The YouTube video of a teenage Cameron Davis smoothly striking an iron right-handed then dropping the club to hit left-handed is wild.
Trick-shot artistry comes in all forms, but the art of switch-hitting falls into a category all its own.
Often, a player swinging with his non-dominant side looks a little clunky, no matter how talented he or she is (re: Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas playing a spring-quarantine golf match as lefties at Michael Jordan’s golf course, The Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound, Florida – neither broke 90).
Enter Australian Cameron Davis. The 25-year-old showed up with something less than his A-game at the Country Club of Jackson on Sunday, thus sliding down the leaderboard in the final round. But the switch-hitting footage that emerged from 2014 makes Davis a winner regardless.
The below YouTube video of a teenage Davis smoothly striking an iron right-handed (which is how he normally plays) then dropping the club to hit a ball left-handed is downright mesmerizing. If you didn’t know better, you might question which way he actually plays this game (he is, in fact, righty).
This Cameron Davis switch-hitting thing is truly something. His position at the top from the left side is a joke. Better than Oosthuizen!https://t.co/KcLJ0gJbPE
Sergio Garcia seemed to will his second shot through a bunker lip and just a few feet from the hole on the par-5 No. 14.
All the talk at the Sanderson Farms Championship has been about Sergio Garcia’s Halsey-style approach to putting — he apparently has been working on the greens with his “eyes closed” for more than a year. That includes most of the putts from his last win on Tour — the 2019 Masters.
But on Sunday, the shot that had people talking conjured memories of the Sergio of old — a fiery bit of emotion as he seemed to will his second shot through a bunker lip and just a few feet from the hole on the par-5 No. 14 at the Country Club of Jackson.
Coming off the club, it appeared as if Sergio had pushed the shot a tad right, and it might be a little short. He yelled at the ball to go and the motivation worked — the result was miraculous, as it rolled just a few feet from the hole.
After knocking in the putt, Garcia pulled into a tie for first with Peter Malnati, who was watching from the clubhouse after posting a 63 to climb atop the board.
This had some of us thinking back to that win at Augusta.
Sergio made a critical eagle on the back nine on Sunday in his last victory. Just hit a fairway wood within 5' of a hole cut over a bunker and made the putt on 14 in Jackson to tie Peter Malnati, who has posted 18-under after a 63. Garcia with 1 top-10 in last 18 starts.
And while the shot certainly stole the Sunday spotlight, it’s worth noting that Sergio’s putting approach has not faltered since the media uncovered his secret strategy.
Sergio has made 52 of 53 putts from inside 5 feet this week. I’m going to putt with my eyes closed next week. I’m sold.
With his son Reagan on the bag, Stewart Cink records another top-10 finish in the 2020-21 Tour season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
JACKSON, Miss. – Stewart Cink told a reporter before the final round that he was going to have “shoot the fur off the course” on Sunday, or else that would be the end of his run with son, Reagan, by his side as his caddie. Then Cink went out and made eight birdies en route to shooting 7-under 65
“Left a little fur on the course,” Cink said. “It was a Top 5 thing. I don’t want Reagan to – he’s a great caddie, he’s doing a great job, but I don’t think I want him to become a caddie. He’s just a little bit too good at doing this to where I think if he keeps going, he might find a home out here.”
Father and son teamed up two weeks ago at the Safeway Open in Napa, California, for Cink’s first victory in more than 11 years, which earned Reagan another start on the bag this week. Somewhere, veteran caddie Kip Henley, who has been Cink’s regular sidekick since the Sanderson Farms Championship last year, was sweating it out as Cink poured in four birdies and one bogey on his first nine holes on Sunday and then tacked on four more birdies on the inward nine. As Cink tapped in for 65, he looked at the scoreboard and he was currently in a share of fifth. (He has since dropped back to T-8 at 13-under 275.)
“If you had done it today, Top 5, I would have been super excited about getting out for next week,” Reagan said.
“Same here,” Stewart said.
“I’ve got a life to go get home and live,” Reagan said.
That includes a fiancé back in Atlanta and a job at Delta Airlines. Reagan graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and is ready to get back to his role on the technology product management team. If it sounds as challenging as reading putts at the Country Club of Jackson, it probably is. Cink may have finished in the top 5 this week had his putter not gone cold on the weekend, especially in the third round when he lost nearly three strokes to the field with his short stick.
Stewart Cink during the third round of the 2020 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
“I concluded after yesterday that I kind of struggle on Bermuda greens a little bit,” Reagan said. “But I don’t think it was solely my fault.”
Don’t be surprised if Reagan as well as brother, Connor, don’t make guest appearances on the bag in the future. Reagan first caddied for dad at the 2013 RBC Canadian Open and also filled in at the 2015 Travelers Championship and 2016 John Deere Classic.
“Took a little hiatus,” Reagan said. “Had to mature a little bit.”
It was in August when Reagan expressed an interest in caddying for his dad at a tournament again.
“I said, ‘How about Safeway?’ ” Cink recalled.
“He did some things that really, really helped me and just — we know each other so well. He’s like a chunk out of my side that grew into a person,” Cink said. “We see shots the same way, feel the same things, and it was good to have him caddying for me. We had a good couple weeks.”
Villegas made six birdies to card a 6-under 66 — his best round on Tour since 2017 — in the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Camilo Villegas was shaky on the first tee Sunday at Country Club of Jackson.
That shakiness didn’t last long.
Following a third-round 74, Villegas made six birdies to card a 6-under 66 — his best round on Tour since 2017 — in the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. The four-time PGA Tour champion finished the event at 10 under, good for a top-25 finish after morning tee times.
Although proud of his 66, which rocketed him more than 20 spots up the leaderboard, Villegas said he thought he played better Thursday and Friday when he shot back-to-back 69s. To build off this week, he said he’ll focus on putting.
“The week was very weak with the putting, but the rest was great,” Villegas said. “A little work on the putting, keep the rest the same, and we’ll be there in Vegas next week.”
The only other Tour event in which the 38-year-old competed this season was the Safeway Open where he missed the cut.
In his final round in Jackson, Mississippi, Villegas made the turn at 2 under and accelerated on the back nine. He recorded a string of four birdies on Nos. 12-15 to finish the day bogey-free. Of the back nine, Villegas said he managed to play better the holes noticeably better Sunday than he did Saturday. On Saturday, he carded three bogeys on the back nine.
“The golf course is gettable if you drive it good because you can control the spin,” Villegas said. “Once you start getting a little bit crooked, you’re going to get — I love the rough here, don’t get me wrong, and the reason why I love it is because you can always advance it forward, but you’ve got to be very, very smart and a little bit lucky in terms of judging the lie, how the ball is going to react. I got a couple fliers yesterday that cost me.”
More than his bogey-free round on Sunday, Villegas was thankful to be free from shoulder irritation and back competing on Tour. Last season, Villegas competed in one PGA Tour event, the Honda Classic, where he missed the cut, and six Korn Ferry Tour events in which he made five cuts and his best finish was a T-4 in February at the Country Club de Bogota Championship.
Villegas hasn’t won on Tour since the 2014 Wyndham Championship.
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“I’m just excited to swing a golf club, man,” Villegas said Sunday. “The last two years have been crazy to say the least, injury and then with our family situation, but like I told my wife, we can’t change the past, so we’re focusing on what’s going on right now, having a good attitude, and once again, I’m very, very happy to be swinging a golf club again.”
Villegas’ daughter, Mia, died in July at 22 months old after a six-month battle with tumors on her brain and spine.
The former University of Florida golfer is planning to compete at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (Oct. 8-11), Bermuda Championship (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) and the Houston Open (Nov. 5-8). Villegas also said he might compete at the RSM Classic (Nov. 19-22).
The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin begins Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cam Davis made birdie on his first five holes en route to shooting a tournament-low 9-under 63 at the Country Club of Jackson.
JACKSON, Miss. – Cameron Davis set out with a simple goal of trying to improve his ball-striking during the third round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. He did that and then some, making birdie on his first five holes of the day and adding an eagle on the second nine en route to shooting a tournament-low 9-under 63 at the Country Club of Jackson.
“It’s nice to get on the train,” he said. “It’s been a little while since I’ve had a kick like that to start my round out.”
The 25-year-old Australian made the biggest move on Moving Day, carding seven birdies and an eagle to vault to the top of the leaderboard at 14-under 202. Davis had been frustrated with his tee game in the opening round, but a hot putter saved him and he signed for 66. In the second round, his iron game let him down and his putter failed to bail him out as he settled for 72. On Saturday, it was all systems go as he led the field in both Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green and third in Strokes Gained: Putting.
“I just felt like I had a little bit better idea of where the ball was going today,” he said.“It was one of those rounds where you kind of find that zone where you’re trusting your driver, you’re trusting your irons, your putter feels really good, you’re not worried about the score … today was an opportunity where halfway around, having a great round, and I was just like, ‘I’ve got to keep doing this.’ ”
After shooting 6-under 30 on the front nine, Davis drilled a fairway wood from 266 yards to 10 feet at the par-5 14th and sank the eagle putt to claim the lead. One hole later, he blasted out of the bunker to 2 feet at the short par-4 for his final birdie of the day.
Davis is in his third season as a PGA Tour member and made steady improvement last season, qualifying for the FedEx Cup playoffs in his sophomore campaign. Just as he seemed to be finding a rhythm, the season was suspended due to the global pandemic.
“I felt like I was really kind of finding my stride, and after a couple of months of not touching a club or hitting a ball I kind of lost a little bit of that and had to work back into it,” he said, “but now I’m starting to find a groove and it’s starting to come down to the finer details.”
Davis contended through 36 holes at the Northern Trust in August, shooting 64-65, but sputtered on the weekend. The next step for him is to put four good rounds together and win his first Tour title. (He won the 2017 Emirates Australian Open and the 2018 Nashville Golf Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.) That would cap off a year that has had its share of momentous moments. Davis closed on a home in Seattle in March with his longtime girlfriend Jonika, and they tied the knot on September 5.
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“Things haven’t changed much. We’re still together,” he said with a smile. “It’s working really well, and yeah, it’s nice to kind of really have a nice home base now in Seattle. We’ve got a house and a dog together.”
On Sunday, Davis could continue what has become something of a Sanderson Farms Championship tradition – all six winners since the tournament shifted to the Country Club of Jackson have claimed their maiden Tour title.
“I don’t know why it’s come down to every single one being a first-timer,” Davis said, “but hopefully there’s another one.”
Isaiah Jackson played the same course as household names like Sergio Garcia at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Isaiah Jackson had to play it cool.
From community college to Division I golf, and now at his first PGA Tour event.
The Golden, Mississippi, native and University of Memphis golfer played the same course as household names like Sergio Garcia at the Sanderson Farms Championship in his first round Thursday.
“I try not to show it, but it is definitely cool seeing some of the guys who are definitely at the top of the game,” Jackson said. “Trying to watch them hit shots and do things as much as I can without creeping them out and me hiding behind people in the range. It is a special moment seeing the guys here, guys I would consider studs, they’re really good. Definitely as a college athlete I’m like, ‘Man, that’s pretty cool that I’ve played with him.'”
Jackson said it took him a while to adjust to the feel of a pro tournament compared to college. After the first six or seven holes, he said he felt great and moved past his initial adjustment period. He finished Round 1 at 1 over, which left him tied for 106th.
“It should’ve been a little better, but I’ll take it,” Jackson said. “It was my first round on the Tour, so not bad.”
Jackson had his senior season in 2019-20 put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The senior, who was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA because of the virus, said playing in a PGA Tour event gives him a preview of what the next level looks like when it comes to ball-striking, short game and putting.
Before he got to the collegiate level, Jackson grew up on the Alabama-Mississippi border and played for Red Bay High School in Alabama, a nine-minute drive from Golden.
Jackson said he’s played the course at the Country Club of Jackson before at a state high school event, and he saw some old friends on the course volunteering for this week’s championship.
Jackson was also a part of the Gator Invitational Junior Championship at the Country Club of Jackson, where elite junior golfers 10-and-up compete. On Thursday, he became the sixth Gator alum to play in the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“It felt good to be in my home state for my first PGA event,” he said. “I’m kind of comfortable in that sense, even though it’s a different setting.”
None of Jackson’s family members were able to make the four-hour trip from Golden with the COVID-19 attendance restrictions in place, but he said he hasn’t felt a lack of support. With the event broadcast live nationally, Jackson said his phone has blown up from friends and family who are following him.
“It’s pretty cool to finally see my name out there with them,” he said. “Even though I’m not a pro yet, I’m still an amateur, it still feels good to know that I’ve done pretty well up until this point to deal with it. At least get a chance to play with these guys. That alone is huge blessing for me.”
Jackson’s college career started at Meridian Community College, and he was named to the All-Nicklaus Team in 2018 before transferring to Memphis. With the Tigers, he was named a 2020 NCAA Division I Ping All-American Honorable Mention. This weekend marks his latest milestone to reflect on the direction of his young career.
“Never give up,” he said. “From me being in middle school wanting to be here, and finally being out here, it just proves that if you keep pressing on it, you can reach your goals. I’m not quite there yet, but I think I’m on the right track to get there eventually to actually have my own card and travel week-to-week. Keep pressing through the good and the bad times, and eventually you’ll come out on top.”
Memphis’ 2020-21 schedule has yet to be announced.
MJ Daffue had to qualify on Monday, but he followed up an opening-round 65 with a 3-under 69 on Friday to grab the 36-hole clubhouse lead.
JACKSON, Miss. — It was just another manic Monday for MJ Daffue. After shooting 69 at the Monday Qualifier for the Sanderson Farms Championship, Daffue survived an 8-for-2 playoff to earn one of four spots into this week’s PGA Tour event.
“The first group, two guys made birdie, so basically you know if you don’t make birdie, you don’t move on,” he said. “Eventually, seven holes later, one guy made par on a par-5, which ended – in today’s game, you can’t make pars on par-5s really.”
Daffue (pronounced Duff-ee) is making the most of his opportunity, following up an opening-round 65 with a 3-under 69 on Friday to grab the 36-hole clubhouse lead at 10-under 134. The South African Daffue is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Canadian Corey Conners, who was the last player to qualify on Monday and hoist the trophy on Sunday when he did so at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.
Like Patrick Reed and T.J. Vogel before him, Daffue is beginning to get a reputation for Monday magic. He’s earned a spot into the tournament field in nine of his last 14 Monday qualifiers between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. When asked to explain what he attributes his success to, he shot back, “You’re trying to give away my secrets now? Well, in all honesty, I feel like this game in general, every round you play, if you putt 18 times for birdie, you should be all right …When you get into a playoff you can’t just make a par. You’ve got to make birdies and get through. I guess every round to me, I just take it as a Monday qualifier.”
Daffue played his first 30 holes of the tournament without a bogey at the Country Club of Jackson. He started on the back nine on Friday and knocked a short iron to 5 feet for his first birdie of the day at No. 13. He reeled off three birdies in a row after making the turn, holing putts of 13, 14 and 8 feet. Daffue is making his fifth PGA Tour start, with four made cuts and a T-22 finish at the Workday Charity Open in July, where he banked nearly $60,000. That will help pay for a lot of diapers. Daffue and his wife welcome their first child, Oliver, six weeks ago.
Daffue grew up in Pretoria, the same town as 2019 John Deere Classic winner Dylan Frittelli, and competed against the likes of fellow Tour pros Branden Grace, Brandon Stone, George Coetzee and Erik van Rooyen. When Daffue was 11, he met two-time major winner Retief Goosen.
“My dad worked with his brother. We’re actually really good friends now, and it’s kind of a dream come true being able to be good friends with your idol or your role model,” Daffue said.
He earned a college scholarship and came to the United States to play first at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and then at Lamar University in Texas, where he was named Southland Conference Player of the Year in 2011 and 2012. He is using his old college bag this week.
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Daffue met his wife Kamie in Texas and they call the Kingwood community of Houston home. He was leading a Hooters Tour event in South Carolina in May 2013 when he got a call that his mother-in-law, Jill Badeaux, tripped and fell at a street corner in front of a car going 35 mph. She was rushed to the hospital and, after a series of surgeries, declared brain dead. Daffue took her death hard.
“I never had much pain in my life. I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he said.
Eventually, he learned that it was best to talk about it and not let his sadness bottle up. A conversation with his pastor proved to be a turning point for Daffue.
“Golf was everything to me and the pastor at our church told me if you’re nothing without golf you’re not going to be anything with golf. I had to see where I could find my happiness,” he said.
Daffue is halfway to a life-changing victory, but after learning not to get too excited about simply getting into an event, he’s focused on playing the long game.
“I try not to think about it,” he said of what a win would mean to him. “Trying to do everything at once, get all those points at once or trying to win, it will really eat at you. So I’m just trying to chip away at it.”
Sebastian Munoz shot 64 to share the lead of the Sanderson Farms Championship with Kevin Chappell, Charley Hoffman and Jimmy Walker.
JACKSON, Miss. – Reveille the Rooster, the name of the trophy handed out at the Sanderson Farms Championship, was displayed at Maridoe Golf Club in Dallas for six months before tournament champion Sebastián Muñoz moved it to his home gym about two months ago and more recently settled on a more permanent spot in the front entranceway of his house.
“As soon as you walk in,” he said of what is arguably the best-looking trophy on the PGA Tour, “you can see it.”
If Muñoz keeps playing as he did in Thursday’s opening round at the Country Club of Jackson, he might have a matching trophy to go with it. Muñoz blitzed the course for nine birdies en route to an 8-under 64 and a four-way tie for the lead. But he isn’t thinking about his trophy this week.
“I just kind of tricked myself into thinking I was not the defending champion,” he explained. “I just kind of thinking it was another tournament at a course that I really like, and it’s been working so far, so I’ll keep doing that.”
Sebastián Muñoz poses with Reveille the Rooster, the Sanderson Farms Championship trophy at The Country Club of Jackson on Sept. 22, 2019. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
What Muñoz did better than almost anyone was making birdies in bunches, including four birdies in his first five holes. He nearly holed his second shot from 106 yards on the opening holes to set the tone for the day. Teeing off in the afternoon, Muñoz couldn’t help but see that Jimmy Walker and Charley Hoffman had gone out early and set the pace with matching 64s.
“I knew it was gettable,” Munoz said.
Only a lone bogey at the ninth hole when his tee shot landed in a divot prevented him from matching the 63 he shot here a year ago in the third round on the way to his first PGA Tour title.
Kevin Chappell can relate. Starting on the back nine, he birdied four of his first six holes, including three in a row beginning at No. 13, too. He chipped in for par at No. 6 to keep his momentum and capped the day by making birdie at the final two holes to join the leaders at 64. Chappell, who is playing on a medical extension and added a baby girl to his family this summer, sank a 37-foot putt at No. 8 that allowed him to dip into the pocket of his caddie Benji Thompson.
“We have a fun game,” Chappell said. “If I make it from outside 20 feet, he’s got to pay me $20 and if I leave it short inside 20 feet I’ve got to pay him, and it was about four feet short, and I was saying, ‘Pay me, Benji. Pay me, Benji,’ and that thing went right in the middle.”
Off to a good start this week with a 66, Anirban Lahiri notched his first top-10 finish in nearly two years last week.
JACKSON, Miss. – Anirban Lahiri didn’t bother to book a flight home from the Dominican Republic last week. He made plans to catch a PGA Tour charter to the Sanderson Farms Championship despite the fact that he wasn’t in the field. Then he went out and shot 64 in the third round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship to vault into contention and finished tied for eighth to qualify for this week’s event.
“I just had that feeling that if I go out there and do what I’m doing right now, I should get on that plane to Jackson,” Lahiri said. “It paid off.”
It could pay even bigger dividends after Lahiri posted a bogey-free 6-under 66 at the Country Club of Jackson to trail Charley Hoffman and Jimmy Walker by two strokes during the opening round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“Confidence is up,” Lahiri said. “I feel like I’m playing really well. I like this golf course. Last year was my first time here, and I really like the way it sets up. It reminds me a lot of the tracks I grew up playing in Asia. Probably not greens this quick, but similar to look at.”
Been a long time coming. Still a few chinks in the armor that I need to work on….. but boy that felt good!! #fighton@CoralesChamp
Lahiri, 33, a member of the 2015 and 2017 International Presidents Cup team, has been mired in a slump. He finished No. 178 in the FedEx Cup standings in 2018-19 and needed to record back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to retain his PGA Tour status (which carried over to the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic).
The 2019-20 season wasn’t any better. He made only five of 13 cuts and hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish until last week in nearly two years (the 2018 Mayakoba Golf Classic). But Lahiri returned from his native India in August with renewed enthusiasm.
“I think the lockdown really helped me,” he said. “I was in India for five months. I left pretty much the Monday after Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational) to go play the Asian Open, and then we got locked in. They closed the borders down. So, I was there for a long time. Spent about 40 days straight with my coach, Vijay Divecha, before I came back out here, and I got back to the basics, undid a lot of the bad habits that had crept into the game and just tried to clean up the game, clean up the mind and just get really – just prepare. So far so good.”
Lahiri rolled in two birdies on his opening nine, including a 24-foot putt at No. 7, and added four birdies coming home, highlighted by a 32-foot putt at 12.
Lahiri has won 18 times around the world on the Professional Golf Tour of India, Asian Tour and European Tour, but hasn’t hoisted a trophy since the 2015 Hero Indian Open and remains winless on the PGA Tour. The last six winners of the Sanderson Farms Championship have all been first-time winners on Tour. Could Lahiri be lucky No. 7?
“I haven’t been in this situation for a long, long time, and I think it’s good,” Lahiri said. “It’s been a wake-up call, and so far I’m responding to it positively.”
JACKSON, Miss. – How did Hudson Swafford celebrate earning his first victory on Sunday in more than 3½ years? “Not hard enough,” he said of an impromptu gathering with his caddie, wife, and fellow pros at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club …
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JACKSON, Miss. – How did Hudson Swafford celebrate earning his first victory on Sunday in more than 3½ years?
“Not hard enough,” he said of an impromptu gathering with his caddie, wife, and fellow pros at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in the Dominican Republic. Caddie Benji Thompson, who was on the bag for cut-casualty Kevin Chappell, enjoyed some deep sea fishing earlier that day and caught a bunch of mahi mahi that the resort cooked up for a feast.
“We had one or two or 12 beers, no one was really counting, but we had a great time, and then my wife was in the middle of maybe 15 guys. I felt bad for her, but at the same time, she was enjoying it and having a good time, having a good laugh,” Swafford said.
He was the only player in the 144-man field to record four rounds in the 60s and overcame losing a three-stroke lead on the back nine before rallying over the final two holes to claim his second career Tour title.
Swafford endured a few bumps in the road between his first victory at the 2017 American Express when he climbed as high as No. 75 in the world and beginning this year as No. 426. First, he suffered a rib injury and then just when that healed he required surgery to remove a small bone in the bottom of his right foot. He missed four months in the summer of 2019, during which time his wife gave birth to their son. Playing this season on a medical exemption, Swafford was down to two starts and needed to make something happen. The pressure was mounting, but he knew his game was sharp, as did his swing instructor, Scott Hamilton.
“He’s like, ‘I’ve got nothing for you, you’re playing great, you’re swinging it great. It’s just kind of mental,’ ” Swafford said.
Hudson Swafford celebrates with his caddie Kyle Bradley after winning the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on Sept. 27, 2020 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Ah, the mental game. That can be even trickier to mend than removing a small bone in his foot. Swafford called on an old friend, sports psychologist Bhrett McCabe, who changed his mindset by downplaying the importance of retaining his Tour privileges.
“He’s like, man, honestly, you keep doing this, you’re not going to keep your card anyway, so you might as well just go have fun and enjoy playing golf again and try to just be like a junior golfer; just go have fun and you’re just playing for a trophy,” Swafford recounted.
McCabe added: “You’re going to play golf the rest of your career. You’ve got a long career, two tournaments aren’t going to define you. He’s like, you’re going to be playing on the PGA Tour for a long time regardless. He goes, you’re going to play other events this fall, you’re going to play other events in the spring, so let’s just go and have fun these last two events and get out of your own way because you know your golf is good.”
It sure was on Sunday at Corales Golf Club as Swafford shot 5-under 31 on the front nine to lead by as many as four strokes. He let the field, in particular Mackenzie Hughes who tied him, back into the trophy hunt with a two-chip double bogey on the par-4 13th and a bogey at the 15th. Swafford never panicked and he stiffed a 6-iron at the par-3 17th for the go-ahead birdie before making a clinching 8-foot par putt at the seaside 18th. Some more of his work with McCabe proved vital down the stretch.
“You’ve got to stay in the moment. Got to stay in the present. We’ve been working on that and kind of just focusing on that and a clear thought before I hit a golf shot,” Swafford said. “Bad thoughts are going to creep in your head, obviously, with anything that you do, but it’s how you handle it and how you react to it is the big thing.”
Hudson Swafford plays his third shot on the 15th hole during the final round of the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Swafford closed with 3-under 69 for an 18-under 270 total and went from trying to satisfy his major medical to exempt on Tour through 2023. Healthy and wealthy and with grander ambitions, Swafford was asked whether his second victory was more meaningful to him given the injuries that had stalled his career.
“Your first one is your most special, I think,” he said. “I definitely didn’t want to be that guy who was like – that just had one PGA Tour win. I’m not saying you get lucky and just win once, but I want to win multiple times. That’s why I get up and grind and do what I do.”
