Adam Svensson won his first Korn Ferry Tour event in more than two years Sunday at the Club Car Championship after surviving a playoff with Max McGreevy.
Svensson shot a final-round 6-under 66 at The Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia, to finish 72 holes with the lead at 17 under until McGreevy, who finished Sunday a 2-under 70, birdied his final two holes Sunday to send the tournament into a playoff.
In the playoff, Svensson and McGreevy each missed a birdie putt on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. On the second playoff hole, McGreevy wasn’t able to match Svensson’s birdie to further extend the playoff, handing Svensson the win.
Svensson, 27, last won on the Korn Ferry Tour at the 2018 Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club.
Finishing one shot back in third at 16 under were George Cunningham, Shad Tuten and Brett Coletta. Taylor Moore finished in solo sixth at 15 under followed by Dawson Armstrong, Zecheng Dou and Carl Yuan – who tied for low round of the day with 8-under 64 – at 14 under in seventh. Six golfers rounded out the top-10 at 13 under.
One of the safest spots to be found Saturday was at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club.
It was Military Appreciation Day and there was enough hardware and personnel on hand at the Deer Creek Course to handle literally any situation which may have arisen.
The U.S. Army had a strong force on hand and the Coast Guard also was represented on the third day of the Korn Ferry Tour event. The Army troops and equipment were from the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart and the Coast Guard was from the detachment stationed at Hunter Army Air Field.
It marked the return of the military presence to the golf tournament after having missed last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone involved was happy to be on the grounds.
The troops enjoyed meeting with civilians and explaining their particular equipment and how it is deployed in the service of our country. The civilians, especially younger spectators, got a delight in seeing the impressive arsenal on display.
The first vehicle visible when entering the grounds was perhaps, other than possibly a Chinook helicopter, the most impressive sight of the day.
Parked across from the cart corral and near the parking areas for volunteers, caddies, VIPs and media was an Assault Breacher Vehicle. Sgt. Joseph Welch was more than happy to explain the vehicle’s details and how it is used.
“The main purpose of the vehicle is to clear a pathway for troops and vehicles through areas which may include mine fields, roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices,” Welch said. “For our job as combat engineers, this is the whole package.
“It makes our job safer,” Welch said. “I don’t know any other vehicle I would be safer in due to the amount of armor.”
Samantha Balmes waves from a Chinook helicopter during Military Appreciation Day at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (Philip Hall/Savannah Morning News)
The two-man vehicle — it has a driver and a vehicle commander — weighs an incredible 55 tons and is full tracked. Due to its armor plating, it is practically impossible for normal enemy fire to penetrate and it can sustain three to five mine blasts.
The vehicle, Welch said, was fielded in 2005 and first used in combat in 2019 by the Marine Corps.
This the first Club Car Championship for Welch, a native of Crawfordsville, Florida, who has been in the Army for six years.
“I’ve been at Fort Stewart for about a year,” Welch said. “This is my first time at the tournament and we’ve had a good number of people wanting to know about the vehicle. We appreciate that very much and it has been a pleasure to explain what it’s about.”
If a 55-ton road hugging vehicle is not to your taste, Coast Guard Lt. JG Nate Gallagher was happy to show fans how they could cover ground quickly through the air.
Gallagher’s job, however, does not call for transporting troops but rather those who have found themselves in a jam and were rescued by the Coast Guard.
“Our primary mission is search and rescue,” said Gallagher who has been in the military for 11 years, the last two in the Coast Guard. “What we have here today is an MH65 Dolphin helicopter.
“I was in the Army for nine and a half years,” Gallagher said. “I moved over to the Coast Guard two years ago. I wanted to join the Coast Guard initially but I couldn’t come in as a helicopter pilot. The Army had a program where I could.”
A native of Pelham, Tennessee, Gallagher explained the local Coast Guard detachment stationed at Hunter can be responsible for a territory extending from the North Carolina-South Carolina line to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Coast Guard, incidentally, does not come under the auspices of the Department of Defense but rather is part of Homeland Security.
“We have one 24/7 crew at Hunter and one that goes up to Charleston, South Carolina,” Gallagher explained. “We’re on duty at all times.
“If there’s a capsizing in North Myrtle Beach or one at Cape Canaveral and they need us, we’ll go. We fly around 250 missions a year” (from Hunter).
Children pose for pictures on a helicopter during Military Appreciation Day at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (Philip Hall/Savannah Morning News
Gallagher welcomed the opportunity to be on hand Saturday after missing last October’s tournament.
“This is a great opportunity for us to come out and talk to people and show them what we do,” Gallagher said. “A lot of people don’t know we’re actually stationed here in Savannah and don’t know much about what we do.”
There were also at least two players in the tournament field who have a military connection.
Tom Whitney, who did not make the cut, is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who turned to pro golf after five years in the Air Force as a nuclear missiles officer. He is in his second year on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Brent Grant, who is playing this weekend, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where his father, who was a career man in the Navy, was stationed. Grant was at 7-under par and tied for 30th place going into Sunday’s final round.
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.” Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of …
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.”
Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of the Club Car Championship at The Landings. The tournament is being played on the Deer Creek course.
But Thompson and Macdonald and the rest of the field are chasing former Oklahoma All-America Max McGreevy, who shot a seven-under 65 on the wind-swept course to take the lead with the afternoon starters yet to go off when he finished.
Crowd favorite Shad Tuten, a former All-America at Armstrong State before it was merged with Georgia Southern, turned in a solid 67 to share fourth place with Matthew Short.
Kris Blanks, a former assistant pro at the Landings Club, carded a one-over par 73. Blanks played in last October’s tournament, then known as the Savannah Golf Championship, but he missed the cut.
Jonathan Griz, a 17-year-old high school junior from Hilton Head, carded an even-par 72 to put himself in a position to make the cut.
Griz, who last year at age of 16 became the youngest player ever to win the South Carolina Amateur state championship, got into the tournament by being the runner-up at Monday’s qualifier at the Georgia Southern course in Statesboro.
Kris Blanks blasts out of a bunker on the 9th hole during the first round of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Club Car Championship at the Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News)
After playing at even par on the front, Griz shot five-under on the back nine to finish second and earn himself a spot in the field. Although graduation is a year away, he has already committed to play at Alabama.
The other amateur in the field, 16-year-old Reed Lotter of Savannah, shot an opening round 1 over 73 and is T-108.
Roberto Diaz, who won last week’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open for his first victory in his 194th start as a professional, let a good round get away from him down the stretch and finished at 2-under 70.
“I’ve not been getting off to a good start,” Tuten, who missed the cut last week, said. “The plan was to get off to a good start and I did.”
Tuten had a group of followers and he rewarded them with an eagle on hole No. 7, which was his 16th of the day.
“You want to play well even if you’re playing without anyone following you,” he said. “But for me to have people watching it motivates me.
“I live for this tournament. It’s a huge deal for me to come out here and have fun. Everyone here makes you feel great. I’m in a comfort zone and it helps me to perform better playing in front of friends and family.”
Tuten said the weather was ideal at the beginning but that the wind started picking up and gusting around his seventh hole and it never let up.
“It was like playing two golf courses,” he said. “This is not a bomber’s course which suits me. I just tried to stay steady.”
In talking about his round Thompson uttered what every player loves to say: “When I won in Chicago…”
Thompson turned pro in 2014 and earlier this season he won the Evans Scholar Invitational for his first win in his 103rd start.
“There was a lot of wind,” Thompson said, echoing the thoughts of nearly all of the early finishers. “I didn’t expect the wind when we started. It was really calm.
“We had four or five holes straight into the wind and all you want to do there is make par,” Thompson said. “Then we went downwind and that’s when you try to make some birdies.”
Thompson hit mostly three-wood off the tee and hit 13 of 14 fairways which enabled him to turn in his best round at Deer Creek. He was 15th at last fall’s tournament.
“I’m just trying to do what I did when I won in Chicago,” Thompson said. “I’m not forcing anything. Today I had great ball striking and putted well.”
