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Tour Rundown: The new ocho

Published

7 months ago

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There’s a runaway winner on the tours, every year, and it’s not Tiger nor Nelly, Scottie, nor Bernhard. It’s the DP World Tour and its content maestros. This week, they borrowed Hannah Rae from St. Andre Golf to be a social media trainer. Have a taste of this appetizer with the Minwoo schtick below, then after composing yourself, check out our Tour Rundown, in conclusive order, from Tuesday through Sunday.

TGL @ Week Three: Atlanta Drive shuts out NYGC

In his summary of the second week, Matt Fitzpatrick bemoaned the lack of putts a-dropping. With putts come momentum, and that’s what NYGC hasn’t had over the first two weeks. Make no mistake: they hit some bad golf shots. In the team portion of each match, it’s all about ball in play. Add to their self-inflicted misery, the two bombs that Justin Thomas sank for a win and a halve, and nothing went right for the guys from Gotham.

If there’s a silver lining for the team from Brooklyn, the Bronx, and all points in between, they narrowed the margin of defeat, from seven points to four. Next up, in week four, is the debut of the green goblins, the Boston Common Golf, as Rory and his militia take on Tiger and the Jupiter Links GC.

Is it too early to ask for multiple things to happen at once? A little chip-off or putt-off at the green zone end, while the fellows are blasting away at the full-swing end, would add distraction, drama, and a few more points to the tally.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Great Abaco Classic: the new ocho claims first big victory

Would you call a five-shot win a runaway? We will, in order to vibe with the aforementioned, social-media runaway by DP World Tour. Over on Korn Ferry, the second week of the Bahamas Slide saw a Canadian lad load up on the syllables and the birdies. Sudarshan Yellamaraju (yup, eight syllables) blazed over the final 54 holes in 193 strokes, to leave the entirety of the field in the dust.

Hank Lebioda…remember him? Won last week. He had a shot on Sunday, but needed something in the fractions to overtake SuYell. Russell Knox? He has won on the big tours, but even his 65 on day four was worse than Yella-Mon’s closing 64. The lefty was born in India, but emigrated to Canada (and probably got the portside swing from hockey.) From round two to round four, he dropped 19 birdies, two eagles, and a distant, final bogey on Friday’s second hole!

Let’s call him the Almost-Josh Allen of professional golf. The Mississauga (that’s near Toronto) native hoped for some attention from D1 programs but received no attention. So, he turned pro and has been grinding for checks ever since. The 23-year-old had the week of anyone’s dreams, and let’s hope that it wasn’t a flash in the pan. The KFT gets back on a regular, Thursday-Sunday schedule next week in Panama.

PGA Tour @ Farmers Insurance Open: Put a little English on that, will you?

If Harris English wins a second time in 2025, we have a parlay for 2027. We’ll get back to that later. English held off Sam Stevens and a host of windswept golfers, to win the windswept Farmers IO at Torrey Pines. This won’t be the last we see of Torrey this winter, as it was just named the replacement course for Riviera’s Genesis Open. This won’t be the last we see of English, as age 35 is the new 30, and English has a swing that stands time’s test.

The English-man survived, simple as that. Two of his four rounds this week were over-par 73s, and both were on the South course at the San Diego muni. His third-round 66, over the same 18, concluded with three consecutive birdies. While it didn’t win him the week, it positioned him to stave off the competition. Sunday was not a day for making but, rather, for breaking. With the exception of Stevens, whose 68 defied logic, golfers headed north of par figures in droves. Only two scores in the 60s were recorded, but 10 more at 70 and 71. Less than 20 percent of the Sunday scorecards had red ink on them.

English stood 2 over on the day through five holes. It was then that Andrew Novak made the most unlikely birdie putt ever on five, to momentarily take the lead. English was shocked into action, and produced his only birdie of the day. He followed up with a dozen pars to hold off a game Stevens, for his fifth career PGA Tour title. Back to that parley: English won twice in 2013, then won twice in 2021, eight years on. If he wins a second time this year, he’ll have another duo, four years on from the last. That makes 2027 and two titles a lock. Cheers, English!

DP World Tour @ Ras Al Khaimah Classic: Lana Alejandro del Rey wins big

For a while, both Björk and del Rey were in the mix in the UAE, so you can forgive me for thinking that I had wormholed my way into an alt-music festival. OK, back to this universe. Alejandro del Rey hadn’t won yet on the DP World Tour, when his post-round, Saturday interview featured some admirable confidence. He acknowledged that he had won in other places before and that he knew how to do it. To toss yet another challenge, he suggested that it was a two-man race, between him and Marcus Armitage.

It ended up being a two-man race, and if the pair had switched scores on Sunday, they would have tied in regulation figures. As Gino D’Acampo proclaimed, if my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike. The pair did not switch cards, and del Rey signed for 66, while Armitage posted 68. The overnight, two-shot advantage, was increased to four, and it was three more shots to David Puig in the third, thanks to a day-low 65.

What more can you say about Alejandro del Rey? Part of the Spanish contingent that inhabited Tempe, Arizona, during the 2010s, the Madrid native made but four bogeys over 72 holes of competition, with the last coming on Friday’s ninth green. From that point on, he wrote down 17 birdies and 28 pars. Those numbers are nigh-impossible to beat, on any course, during any week. Now that he’s done it once, will he do it again, possibly when the stakes are higher? Del Rey is a furious golfer, lashing at the ball with the vengeance of a jilted lover. That’s what golf needs in 2025. As he said on Saturday after a stellar iron, buenísimo. 

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Ronald Montesano writes for GolfWRX.com from western New York. He dabbles in coaching golf and teaching Spanish, in addition to scribbling columns on all aspects of golf, from apparel to architecture, from equipment to travel. Follow Ronald on Twitter at @buffalogolfer.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Moo

    Jan 27, 2025 at 2:55 pm

    6 hour round at Torrey though
    The Tour has to change its set ups

    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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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

Published

4 weeks ago

on

Jul 29, 2025

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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.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

 

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BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

Published

4 weeks ago

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Jul 28, 2025

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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

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

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

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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