sensational

John Deere Classic: Davis Thompson’s sensational, historic 1st victory john,deere,classic,davis,thompson,s,sensational,historic,st,victory,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-pga-tour

On: July 7, 2024 By: admin

In his 63rd start, Davis Thompson can officially call himself a PGA Tour winner.

He carded a final round 7-under 64 to post a 28-under total and win the John Deere Classic by four shots over Michael Thorbjornsen, amateur Luke Clanton and C.T. Pan, who tied for second place at 24-under.

Thompson became the 24th first-time tournament winner at this event. He did it in grand fashion by setting the John Deere Classic’s 72-hole scoring record. Michael Kim initially set it at 27-under in 2018.

He stayed stoic all week long, but Thompson let the emotions flow once he saw his wife.

“Just seeing my wife means a lot,” Thompson said to CBS Sports analyst Amanda Balionis after his win. “I love her so much and so thankful she was able to make it. I tried to stay present all day. When that putt finally went in, it was a big sigh of relief.”

Throughout his interview with Balionis, Thompson could not hold back the tears. He wiped them away multiple times.

All that hard work finally paid off for the 25-year-old.

“I’ve been working hard this year. It was okay for a while then I got going this last month and played well last week,” he said. “Tried to keep it rolling this week; was able to get the win.”

The former Georgia Bulldog set the tone from his opening tee shot. He went five-under through his first six holes and added his sixth birdie on the ninth to go out in 29 shots. Through nine holes, Thompson made 120 feet of putts, and by the end of the round, he recorded 139 feet of putts.

His first birdie was over 44 feet, and at the par-4 5th, he made a 29-footer. The flat stick was on fire for him, as Thompson could not miss.

The Sea Island resident made an 8-footer on 10 for his seventh birdie. His one hiccup came at the 12th when he bogeyed the hole. However, that slip-up would not stay with the youngster. Thompson returned to 7-under at 14 when he made his final birdie and came home with four straight pars.

Throughout four days of play, he gained +18.694 in strokes gained total. He picked up at least two strokes on the field in all five main categories. Thompson led the field with 30 birdies.

In short, the former Bulldog put on a clinic.

He replaced the 2023 John Deere Classic champion Sepp Straka’s place in the Champions House and became the third straight player to win the event while staying there.

J.T. Poston won while staying there in 2022, Straka won last year and Thompson has now been added to the lore.

“No, definitely not,” Thompson said about not letting the tradition go, “I think I have to pay for the whole house now, which is unfortunate, but I’ll gladly write the check for that.”

Thompson became the 12th Georgia golfer coached under head coach Chris Haack and the 17th in the program’s history to win on the PGA Tour. This victory also gets him into the Open Championship later this month and next year’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National. It also vaulted him from No. 51 to No. 22 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Rocket Mortgage: Sensational amateur Luke Clanton looks to make history rocket,mortgage,sensational,amateur,luke,clanton,looks,to,make,history,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 29, 2024 By: admin

Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton burst onto the scene Saturday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic as he posted the score to beat.

He signed for a 7-under 65 to sit at 14-under and just a few shots behind the leaders.

Clanton recorded six birdies, an eagle and one bogey on the day. He was 5-under through 11 holes before he dropped a shot at the 12th.

“We stayed super calm and super in the process of what we’ve been doing,” Clanton said after his round on Saturday.

“I think that’s one thing I’ve been struggling with the last couple of months is not getting ahead of my game and looking into the future, but today, I think we did such a good job of not trying to force the birdies out there, but we just stayed really in our process today.”

Through three rounds, Clanton leads the field in strokes gained off the tee with +4.378. He is also No. 7 in strokes gained putting, picking up +4.346 on the rest of the field.

However, in Saturday’s round alone, he leads in strokes gained off the tee (+1.491), putting (3.801) and total (+4.712).

His flat stick was phenomenal as the Seminole golfer made 117 feet of putts during the third round. However, his eagle on 14 was a veteran-like shot that showed what kind of guts he has.

“I smoked a driver way down there, and that was probably one of the harder ones I hit all day,” he said. “Had the perfect 5-iron number with left-to-right wind. I looked at Jason and said this could be really good if I hit this good, and I flushed it. I said, “Be the right club,” and he said it. Hit it close and tapped in for eagle, so it was pretty sweet.”

His 7-under 65 put him right into contention to win a PGA Tour event. Can the 20-year-old make history this week? He made the cut at the U.S. Open and finished tied for 41st. Clanton was the second-lowest amateur behind Neal Shipley, who made his professional PGA Tour debut this week.

“To be able to be out here and even say I’m in contention to win a PGA TOUR event’s pretty nuts. It’s pretty cool, man,” he said.

“I shot 7 under today, it was amazing, but we could have made a couple more birdies out there. My game plan has been the same all week, pound driver as hard as I can, get it down there and make a few putts — it’s been good.”

The last amateur to win on the PGA Tour was Nick Dunlap, who won the American Express in January. He became the first amateur since Phil Mickelson in 1991 to win on Tour.

Now, Clanton looks to add his name to the history books.

“Me and Nick go way back so it’s awesome to see him do that,” Clanton said. “It’s cool, man. I think amateurs now, we’re so good. I think a lot of guys have great chances of winning out here and to be in contention with one day to go is pretty sweet.”

The Florida State sophomore had one of the best springs with three consecutive victories at the Seminole Intercollegiate, the Valspar Collegiate Invitational and the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial.

Clanton recorded 10 top-10 finishes in 14 tournaments this past season, and he finished at par or less in 30 of his 40 rounds. He is currently ranked No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf ranking system.

If the Ben Hogan semifinalist wins on Sunday, it will be the first time in 79 years that two amateurs have won on the PGA Tour. Cary Middlecoff and Fred Haas were the last to win in the same season in 1945.

Clanton will likely be in one of the final groups on Sunday, as his 65 pushed him 22 spots up the leaderboard.

Travelers Championship: Fans’ sensational trolling after protest on 18 travelers,championship,fans,sensational,trolling,after,protest,on,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-fan-reactions

On: June 24, 2024 By: admin

The Travelers Championship saw another playoff finish, but before Scottie Scheffler could earn his sixth PGA Tour win, a distraction happened on the 18th green.

A group of protestors from the Extinction Rebellion interrupted Scheffler, Tom Kim and Akshay Bhatia’s group to run onto the course with colored smoke and powder substances.

Police tackled them and quickly put the group into custody. However, they still were able to cause some damage on the 18th green. The protestors did not stop once in handcuffs, though; they challenged officers all the way off the course.

As the agronomy team cleaned up the 18th green, fans chanted USA-USA-USA, sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and chanted profanities at the disrupters. The situation caused the agronomy team and officials to change the hole location for the playoff.

While things settled and the crew made the changes, golf fans on social media took the incident and ran with it. They were quick to make jokes about the situation at hand and even made a dig at the expense of Scheffler.

Check out some of the top-notch reactions to the protest at the Travelers Championship.

The Scheffler tracker gave a live look at the whole incident.

No Laying Up made jokes at Kim for playing slow and blamed the protest on him. Kim seemed to slow things down as the round continued, and watching him over the ball was brutal.

Another hilarious tweet was directed at Canadian golfer Adam Hadwin. Nick Taylor won last year’s RBC Canadian Open. Hadwin tried to celebrate by running onto the green, but instead, a policeman tackled him.

A reaction to this protest would not be the same without Kyle Porter’s “normal sport” joke. There are so many moments in golf that make fans scratch their head, and this protest was one of them.

Thankfully it does not seem anyone in attendance was harmed. The golf course took most of the blow, but nonetheless, fans got a good laugh as the Travelers Championship ended.