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Morning 9: Kiz gets it done | McGinley on Kuchar’s nice guy “facade” | More contempt for new match play language

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6 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com)

April 1, 2019

Good Monday morning, golf fans.
1. Kiz gets it done this time
Ye official AP report on Kisner’s return to the finals for the second year in a row…”Kevin Kisner made it to the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play final for the second straight year, and this time he got it right.”
  • “A week that began with a loss ended with the biggest victory of Kisner’s career when he holed a 20-foot birdie putt to close out Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, in the chilly championship match at Austin Country Club.
  • “It was a long week. I prevailed. And I’m a world golf champion,” Kisner said off the 16th green.
  • “He became the first player to win Match Play after losing in the championship match the previous year. That one wasn’t close, as Bubba Watson raced out to a big lead and ended the match in 12 holes.”
2. G-Mac!
Philip Reid of the Irish Times on Graeme McDowell’s Dominican Republic win…
  • “You know that old adage about form being temporary and class being permanent? Well, Graeme McDowell proved it. After struggling with his form in recent seasons, the 39-year-old Northern Irishman rekindled much of that old magic of his to scoop a $550,000 payday at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic and, more importantly than the financial benefits, regained his full PGA Tour exempt status.”
  • “McDowell fired a closing round 69 for a total of 19-under-par 270 to claim a one stroke winning margin over American Chris Stroud and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes. The victory ended a three-and-a-half year drought on tour for McDowell, whose last win had come in the Mayakoba Classic in 2015.”
  • “The win catapulted McDowell from 119th in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings from 119th to 38th and moved him from 257th in the world rankings into the top-150.”
3. Gallacher bounces back
EuropeanTour.com report on Stephen Gallacher’s win in India…”Stephen Gallacher birdied three of his last four holes to produce a stunning comeback and win his first European Tour title in five years at the Hero Indian Open.”
  • “The Scot had shared the first round lead but a second round 74 saw him slip back and his chances looked doomed when he made a quadruple bogey eight on the seventh hole on Sunday.”
  • “The lead kept moving backwards on a windy day at DLF Golf and Country Club but as he stood on the 15th tee, Gallacher still looked an outside bet facing one of the toughest closing stretches on the Race to Dubai”

Full piece.

4. Nasa set to blast off? 
Apologies for the obligatory pun…John Strege writes that the winner of the Kia Classic now looks very much like a major contender.
  • “A form chart is not necessarily a reliable handicapping tool in golf, sans Tiger in his prime. Yet with the LPGA’s first major championship of the year on deck, a contender at least emerged on Sunday.”
  • “Up next is the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to which Hataoka will bring confidence and already a strong track record in majors, albeit with a small sample size.”
  • “The goal for me this year was to win a four-day tournament as well as a major,” she said via an interpreter. “I’m happy I’ve accomplished one of them. As a player it’s always great to see that what I’m practicing leads to results. It gives me a lot of confidence and will be a good flow into next week’s major.”
5. A blessing?
Steve DiMeglio is looking on the bright side of Tiger Woods’ Match Play loss…
  • “…But it could turn out that the surprising turn of events against Bjerregaard will be a blessing for the 43-year-old with a bad back who pulled out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational four weeks ago with a neck sprain.”
  • “The capital of Texas broke cold and windy on Sunday, with temps not reaching 50 until noon and the wind-chill roaming from the high-30s to the mid-40s. Not exactly ideal weather for a man nursing a bad back.”
  • “A victory in the semifinals and then a match in the finals could have meant 36 or more holes on the card for Woods, possibly stretching his total to 120 holes played in five days. Instead, Woods was home in Jupiter, where it was 80 degrees.”
6. Meanwhile, in Savannah…
Savannah Morning News report on the action on the Web.com Tour…”Dan McCarthy carded a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday to win the second annual Savannah Golf Championship by one stroke at The Landings Club’s Deer Creek Course.”
  • “McCarthy, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., had at least a share of the lead at the end of each round with scores of 65-67-71-69 for 16 under at the Web.com Tour event. Scottie Scheffler, who was in a three-way tie for the lead when the round started, was one shot back at 15 under (71-65-67-70).”
7. “A big facade”
Oh boy. Some bon mots from Paul McGinley in James Corrigan’s bit for the Telegraph.
  • …Paul McGinley, the former Ryder Cup captain, has already claimed that the saga has underlined that Kuchar’s nice-guy image is “a big façade.”
  • “It gives an insight into Matt Kuchar,” McGinley, the Sky Sports analyst, said. “You see the smiley, nice Matt Kuchar. You’ve seen the incident with the caddie. There’s a hardness about him. Don’t be fooled by him. I think we saw another illustration of it there. There’s a hardness, a toughness about Matt Kuchar that he puts a big facade up around.”
8. Tait hates…
…the new match play language promoted by the 2019 Rules of Golf…
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait is not impressed, and he sounds off accordingly…
  • With this…”There’s nothing wrong with “all-square” or “halve,” terms that have served the game well since two shepherds decided to play against each other with crooks and stones on the Fife coastline 500 years ago.”
  • And this…“Sadly, there is no mention of all-square in the new rule book. It’s been quietly deleted in the supposed attempt to make the game more accessible to new players. Maybe the governing bodies think the game’s going to become populated by morons incapable of understanding simple terms like all-square and halved.”
  • And this…“Can you imagine the uproar in other sports if ruling bodies suddenly started replacing age-old terms? Imagine if football commentators suddenly stopped using “touchdown” and replaced it with “six-point score”?”
Sidebar: a name for this phenomenon: Taitred?
9. On covering the ANWA instead of the ANA
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols discusses her decision to head to Augusta…
  • “For the past year people have asked which event I’m going to cover the first week of April. With the ANA Inspiration and the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur overlapping, there was a choice to be made.”
  • “I have covered the past 15 ANAs, but for all the girls like Shepherd who dreamed of one day competing at Augusta, and for those who couldn’t bring themselves to even think it, the choice was clear: Go watch history be made.”
  • “It’s going to be everything,” said Shepherd of what it would mean to win. “They’ll always be the first winner of what could be the biggest turning point in women’s golf.”

 

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Jon

    Apr 1, 2019 at 11:43 am

    I couldn’t agree more with Alistair Tait and new language. The one not mentioned on this page that has me up in arms is replacing “hazard” with “penalty area”. To me this will be confusing for new players as they will think they have to take a penalty when in some cases it would be optional. What is wrong with keeping hazard in the vocabulary?

    Reply Report comment

    • MattD

      Apr 1, 2019 at 5:25 pm

      Completely agree with you regarding the term “tied”. Drove me crazy all week. Sadly, the rules use this as the default term. Surely “all-square” and “halved” isn’t that hard to comprehend. Next they will change “birdie” and “bogey” for one-less-than-par etc

      Reply Report comment

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Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

Published

3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

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I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

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Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

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Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
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Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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