Wells Fargo Championship
The 2019 golf season has already shown great parity. Across all professional golf tours, there have been numerous first-time winners, as well as some familiar faces who haven’t won in quite some time.
The Wells Fargo Championship featured many of the PGA Tour’s top pros like Rory McIlroy (the only 2-time winner at Quail Hollow), Rickie Fowler, world number 2 Justin Rose, and Sergio Garcia.
And, while all those guys finished in the top 10, they were outlasted by first-time winner and feel good story, Max Homa.
Homa shot a final round 67 (tied for the low round of the day) on a weather-delayed Sunday to win his first Tour event by three strokes. You can see what his first PGA Tour victory means to him:
So much emotion. 💪
What a moment for @MaxHoma23. 🏆#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/BJ4CCC4IEJ— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 6, 2019
So, who exactly is Max Homa?
Max attended the University of California, Berkeley where he won the 2013 NCAA Division I Individual Championship.
His PGA Tour career began in 2015 and he got off to a promising start. His previous high-water mark (T6) came at the Sony open in Hawaii that year. Since then, he’s been grinding to find that form again.
In 2017, he missed 15 of 17 cuts, earning a little over $18,000 on Tour. Unfortunately, due to his overall performance in 2017, Homa lost his Tour card and was forced to play on the Web.com Tour in 2018.
Squeaking into the Web.com finals, Max ended up 15th on the money list at the end of the season, earning back his PGA Tour card for 2019 in the process.
Dating back to Tiger Woods’ 1996 NCAA Division I Individual Championship, Homa becomes the 9th player in that timeframe to win both the NCAA’s and a PGA Tour Event.
Max Homa plays all Titleist clubs, including the all-new, yet to be released to the public TS4 Driver. These are the clubs he used to win his first PGA Tour event, the Wells Fargo Championship. (As reported by PGATOUR):
Titleist TS4 Driver
Shaft:
Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange 70TX
Volvo China Open
The Chinese fans eagerly anticipated Haotong Li’s presence, and while he put on a great show in his native China, he ultimately fell short finishing in 4th place. Also having a great week was last week’s winner, Jorge Campillo, who finished alone in third place.
The Volvo China Open came down to a playoff between Frenchman Benjamin Hebert, and the eventual winner, Mikko Korhonen.
Tied at 20-under par, the Open was settled on the first extra hole. Both players were aggressive off the tee, carrying the water the full way towards the drivable green. After nervy chip and runs, both players were still left with a lot of work. Hebert left his birdie putt a couple feet short and tapped in for par, setting the stage for Korhonen.
Korhonen didn’t waiver and knocked in the putt for his second career European Tour victory. His first victory came last year at the inaugural Shot Clock Masters.
LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship
The women of the LPGA were at Lake Merced Golf Course in San Francisco, California this week and their tournament also come down to a playoff.
Three ladies finished the tournament tied at 7-under par, Sei Young Kim, Bronte Law and Jeongeun6 Lee.
(There are six ladies from South Korea with the name Jeongeun Lee. They each have a corresponding number next to their name. The eldest is denoted by number 1 and the youngest by number 6)
Bronte Law caught fire on Sunday and while she teed off hours before the final groups, shot a 7-under to post the lead in the clubhouse. Lee played the final four holes in 4-under par late on Sunday to pull herself into the three-way tie. And, Kim, who held a three-shot lead through 3 rounds, gutted out a gritty performance on an injured back in cold conditions to get into the playoff.
Kim was then able to birdie the first hole of the playoff to retain a perfect LPGA playoff record (4-0) and capture her 8th career LPGA Tour Championship.
Insperity Invitational
Most players as they transition onto the PGA Tour Champions enjoy the opportunity to continue to play competitive golf and make a paycheck, but do not see a big resurgence in their career.
However, some players, like Bernard longer and Hale Irwin, experience a renaissance on the over-50 Tour. Currently, Scott McCarron seems to be experiencing a little bit of his own renaissance.
After winning the Mitsubishi Electric Classic in April, McCarron backed up that victory with a win at the Insperity invitational. He finished the tournament at 17-under par, two strokes ahead of the second-place finisher, Scott Parel.
Keith Schneider
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