RBC Heritage
A week after Tiger Woods won perhaps his most important major to date, a disciple of his influence from Taiwan broke through for his first career PGA Tour victory. Trailing by two strokes to South Carolina’s own Dustin Johnson, the leader after 54 holes, C.T. Pan played solid golf all Sunday.
Aside from J.T. Poston’s round-of-the-day 6-under 66, both C.T. and Matt Kuchar, playing in groups in front of the final few pairings, showed the nerves and consistency to finish atop the leader board. Each burned the edges of holes on a couple of occasions as they navigated their way around Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The moment of the tournament for Pan may very well have been when he faced a tough, breaking chip that spanned the entire length of a tricky green on the back nine. He visibly tensed up at address, however, he kept his cool. Instead of forcing the shot, he backed off, loosened up his shoulders, re-aligned himself and played a fantastic chip well left of the hole that eventually settled within a few feet to the right and low side of the hole.
Finishing a few groups ahead of the leaders, Pan seemed to expect that someone would tie his score because he headed to the practice range to stay warm, even though it required Patrick Cantlay or Shane Lowry to hole out from the fairway on 18.
When Lowry’s shot went wide of the green, the information was relayed to C.T. and he let out an elated cheer with his arms raised in the air. All his hard work and determination had paid off, he was a PGA Tour winner and owner of a flashy new blazer.
As a University of Washington alumni, I naturally root for people from my alma matter. UW has produced exceptional athletes in many professional sports, and golf is no exception.
In his fourth season as a PGA Tour pro, C.T. Pan can add his name to the list of Huskies who have achieved at the highest level of their sport.
Go Dawgs!
These are the clubs C.T. Pan used to win the RBC Heritage Classic (As reported by PGATOUR):
Nike Vapor Fly Pro 2 iron
Shaft:
Project X HZRDUS Red 85
LOTTE Championship
The LPGA truly embodies a world wide mentality. Unlike the PGA Tour, where the majority of its top players are from either the United States or the U.K., the women’s game features oustading players from South Korea, Thailand, Australia, the United States, and yes, Canada.
Played at the Ko Olina Golf Club on the Island of Oahu, Brooke Henderson won the LOTTE Championship for the second consecutive season, tying a handful of players including Mike Weir for the most wins (8) by a Canadian player on a professional golf tour.
The future looks bright for this young Canadian. While her swing is unique and built around power, she has one of the LPGA’s most complete games on Tour. By the time her career reaches its conclusion, she’ll undoubtedly have set a high wins mark all Candadians will be chasing down.
Mitsubishi Electric Classic
The PGA Champions resumed their race to the Charles Schwab Cup this week at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, played at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Georgia. Weather dominated action for much of play, with over 2.5″ of rain dumped on the course between Friday night and Saturday morning.
While the weather provided a tough test for players, Scott McCarron relied on previous victories on the PGA Tour at TPC Sugarloaf and was the wire-to-wire winner of the Mitsubishi Electric Classic.
McCarron outlasted a quartet of players who all shot sub-70 rounds on Sunday to win by two strokes. This is Scott’s ninth career PGA Champions victory and vaults him up to first in the 2019 Charles Schwab Cup money list.
Keith Schneider
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