THE FLATS – Stewart Cink (2009 champion) leads three Yellow Jackets across the pond this week at the Open Championship, David Duval (2001 champion) among golfers who have opted out … Chesson Hadley starts fast at John Deere Classic … Seven Jackets in Korn Ferry event this week … More details below in this week’s Georgia Tech #ProJackets Report.
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2009 CHAMP CINK LEADS 3 JACKETS IN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Three Yellow Jackets are set to compete this week in the final major championship of 2021, the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, Kent, England – 2009 champion Stewart Cink, who has won twice this year on the PGA Tour, Matt Kuchar, who nearly pulled off an Open Championship victory in 2017, and Cameron Tringale, who made it in the field as a non-exempt player ranked among the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking as of June 30.
Playing in the Open Championship for the 22nd time, Cink is still remembered as the man who outlasted 59-year-old Tom Watson and prevented him from becoming the oldest-ever winner of a major title at The Open at Turnberry in 2009. Cink, three behind with a round to go, birdied the final hole from 16 feet before Watson bogeyed it to fall into a tie. The former 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.
The 48-year old Georgia Tech All-American has spent more than 40 weeks in the world’s top 10, reaching fifth spot just after he lifted the 2008 Travelers Championship. He has posted top-25 finishes in three of his last four Open appearances and, at the age of 47, he achieved his first PGA Tour win since his Turnberry triumph at last September’s Safeway Open. Having ended a long drought, he won again at the RBC Heritage in April.
Competing in the Open for the 16th time this year, Kuchar led The 146th Open at Royal Birkdale in 2017 with five holes to play, but Jordan Spieth’s spectacular finish snatched away a first major title. He has also had four top-eight finishes in The Masters and seven further major top-10s, plus a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2016.
Kuchar, 43, has been part of four Ryder Cup teams and five Presidents Cup sides. He also won the World Cup with Gary Woodland in 2011. He now has nine PGA Tour titles, including the 2012 Players Championship and 2013 WGC-Accenture Match Play, while he was ranked as high as fourth in the world in 2013 and 2014.
Tringale has made the field for the third time by edging out Emiliano Grillo for the last of 12 Open places awarded June 30 to non-exempt players off the world rankings. On turning professional in 2009, the 33-yeard-old Tringale instantly gained a PGA Tour card at the qualifying school, but so far has had to settle for three runner-up finishes on the circuit.
He ended up two behind Hunter Mahan at the 2014 Barclays, one adrift of Justin Rose in the 2015 Zurich Classic and was pipped again by Smylie Kaufman at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open later the same year. He did, though, taste success with Jason Day at the unofficial Franklin Templeton Shoot-out in 2014.
Television coverage of the Open Championship begins with the opening round Thursday and will be split between NBA and Golf Channel. Coverage for American viewers will begin very early in the morning. Golf Channel will air the first two rounds, with their broadcasts starting at 4 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday. Golf Channel will then carry the early action on Saturday and Sunday, with NBC taking over for the conclusion of the third and final rounds.
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CINK KEEPS IT SIMPLE: FAITH, FAMILY AND A ROCK-SOLID LIFE PHILOSOPHY
Talk about your sweet spots. Phil Mickelson and Stewart Cink were playing together in Charlotte, N.C., in May, in the Sunday round. Two golfers, almost 100 years between them, and still hitting it square on the face, with speed. Sweetness indeed.
Two golfers marching down Quail Hollow’s wide fairways, neither with any chance to win, chatting about this, chatting about that. As public personalities, neither man is like the other. (Phil’s all look-at-me. Stew blends.) But as sentient beings, these two Open Championship winners are cut from the same cloth. They ask, they seek.
Cink, a few weeks earlier, had won at Hilton Head. Mickelson, after a first-round 64 at Quail Hollow, had shot rounds of 75 and 76. They both had bloodline caddies. Carrying Cink’s bag was his younger son, Reagan. (A family name, not a political statement.) Mickelson’s caddie was his kid brother, Tim. (Saint Philip, Saint Timothy; their mother doesn’t miss Mass.) Mickelson and Cink will both tell you that the caddie-player dynamic is different when your caddie is a member of the fam.
7 tips for golfers of a certain age, according to Stewart Cink
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DUVAL A LATE SCRATCH FROM OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
The R&A announced Sunday that David Duval, 49, is no longer in this week’s field at Royal St. George’s. No reason was given for his decision; Duval had told Golf Digest he planned on teeing it up this week and had made the trip to the United Kingdom. A former World No. 1, Duval captured the claret jug in 2001 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club thanks to a final-round 67. The win was viewed as a breakthrough for Duval; however, it would prove to be his last professional victory.
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TWO DECADES LATER, DUVAL REFLECTS ON REACHING MAJOR PEAK
Prior to the announcement Sunday that David Duval would not be competing in the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, David Duval sat down with famed writer John Feinstein to reflect on winning the Open 20 years ago at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s.
“Once upon a time was 20 years ago, when Duval shot 65-67 on the weekend at Royal Lytham to win his first and only major by three shots over Niclas Fasth. Duval went into Sunday in a four-way tie for the lead, with nine players just a shot back, and then pulled away with a near-perfect final round.”
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HADLEY STARTS FAST AT JOHN DEERE CLASSIC
Chesson Hadley started out as though he would again contend for a PGA Tour title last weekend when he opened with a 63 at the John Deere Classic. Making his fifth start in the John Deere Classic, Hadley played bogey-free and posted his lowest score since a career-low 11-under 61 in round two of the 2017 Fortinet Championship (T3). The 18-hole co-lead was his first since the 2018 THE PLAYERS Championship, where he finished T11.
Hadley followed with a 68 in the second round, but posted 72-71 over the weekend to tie for 34th place at 274 (-10). He remains in the top 125 in FedEx Cup points at No. 117. Hadley’s top finish this year on Tour was a runner-up at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree in mid-June.
Richy Werenski missed the cut but slipped only one spot to No. 103, while Vincent Whaley dropped to No. 139. Five weeks remain in the PGA Tour regular season, with the top 125 advancing to the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Hadley, Werenski and Whaley are back at it again this week at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.,
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ALBERTSON, GRIFFIN MAKE CUT ON KORN FERRY TOUR
Six Yellow Jackets competed at last weekend’s TPC Colorado Championship, with Anders Albertson and J.T. Griffin making it through to the weekend. Albertson tied for 30th place at 8-under-par 280, while Griffin falling to a tie for 72nd (289, +1) after a closing 76.
Albertson remains in position to maintain his status on the Korn Ferry Tour at No. 66 on the points list, while Griffin dropped to No. 78. The top 75 at the end of the regular season advance to the playoffs and remain full members in 2022.
Seth Reeves missed the cut but remains No. 19 in points, in good position to receive a PGA Tour card at the end of the regular season, while Ollie Schniederjans slipped a spot to No. 33.
Four events remain in the regular season, beginning with this week’s Memorial Health Championship in Springfield, Ill., where Paul Haley II returns to action with the rest of the Jackets regulars, and Luke Schniederjans will also compete this week before returning to Forme Tour competition next week.
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ELSEWHERE
Luke Schniederjans has a third-place and an eighth-place finish so far in two events on the Forme Tour, a U.S.-based circuit which is open to players with status on the MacKenzie Tour (PGA Tour Canada). The schedule resumes July 20-23 with the Bolingbrook Golf Club Invitational in Bolingbrook, Ill. Schniederjans stands in fifth place on the Tour’s Order of Merit, while Chris Petefish stands No. 32.
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