A powerful new event on the LPGA circuit that combines team and match play made its debut in San Francisco. For those mourning the end of the PGA Tour Matchplay tournament, take heart. This combined singles and partner play and kept dozens of golfers active until the end of Saturday’s game. The four best teams (16 golfers in total) competed on Sunday. We’ll tell you more about that later. The PGA Tour gathered in Charlotte while the DP World Tour got down to business in Italy’s capital, Rome. The Tour Champions settled matters in suburban Atlanta while the PGA Tour Latinoamérica tried its hand at the center of the earth. Should be a tour flydown with all the distances between venues, but we’ll continue to call it a tour rundown and keep you posted on what happened.
LPGA @ Hanwha International Crown: Thailand races to convincing victory
The LPGA is certainly on to something here. Eight teams of four, representing their countries, met over four days of competition. Three days of round-robin play sent four teams through to the semifinals on Sunday morning. Lower-seeded Australia (7) and Thailand (6) edged out their announced rivals Sweden (4) and USA (1) to meet in the final. In the end it was more the same.
Thailand lost zero games in the partner game on Thursday. On Friday the partnerships remained stable and Thailand won them all again. On Saturday, Thailand’s pairings Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul swept the table for the third straight season along with the Jutanugarn sisters. At this point, the golfing world took serious notice.
On Sunday morning the format of the matches was changed (two singles and one doubles). Thitikul sent out America’s Lexi Thompson while Tavatanakit lost a spirited fight to Lilia Vu. The match turned again for the sisters, with Ariya and Moriya winning by a single win over Nelly Korda and Danielle Kang. At the other end of the table, Australia took the lead with three wins from the 17th tee.
Sunday afternoon saw a battle of the titans. The tables were turned as Thailand trotted out to a three-zero win, with none of their wins coming from the penultimate tee. TPC Harding Park proved an ideal venue for team play and Thailand’s foursome will long remember their victory at the inaugural International Crown event.
bang! ?
Ariya Jutanugarn plays in to win last game for Thailand! ??@Intl_Crown | @GolfChannel pic.twitter.com/uSieiSM5fj
— LPGA (@LPGA) May 8, 2023
PGA Tour @ Wells Fargo Championship: Clark “wyn’s” first tour title
I’ll post this: If Matt Fitzpatrick wins next week, I’ll debut my #WrongRon (Love to Ron Balicki) service. I picked Wyndham Clark as the winner last week but was a bit early with my foresight. This week I had Fitzy, so… you know the rest.
Wyndham Clark and Christian McCaffrey graduated from Valor Christian in Denver in the same year. Both went on to play D1 sports, and while McCaffrey burst into the NFL limelight early on, it took Clark a little longer to rise to PGA Tour royalty. Now he is here. Clark opened with rounds of 67-67, then jumped to the top of the board on Saturday with 63. That number included eight birdies and zero bogies. During the week, Clark collected four bogies, including one at his opening hole on Sunday.
Luckily for the Colorado native, no one moved on day four. Nobody, that is, until Clark on the inner half. Five birdies from hole eight to fifteen gave him a clear advantage over pursuer Xander Schauffele. When X posted a bogey at 17, the podium was Clarks.
Called in ?@Wyndham_Clark leads four to four to play @WellsFargoGolf. pic.twitter.com/NQZQbs2mBf
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 7, 2023
DP World Tour @ DSA Italian Open: Meronk signals readiness to conquer Rome
You’re not much taller than Adrian Meronk. Guaranteed selection for Europe’s Ryder Cup team in Italy clinched a third DP World Tour title on the host course for the biennial event in September. Meronk started the first day behind Frenchman Julien Guerrier. Guerrier was thrown off balance with a bogey on his first two holes, and while he made a pair of compensating birdies, two more bogies took him to a solo 73 and third place.
Romain Langasque made a valiant attempt to secure the title for France, but three bogies midway through the back nine brought his ship down to 12 under par, two ahead of Guerrier. Meronk had his struggles on the inside too, but he balanced birdies, bogeys and pars on threes each, capping his efforts with a birdie at the end to slip past Langasque to victory. When we see Marco Simone Golf Club again, the stakes will be different. For Meronk he would like to be a difference maker again.
Nerves of steel.@AdrianMeronk secures his second win of the season ?
#DS80OpendItalia pic.twitter.com/kqz8rnThn1
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 7, 2023
PGA Tour Champions @ ME Classic: Ames finishes second in Atlanta
In 2017 Stephen Ames won his first veteran circuit event at the Mitstubishi. He held off one of the greatest senior rodeos of all time by four strokes. This gentleman was Bernhard Langer. In 2023, Ames sealed another four-shot victory over another all-time winner in Miguel Ángel Jiménez. Not a bad pair of victories to remember when the game days are eventually over.
Throughout the weekend, the winner could have a shot or two ahead of their competition. If they went deeper, he went deeper. Rounds of 65 and 64 kept Ames ahead through Sunday. On the third day, his card was clean, albeit a little higher. Three birdies in the final lap were enough to keep a comfortable distance. Ken Tanigawa was three behind Ames going into the final day. Unable to make a charge, he fell to third position alone. While there was a 66 further down the field, only Jiménez could match Ames’ 68, and he moved past Tanigawa for second place.
With his son as his caddy, Ames ended the week in style with the put you can see below. The win was Ames’ fourth on PGA Tour Champions and propelled him from 8th to 4th in the season’s Schwab Cup challenge.
Finishing like a champion? @StephenAmesPGA makes a long putt to par to seal the win @MEClassicGolf. pic.twitter.com/QJISC8yp6B
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 7, 2023
PGA Tour Latinoamérica @ KIA Classic: Hakula storms to comeback victory
If you read the social headlines on Saturday, inappropriate headlines like take control and take charge were applied to leader Garret Reband. The American had played excellent golf for three days, but no competitor was willing to hand him the winner’s check. When Reband struggled early on Sunday and then signed for a 75, the clubhouse gate was wide open.
First came Rafael Becker, who placed nine birdies and an eagle in his 63. Incredibly, Becker also had a double and single bogey on his card. He reached 14 under par and tied Brent Ito in third place. Next came Julián Etulain, who offered a clean card with five birdies and another eagle. His efforts got him 15 under par. Were they enough? No. Toni Hakula, a UTexas grad, found a way to get past Etulain and grab a one-shot win. Despite a bogey on the par 5 17th, Hakula found his way to par on the last hole for his second career win on the PGA Tour LA.
Gustavo Silva tied for 29th place but will always remember the momentum that gave him an ace and a 65 in the first round.
#TiroDelDia #ShotOfTheDay ??
Hole in One by Gustavo Silva ?? on the par 3 of the 13th hole at @qtgc. #KiaOpen23 #KiaOpen ?? pic.twitter.com/2nDrXwMjMq
— PGATOURLA (@PGATOURLA) May 5, 2023
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