Major championship season came to a close with a final winner in 76 holes at Muirfield. The last regular season concluded on the PGA Tour, with a front-nine 27 and a 20-year-old winner. Another playoff featured on the Tour Champions, and two more events brought stirring resolutions on Korn Ferry and DP World Tour. Snap your fingers and it’s August. Three weeks from now, we’ll have a FedEx Cup champion. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and learn a bit about our five champions in this week’s Tour Rundown.

LPGA/Ladies European Tour: Buhai in the sky after playoff win

Ashleigh Buhai has been at the LPGA grind since 2014. Her storied amateur career translated into 15 wins on the South African and European circuits, but when she moved stateside nearly a decade ago, the wins stopped coming. On Saturday evening, on the heels of a Saturday 64 at Muirfield, Buhai found herself in possession of a five-shot advantage, and in the British Open, no less! No finer place to break through for a win, or break a heart.

For most of Sunday, it looked like the later would be Buhai’s plight. She stood one-over par through 14 holes, while In Gee Chun posted three birdies on the front nine, to narrow the gap to one. Chun gave two back at 10 and 12, but then the script fell out when Buhai mad a triple-bogey seven at the 15th to fall into a tie. The pair would par in to the clubhouse, and return to the 18th tee to decide matters.

Pars, then bogeys, then pars again, and Buhai-Chun returned to the demanding par four once more. Faced with a long, greenside bunker recovery, Buhai dug deep into her South African roots, where great bunker play is like skating in Canada. She splashed out to about 14 inches, made the putt for par, and collected her first major title and LPGA victory. Ahh, those East Lothian nights!

The sand save that made Ashleigh Buhai a major champion ?

In her 221 career Tour start, @ash_simon makes her first win a major championship at Muirfield ?#AIGWO pic.twitter.com/AmWba0HBsu

— LPGA (@LPGA) August 7, 2022

PGA Tour: 27 for the 20-year old leads to Kim win

As Nick Faldo took a bow in his final telecast for the PGA Tour, Joohyung Kim made his own waist bend, and collected a first tour title, fresh out of his teens. You’ll no doubt read that Kim began the 2022 Wyndham with a quadruple bogey. We’ll not get into that, because no one needs to disect that sort of cadaver. What Kim did over the subsequent, 71 holes is what deserves attention. 25 birdies, three bogies, and one mighty eagle were enough to push the young Korean to a 61 on Sunday, and a one-shot victory.

For a time, it seemed that Kim’s countryman, Sungjae Im, or American John Huh, might figure in the outcome. Kim put that notion to rest with an impossible 27 on Sunday’s front nine. That’s right: Kim averaged three shots per hole over the first half of the final round. He made four at the first, which might have felt like a birdie after Thursday’s eight on the same hole. He balanced that with a two at the fourth, and made threes the rest of the way.

A solitary bogey, just his third of the week, stalled his progress at the tenth. Pars and birdies the rest of the way ensured a five-shot cushion over Im and Huh. What was I doing at 20? Who knows. What were any of us doing at 20?

The youngest player to win the @WyndhamChamp.

20-year-old Joohyung Kim is a PGA TOUR champion ? pic.twitter.com/t1MTvXzQ0y

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 7, 2022

DP World Tour: Shinkwin secures second title on big stage

Despite what the caption says for the video below, Callum Shinkwin was not at the peak of his powers on Sunday. He did post a fourth, consecutive round under par; the only man in the field to do so, in fact. That round of 70 was just one shot below par, and was comprised of seven pars, six birdies, and five bogeys. Round four was something of a ratatouille for the Englishman, but he was able to steer the ship through choppy waters, and ultimately come out with a four-shot win over Scotland’s Connor Syme.

Syme had a week of his own, save for a second-day 73. The highlander (well, Fife) needed perfection on Sunday at Celtic Manor, but was unable to find it. The former Ryder Cup venue, site of a European side triumph, played tough as nails all week, but it did offer a bit of respite at moments. The Cazoo win was Shinkwin’s second on the DP World Tour. The tour moves from Wales to Northern Ireland this week, and Shinkwin certainly hopes that Galgorm Castle will be as hospitable as was Celtic Manor.

"We're watching a man at the peak of his powers."

No holding back from Callum Shinkwin as the leader drives the green with his tee shot at the 15th. #CazooOpen | @visitwales pic.twitter.com/eF7IWF0CI4

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 7, 2022

Korn Ferry Tour: Only low numbers need apply as Kozan kollects korn

Andrew Kozan played his college golf at Auburn University. This week in Utah, he made the Tiger faithful proud with bookend 63s for a first KFT laurel. The only motto this week was Go Low or Don’t Go. 13 golfers posted 18-under or better and, with the victory coming at -21, there were a lot of players in the mix for a long time.

Third-round leader Mark Anderson started off well, with birdies on three of the first seven holes. The wheels came off as he rounded the turn, where three bogies dropped him from the lead. Anderson would recover with two more birdies coming home. On a day when eight and nine-birdie cards were the norm, his work would not carry him home.

Justin Suh, Patrick Fishburn, and Ashton Van Horne tied for second, a shot behind Kozan. Each posted a marvelous, Sunday score (63, 64, 64, respectively) but each also had a bogey on his sheet. Kozan did as well, at the par-four eighth, but when all the ink had dried and the shots were tallied, he was one shot clear of the trio, and on the podium for his first, important professional win.

A day @andrewkozan will never forget. ?? pic.twitter.com/yAjaCNQWEF

— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) August 8, 2022

PGA Tour Champions: Kelly keeps Huston at bay in Calgary

Guys like Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer brought multiple major titles and sizable PGA Tour win totals to the senior circuit. Guys like Jerry Kelly found a spotlight they hadn’t known on the young-uns circuit. While Kelly won thrice on the early tour, the wins came early and middle, but not after 2009. Kelly arrive on Tour Champions in 2016, seven years after his third and final, regular-group win. He won twice in 2017, and nothing would hold him back.

This week in Calgary, Jerry Kelly won his third event of the 2022 campaign, and second in a playoff. In June, Kelly dispatched Kirk Triplett in a playof in Iowa. Triplett held the overnight lead on Saturday, and rematch was in the offing. Triplett faded on Sunday, and the drama was left to Kelly and one-time Tour Champions winner John Huston to settle matters.

The first playoff hole was the par-five 18th, and Kelly found a way to sneak an approach in to about seven feet. The putt wobbled at first, then straightened out into the hole, and the man from Wisconsin (aka Canada South) had his eleventh win on the seasonsed citizens tour, and third in three months.

FOR A SHARE OF THE LEAD! @JerryKelly13pga birdies from the bunker pic.twitter.com/Cidnx2FZ8W

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 7, 2022