David Ford won the Jones Cup Invitational in dramatic fashion late Sunday afternoon when he made a birdie putt on the 18th hole at the Ocean Forest Golf Club on Sea Island, Georgia, to bring the first tournament of the 2023 season in amateur golf to a rousing conclusion.
Ford’s 18-foot downhill putt at the par-4 finishing hole, which plays along the seashore, gave him a one-shot victory against Caleb Surratt and also landed the Peachtree Corners, Georgia, native his second amateur golf major championship in less than six full months.
Ford, a sophomore at North Carolina, won the Southern Amateur last July at Sea Island Golf Club’s Plantation Course when he tied the tournament scoring record of 20-under par.
At Ocean Forest, Ford led after all three rounds and ended up at 12 under for the championship after carding a 69 in Sunday’s final round. He shot 67 in round one on Friday and 68 in the second round on Saturday on the demanding par-72 layout designed by Rees Jones, which played 7,308 yards this week.
“I’m very thankful for both of them,” Ford said of winning both the long-running Southern Am and now the 19th Jones Cup. “The experience here was just as good as the Southern Am. Both events were amazing.”
This week’s Jones Cup field was as deep as any that may be assembled later this season in amateur golf. The tournament attracted 40 of the top 100 players in the Golfweek/Amateur.com rankings including nine of the top 25 players in those same rankings.
Ford came into 2023 ranked No. 21 in those world rankings.
There wasn’t anyone in the field who Ford respected more than Caleb Surratt, who was ranked No. 24 coming into this week.
He led the University of Tennessee freshman by two strokes going into the final round, and they battled all the way to the finish for the victory along the Georgia coast.
“It feels really good to beat some of the really, really highly-ranked players,” Ford said, “and Caleb Surratt is one of those who comes to mind. He was at the Southern Am as well, but his ranking has moved up since then. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with. He’s a guy who I think a lot of people who love to say they beat just because of how good he is. He doesn’t go away. He’s one of the best mentally and physically, so he’s pretty awesome.”
Kuehn fended off hard-charging Carla Tejado of LSU to pick up the women’s individual title.
Medalists David Ford of North Carolina and Rachel Kuehn of Wake Forest will lead their respective teams into Wednesday’s championship matches at the second annual Jackson T. Stephens Cup being held at the venerable Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.
Both players finished off wire-to-wire victories on Tuesday, with Ford winning the men’s title at 16-under 200 and Kuehn taking women’s medalist honors at 10-under 206.
A second-round 62 which featured a run of eight consecutive birdies gave the Tar Heel sophomore a six-stroke lead heading into Wednesday’s final round and a 2-under 70 over the final 18 holes secured Ford his first collegiate individual title.
Jonas Baumgartner of Oklahoma State closed with a 6-under 66 to climb into second place at 12-under 204 while Brett Roberts of Florida State finished five back at 11-under 205.
Kuehn fended off hard-charging Carla Tejado of LSU to pick up the women’s individual title, however, her march to the winner’s circle wasn’t as easy as Ford’s.
The two-time Curtis Cup team member started her final round with a two-shot lead on the field but Tejado, playing a few groups ahead of the leader, drew even at 8-under par with a birdie on her final hole to cap off a final round 68.
The LSU junior from Castellon de Plana, Spain held the clubhouse until Kuehn regained the lead with back-to-back birdies on hole Nos. 15 and 16 to move to 10-under. She then nailed down her fifth collegiate title with routine pars on 17 and 18.
“Rachel works so hard and really thrives off her teammates’ success just as much as her own,” said Wake Forest head coach Kim Lewellen. “She is extremely competitive and wants to win for herself but also for the team, they are all very close and play for each other. Her play down the stretch today really showed what kind of competitor she is, and we are very happy for her to get the individual win today.”
Golf Channel will carry both championship matches live on Wednesday beginning at 3 p.m., ET.
One thing is for sure: David Ford etched his name in Seminole lore on Monday at The Stephens Cup.
Many of the distinguished members at Seminole Golf Club were all asking themselves the same question on Monday after North Carolina’s David Ford ran off eight consecutive birdies en route to carding a 10-under 62 in the second round of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup being played at the esteemed course in Juno Beach, Fla.
“Has anyone done that here before?”
Maybe Ben Hogan did it on one of his many trips to Seminole while he prepared for the Masters.
Or perhaps Seminole head professional Claude Harmon had the same birdie run when he set the course record by shooting a 12-under 60 in the 1947 Pro-Member.
Nobody seems to know, but one thing is for sure: David Ford etched his name in Seminole lore on Monday at The Stephens Cup.
After shooting a 68 in the morning to help the Tar Heels to a seven-stroke lead after the opening round, the left-hander from Peachtree Corners, Georgia, was going along nicely at 2-under through eight holes of his second round. Not even the ultra-confident Ford could have imagined what was about to occur after he birdied Seminole’s par-5, 545-yard ninth hole.
What transpired in the late afternoon sun on the shores of Juno Beach will certainly be talked about for years to come.
He followed his birdie on the ninth with seven consecutive birdies on hole Nos. 10-16 on his inward nine to move to 10-under on his round. After a 25-foot birdie putt on Seminole’s par-4, 410-yard 16th hole resulted in his eighth straight birdie, Ford unsuccessfully tried to suppress a grin as he as sheepishly pulled the brim of his cap over his eyes in disbelief.
With Harmon’s 65-year-old record within reach, Ford settled for pars on his final two holes for a round of 62.
At 14-under 130, he holds the 36-hole lead over Brett Roberts of Florida State, who is at 8-under following rounds of 69-68. Arkansas’ Julian Perico was at 8-under when play was suspended.
Absolutely dialed. @UNCmensGolf’s David Ford fires a -10 (62) during round two.
“This one might be the best round I’ve ever played just considering how nervous I was,” Ford told the Golf Channel. “I had a lot of long waits out on the course, there were some rulings in front of me, so I had a lot of time to think, and I think I handled myself and the nerves well and got a low score out of it.”
Tuesday’s third round will be televised by Golf Channel from 3-6 p.m.
The top four teams after Tuesday’s third round of stroke play advance to match play on Wednesday.
A pair of teens take the No. 1 seed into match play at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, but there’s plenty of experience on the bracket, too.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball owns a short history as one of the newest U.S. Golf Association championships. The tournament has only been played since 2015 (minus 2020, when – like many USGA championships – the Four-Ball was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic), but this year has been one for the books.
In the previous five iterations of the championship, a combined 19 sides managed to post 36-hole totals of 10 under or better in stroke play. Over the weekend at host site Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington (and stroke-play co-host the Home Course), 20 sides produced such scores.
At the top of that list, and with the No. 1 seed now that stroke play is set to begin, are two teenagers: David Ford and Kelly Chinn. They are the Nos. 1- and 3-ranked players in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, respectively, and Chinn is the reigning AJGA Rolex Player of the Year. The two combined for rounds of 62-65 for medalist honors.
“I know David and I were trying to go as low as possible,” said Chinn, who is headed to Duke University in the fall, while his partner will enroll at Atlantic Coast Conference in-state rival North Carolina. “To shoot [that low of a score] for 36 holes is awesome.”
The cut was made on Sunday evening to the top 32 sides that will advance to match play – or at least, it was almost made. Eleven sides returned to Chambers Bay first thing Monday morning to play off for the final six spots on the bracket.
So far, both youth – like Chinn and Ford – and experience – like defending champions from 2019 Scott Harvey and Todd Mitchell (who finished T3 at 14 under) – are represented.
In the youth category, don’t overlook Luke Potter, who won the Maridoe Amateur last winter, and Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur championship, who combined to take the No. 5 seed.
Teens Carter Loflin and Wells Williams as well as Maxwell Ford (David Ford’s twin brother) and Bruce Murphy also advanced.
The bracket will also include current collegians and 2017 champs Frankie Capan (Florida Gulf Coast) and Shuai Ming Wong (SMU) plus inaugural Four-Ball champs Nathan Smith and Todd White – both of whom have taken turns on the U.S. Walker Cup squad.
Rose Zhang and David Ford ended 2020 by topping their respective fields at the prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions and PGA National.
Rose Zhang just keeps adding titles to her 2020 collection. The 17-year-old defended her AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions crown on Nov. 28, winning the season finale on the AJGA calendar. Zhang has now won three AJGA invitational titles – the TOC joins her Rolex Girls Junior and Ping Invitational triumphs. Those go along with her U.S. Women’s Amateur crown as well as a third-place finish at this year’s ANNIKA Invitational.
Zhang was named the AJGA’s Rolex Player of the Year for the second year in a row. She is also the top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Zhang, an Irvine, California, resident who is committed to play for Stanford next fall, led by three shots entering the final round of the event at PGA National in Pam Beach Gardens, Florida, after opening rounds of 70-67-69. She started the final round calmly enough with four pars and made her first birdie on the par-3 fifth hole. Zhang pieced together five birdies on the back for a closing 66.
Remarkably, Zhang only had two bogeys in 72 holes and didn’t make another one after the sixth hole of her second round.
Zhang finished ahead of fellow Class of 2021 player Xin (Cindy) Kou, who was four back at 12 under. Madison Hewlett, who also had a closing 66, and Megha Ganne tied for third at 6 under.
In the boys division of the Tournament of Champions, David Ford capped his 2020 in a similarly fitting way. The North Carolina commit from Peachtree Corners, Georgia, made the Tournament of Champions his third AJGA invitational title of the year after winning the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield in June – the first event of the AJGA restart – and following that with the Junior Players Championship title two months later.
Interestingly, all three of Ford’s AJGA Invitational victories came at venues that host PGA Tour tournaments. Ford, No. 2 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, entered the final round at PGA National with a seven-shot lead. He only had one bogey in a closing round of 68 and at 22 under for 72 holes, finished seven ahead of Bruce Murphy of Johns Creek, Georgia.
Sean-Karl Dobson of Austin, Texas, was third. Ford’s twin brother Maxwell finished T-26.
Brothers Maxwell and David Ford have a healthy rivalry in junior golf, and they’re about to take it to the college level.
Before identical twins David and Maxwell Ford became forces in junior golf circles, their mom used to dress David in blue and Maxwell in red, and for good reason.
“I did it so the neighbors could tell them apart at the bus stop,” Karen Ford said with a chuckle.
To Maxwell, it’s more than mere coincidence that his brother signed to wear Carolina Blue at University of North Carolina next fall while he is headed to wear red at Georgia.
It’s hard enough to raise one American Junior Golf Association star; the Ford brothers of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, are both ranked highly in the Golfweek Junior Rankings – David is second, Maxwell 12th – and theirs is a healthy rivalry. When they play a tournament, the first goal is to beat one another and the next is to beat the field. For as long as Chris Moore, Atlanta Athletic Club’s junior golf leader, has known the boys, they have preferred to be paired in back-to-back groups, which helps their parents’ spectating and allows the brothers to keep an eye on each other.
“I try to think of him as just another guy on the golf course, but it can get a little more personal than that because he’s my brother,” David said. “I think we push each other a lot because we hate losing to each other, so it makes us practice harder and more efficiently.”
Maxwell Ford (Courtesy of the Ford family)
“People compare us, naturally,” Maxwell said. “It’s a struggle, but I’ve been doing it all my life and I’m getting better at it. I’m trying to get better at it anyway. He’s been beating me and telling me he’s beating me, and it’s getting in my head.”
Until recently, Maxwell outperformed his brother. At two AJGA events in 2018, the brothers swept the qualifiers and tournaments: David won the qualifier and Maxwell the tournament at the 2018 Evitt Foundation RTC Junior All-Star, and the brothers flip-flopped results at the 2018 AJGA Junior All-Star at Butte Creek.
Maxwell pulled ahead by winning the 2018 AJGA Junior All-Stars at Cooks Creek and the prestigious Jones Cup Junior Invitational in December but hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish this calendar year as he’s experienced a six-inch growth spurt that has proved to be a bigger adjustment to his swing than anticipated.
Meanwhile, David put on a ballstriking clinic to claim the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield in June, then in September shot 66 in the final round to rally from seven strokes back and win the Junior Players Championship at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. At the trophy ceremony at Sedgefield, home of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, David credited his brother for pushing him to greater heights. Well, sort of.
David Ford (Courtesy of the Ford family)
“I was walking off the podium and one of my friends said, ‘Really? You’re not going to thank your brother.’ I was like, ‘Wait everybody, I have to thank my brother. He beats me a lot, so I want to thank him for that.’”
“He really doesn’t like losing to me,” Maxwell confirmed. “He’s had some blowups.”
None more so than when playing Ping-Pong. The Ford brothers are known to pack their own paddles when traveling in hopes a game breaks out during downtime at golf tournaments. Maxwell concedes his brother is better than him at table tennis, but there was a day where Maxwell beat him five times in a row and David smashed his paddle.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that mad,” David said. “Ping-Pong has this way of exaggerating the emotions on the golf course.”
These 17-year-old mirror twins – David swings left-handed while Maxwell is a righty – are actually triplets. Sister Abigail popped out first and is the oldest by two minutes, weighing 3 pounds 7 ounces, followed by Maxwell at 2 pounds 14 ounces, and finally David, who tipped the scales at all of 2 pounds 7 ounces. If David had been chasing Maxwell in the rankings for the last few years, the roles have reversed and now it is Maxwell being pushed by David in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
While most teenage brothers are wont to sleep in and lounge around playing video games on the weekend, the Ford brothers are a different breed.
David (left) and Maxwell Ford flank their sister Abigail.
“That’s not David Ford. He’s up and beating everyone to the golf course and stays until dark,” Moore said. “I can’t coach him to take a day off. He’s got an energy and desire to be a champion, and that’s the stuff you can’t coach.”
It’s not uncommon for Maxwell, the more analytical of the two, to wake up, realize his brother already has left for the course and conclude he better get there, too. Especially after David ended Maxwell’s two-year reign as AAC’s men’s champion with a 54-hole club record 19-under par aggregate (two rounds played at Highlands Course, one at Riverside Course), including a final-round 63. But it was what David said and did in the aftermath of his victory that most impressed Moore.
“He said, ‘I’ve got to get on the putting green. I missed some putts today that I should’ve made.’ That was after a 63,” Moore said. “That’s his mentality.”
That’s the way these brothers roll. After all, they’re built Ford tough.
This story initially appeared in Issue 5 of Golfweek magazine.
David Ford rallied from seven shots back to win the Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass by two.
David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, birdied his first two holes to start a rally from seven shots back, carding a 66 to win the 14th annual Junior Players Championship by two shots on Sunday.
Ford, a high school senior who has committed to North Carolina, began the round at 1-over par and finished at 5-under 211. Scotty Kennon (71) of Bradenton, Florida, Thomas Morrison (68) of Dallas, Karl Vilips (72) of Australia and Kelly Chinn (71) of Great Falls, Virginia, tied for second at 3-under.
Kennon has committed to Wake Forest, Morrison to Texas, Vilips to Stanford and Chinn to Duke.
After his quick start, Ford made par the rest of his front nine, then rattled off three birdies in a row on Nos. 10-12. He rebounded from his only bogey of the day at No. 15 with a birdie at No. 16 before parring his closing two holes.
Ford has won his last two AJGA starts and has finished eighth or better in his last four tournaments. He came into the week third on the Rolex Junior Rankings.
Ford won the AJGA event in Greensboro, North Carolina, in June, the first tournament the organization held since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Preston Summerhays of Scottsdale, Arizonz, the 36-hole leader, bogeyed two of his first four holes and never recovered, going on to post a 76 and drop into sixth at 2-under.
On Thursday, David Ford won the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield, the junior tour’s first event back since mid-February.
A few months have passed since the AJGA crowned a winner. On Thursday, David Ford won the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield, the junior tour’s first event back since mid-February. Ford played 72 holes at Sedgefield Golf Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 8 under to win the event by two shots.
Ford closed the week with a round of even-par 70, which was his highest all week. He kept himself in contention with opening rounds of 68-65-69. In Friday’s final round, he was 3 over through 14 holes before playing his final four holes in 2 under. That effectively separated him.
“It was kind of a rough putting day,” he said. “I knew how well I was rolling it, just nothing went in.”
Ford finished ahead of Maxwell Moldovan, the AJGA’s Rolex Player of the Year in 2019 and a soon-to-be freshman at Ohio State, and Wells Williams, a high-school sophomore from West Point, Mississippi.
Ford is ranked No. 14 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings and will play golf at the University of North Carolina in 2021. Earlier in the year, he finished sixth at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and seventh at the Dustin Johnson World Junior Championship.
The Sedgefield event marked his first AJGA Invitational victory.
“I’ve put myself in pretty good position my last four or five tournaments,” Ford said. “Not amazing position but pretty good. I had the lead going into today and to finish it off, it means a lot. I’ve been working toward this for awhile and it feels really good.”
Preston Summerhays, who won the 2019 U.S. Junior, was tied for fourth at 4 under with Sean-Karl Dobson of Austin, Texas.
