just played some solid golf on the back nine and started hitting my driver a little better,” Korda said.
She wasn’t happy about finishing in the dark either.
“Was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us,” Korda said. “Whenever you’re sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, it’s never nice, especially with how slick these greens are and you can’t properly see.
“At the end of the day I’m the one that missed it.”
Zhang, 27, is a five-time China Tour winner whose best LPGA finish was a share of 10th at Portland in 2022.
McIlroy tied for lead with Hojgaard and Rozner after 3rd round in Dubai as hot-headed Hatton fades
- McIlroy could have taken the lead outright but his birdie putt at the last horseshoed the cup
- McIlroy looks sure of winning another Race to Dubai title for the most points gained throughout the year on the European tour
DUBAI: Rory McIlroy was tied for the lead with Rasmus Hojgaard and Antoine Rozner heading into the final round of the season-ending World Tour Championship as the Northern Irishman closed in on a sixth Race to Dubai title on Saturday.
McIlroy could have taken the lead outright but his birdie putt at the last horseshoed the cup, leaving him to make par for a 4-under 68 and 12-under par for the tournament alongside Hojgaard (66).
Rozner, who started the third round with a one-stroke lead, made it a three-way tie at the top by rolling in an eagle putt from 8 feet at No. 18 for a 69.
They were two strokes ahead of Jesper Svensson (68) and Joaquin Niemann (69), with Tyrrell Hatton (71) a further shot back after an expletive-filled round that included him snapping a club.
McIlroy looks sure of winning another Race to Dubai title for the most points gained throughout the year on the European tour. It would be No. 6, tying him with the late Seve Ballesteros and leaving him two behind the record of Colin Montgomerie.
But the No. 3-ranked McIlroy’s aim has been to hold two trophies on the 18th green on Sunday as he goes for his fourth tournament victory of the season worldwide.
Hojgaard, who birdied six of his first eight holes and made pars the rest of his round, is looking to emulate his twin brother, Nicolai, who won the season-closing event in Dubai last year.
Both Hojgaard and the No. 154-ranked Rozner are seeking to claim one of the 10 PGA Tour cards on offer for next season from the European tour.
