THE FLATS – Cink, Duval, Kuchar competing in Open Championship’s historic return to Royal Portrush … Jackets go 7-for-7 in cuts made at the John Deere Classic, while Cameron Tringale shares 54-hole lead … more in this week’s #ProJackets Report.
Georgia Tech’s most veteran PGA Tour players are participating in golf history this week, traveling to Northern Ireland this week to play the 148th Open Championship, which returns to the country for the first time in 68 years.
It is the 10th anniversary of Stewart Cink’s 2009 victory over Tom Watson at Turnberry, and 18 years since David Duval ascended to the top of the golf world at the height of his career with his 2001 triumph at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s.
Matt Kuchar, playing in his 15th Open Championship and exempt into the field by virtue of his No. 13 ranking in the world, has finished in the top 10 each of the past two years at Royal Birkdale and Carnoustie. He led The 146th Open at Royal Birkdale with five holes to play, but Jordan Spieth’s spectacular finish snatched away a first Major title from a player who has had four top eight finishes in the Masters since 2011 and seven further major top 10s, plus a bronze medal on golf’s return to the Olympics in 2016.
With two victories and eight top-10 finishes this year on the PGA Tour, Kuchar sits atop the FedEx Cup points list and is facing his closest two competitors, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy, for the first time since the U.S. Open in June. He prepped for this season’s final major last week at the Scottish Open, where he tied for 20th place (-16).
Cink, playing in his 21st Open, tied for 24th last year at Carnoustie and has finished 30th or higher four times since his 2009 victory. He will always be remembered as the man who prevented 59-year-old Tom Watson becoming the oldest-ever winner of a major title at The Open at Turnberry in 2009. Three behind with a round to go, Cink birdied the final hole from 16 feet before Watson bogeyed it to fall into a tie. He then dominated the four-hole play-off, winning it by six strokes, for the high point of a career which has brought five Ryder Cup caps, most recently in 2010, and four winning Presidents Cup appearances.
Only recently returned to action following a long layoff to heal an ailing back, Cink made the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the John Deere Classic the last two weeks.
Duval, playing his 23rd Open Championship, won the title in his sixth try in. He closed with rounds of 65 and 67 at Royal Lytham and St. Annes and came from seven shots off the lead at the halfway mark to his first major victory by a three-stroke margin. He was America’s leading money winner three years earlier and the following season twice took the world No.1 spot away from Tiger Woods, made his Ryder Cup debut and also became only the third player to score 59 on the PGA Tour – and the first to do it with a final hole eagle to win the tournament. He has 11 top-10 finishes in majors.
Duval prepped last week by competing in and serving as an unofficial host of the inaugural TPC Colorado Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Kuchar’s playing trio for the first two rounds includes Jon Rahm of Spain and American Patrick Cantlay. Duval is paired for the first two rounds with Zach Johnson of the United States and Corey Connors of Canada, while Cink will compete with South African Rory Sabbatini and Inchoon Hwang of Japan.
