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Golfweek’s Adam Schupak recaps the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions, where Harris English won his third PGA Tour title at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak recaps the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions, where Harris English won his third PGA Tour title at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
Harris English took the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, edging Joaquin Niemann in a playoff on Sunday.
He needed an extra hole, but Harris English took the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, edging Joaquin Niemann in a playoff on Sunday.
English came into the final round atop the leaderboard, but made the turn at an even 36 and fell out of the lead. He didn’t go away, however, using a stretch of birdies on the back to press Niemann, who had passed him.
English, who hadn’t won on Tour since 2013 at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, lipped out a birdie putt on No. 16 that would have pushed him back into a tie for the lead with Niemann. He made par on 17, meaning he needed a birdie on the final hole to force a playoff or an eagle to win outright.
After a booming drive, English used the Hawaiian breeze to his advantage, shaping a shot to inside 10 feet, but then missed the putt, forcing a playoff.
He didn’t make the same mistake twice, however, draining a birdie in the playoff to capture the crown after Niemann missed the green and made par.
Niemann posted six birdies on the front nine and three more on the back in finishing the day with a 63 to post a four-day total of 25 under.
Niemann seemed unfazed by challenges, as he has in most events to start the new season. The Chilean product had five top-25 finishes in six full-field events to start the 2020-21 season, and continued with the hot hand in Maui. His only victory on Tour came at the now-defunct A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier back in 2019.
Sentry TOC: Leaderboard | Photos
Justin Thomas also shook off controversy to hang tough on Sunday. Thomas made news by uttering a homophobic slur during the third round that was picked up by hot microphones on the Golf Channel’s broadcast.
But Thomas was focused on Sunday, playing solid golf to maneuver his way near the top. He missed a short birdie putt on No. 16, however, and finished two strokes back, barely failing to win for the third time in this event. He captured the crown in 2017 and 2020.
Xander Schauffele finished at 21 under while Bryson DeChambeau used a six-foot eagle putt on the final hole to fire his best round of the week, a 66, and finish at 20 under. He said after the round that he was happy with his performance, but it didn’t accomplish what he set out to do.
“I wouldn’t say fully satisfied. I was coming here to win,” DeChambeau said. “… But I learned a lot about my game, my speed and what I have to do to keep it in the fairway and to make sure I give myself some opportunities.”
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The 22-year-old Chilean opens the Mayakoba with a 66 as he eyes a big payday to help pay the medical expenses of an infant relative in need.
[jwplayer mXjws8Yn-9JtFt04J]
Salvemos, Rafita, translates to “save, Rafita.” That hashtag is the mission this week for 22-year-old Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann, who has promised to donate his winnings at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to help pay for the medical needs of his young relative.
It could be a big check if Niemann can maintain his early pace. He made an eagle and three birdies on his second nine to shoot 5-under 66 at El Camaleon Golf Club on a windy, rainy day on the Yucatan Peninsula to share the early lead in the opening round with Argentine Emiliano Grillo at the PGA Tour’s final official event of the calendar year.
A few days after Niemann’s one-month-old cousin, Rafita Calderon, was born, his Aunt Carola, who is a pediatrician, observed that the baby displayed symptoms of hypotonia. Tests revealed that Calderon suffered from Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which affects about 1 in every 10,000 babies born every year. Symptoms include weak muscle tone, trouble breathing and swallowing, and those diagnosed with the rare genetic disease have a life expectancy of two years. Calderon is battling for his life, desperately needing a one-time injection of Zolgensma, a drug which according to Niemann costs $2.1 million in his home country. Calderon is at a medical center in Santiago, Chile, five hours from where the family lives awaiting treatment.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH1NUKfFBrC/?utm_source=ig_embed
Niemann posted an Instagram story in support of his young relative and created a Go Fund Me page that already has raised more than $120,000. At the RSM Classic two weeks ago, Niemann promised to contribute $5,000 for every birdie and $10,000 for every eagle in addition to his earnings, which totaled $152,450. This week, Niemann is wearing a ribbon on the top of his hat to raise awareness of Rafita’s plight, and he isn’t alone.
MAYAKOBA: Scores | Photo gallery
“I’ve got a bag with a lot of them, so yeah, just put it on the first tee and the locker and the 10th tee so (players) can grab it,” Niemann said. “Having all the support from all the people here on Tour is really amazing, and also from Mexico. The tournament, they’re helping me a lot to tell a little bit more of the story of Rafita, so happy for all the support of the players. We’re fighting for him.”
Niemann, 22, became the first Chilean to win on the PGA Tour at the 2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier and represented his country as a member of the International team at the 2019 Presidents Cup.
Grillo, 28, also is seeking his second career Tour title and first since 2015. Playing in his trademark aggressive style, Grillo rattled off four birdies in a row beginning at the fifth and drained a 20-foot par putt at his final hole of the day to shoot 66 and extend his streak of par-or-better rounds in the event to a perfect 17-for-17.
“There is not a flag stick, you could put it behind a tree, he will find it,” said PGA Tour Radio commentator Dennis Paulson of Grillo. “He is not afraid. He is the Lanny Wadkins of his generation.”
American Rickie Fowler, who is winless this year, carded eight birdies but also a quadruple-bogey 8 en route to shooting 1-under 70. World No. 3 Justin Thomas struggled to shoot 1-over 72.
Niemann got off to a sluggish start, too, offsetting an early bogey with a bounce-back birdie on his first nine, the back nine, before going on a 5-under tear over the course of five holes beginning at No. 3. He drilled a 7-wood to reach the par-5 seventh in two and rolled in the putt for eagle. Niemann, the 45th-ranked player in the world, did most of his damage on the three par 5 holes, which he played in 4 under. After the round, he reiterated his social media post that he’s playing for something bigger than himself this week.
“It’s always extra motivation trying to play for him,” Niemann said of Rafita, “and get some more money for him, so yeah, it’s special.”
And Niemann didn’t need to be told what a first prize of $1,296,000 this week would do to help efforts to get his relative the medical attention he needs.
“It would be nice to see,” Niemann said.
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The Chilean committed to donate his prize money to help offset the medical bills of his cousin, who is battling for her life.
SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Joaquin Niemann missed the Masters last week after testing positive for COVID-19. It sounds like a horrible twist of fate until you consider that the 22-year-old Chilean is dealing with graver medical concerns.
Niemann’s one-month-old cousin, Rafita Calderon, was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a rare genetic disease that affects about one in every 10,000 babies born every year. Calderon is battling for his life, desperately needing a one-time injection of Zolgensma, a drug which according to Niemann costs $2.1 million.
Calderon is at a medical center in Santiago, five hours from where the family lives, awaiting treatment.
“When they told me that [Rafita] is going to have like a really bad disease I didn’t realize what it was, like I didn’t put like much attention on it,” Niemann said of the disease that is the No. 1 genetic cause of infant death. “Then a couple days go on, they tell us the bad news, that this medicine was this much amount of money … I was in my mind going crazy, ‘what can I do to help out?'”
In an Instagram post this week, Niemann committed to donate all of his earnings for the RSM Classic and the Mayakoba Classic to help fund the expensive medical bills for Rafita. Niemann also promised to contribute $5,000 for every birdie and $10,000 for every eagle. Entering Sunday’s final round, he had already made 15 birdies, adding $90,000 to his donation.
“This week I am playing for something bigger,” Niemann posted. “You may have seen me post about Rafita, a 20-day old baby that is battling for his life fighting a rare disease called SMA. Spinal Muscular Atrophy symptoms are often seen when babies are first born. They have weak muscle tone and trouble breathing, eating and swallowing. Unfortunately, the only cure is $2.1 million (USD). I will be donating all of my earnings this week and next to help save his life, as well as pledging $10,000 for every eagle, $5,000 for every birdie.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH1NUKfFBrC/
“I found that I could do like a big help here in the U.S. because being here on the Tour, there’s a lot of people that is really interested in this kind of stuff,” he said after the third round of the RSM Classic. “If I’m able to help, it would be amazing, it would be a dream for me come true.”
Niemann said he grew up playing with Rafita’s father, Felipe, 33, who is first cousin to Niemann’s mother.
“Just thinking about him, I love him and his family, they’re really nice,” Niemann said. “And he’s said things like, ‘this happens,’ so I think it’s kind of like a mission that for me to help out for them.”
So far, the GoFundMe has raised just over $42,000 in its goal of funding the procedure. You can donate to the cause through the GoFundMe here.
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The 21-year-old Chilean has on the top of his game of late — he’s finished in the top 25 at all four of this season’s PGA Tour events,
As if the potential for a tropical storm and shortened daylight window weren’t enough, the pandemic continued to mess with the 2020 Masters as Joaquin Niemann withdrew from the event on Friday after testing positive for COVID-19.
Niemann is currently ranked 41st in the Official World Golf Ranking and 38th in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
The 21-year-old Chilean has been on the top of his game of late — he’s finished in the top 25 at all four of this season’s PGA Tour events, including a sixth-place finish at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
Niemann has one Tour win under his belt, taking the title at the 2019 Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, an event that has since been removed from the schedule.
He has played in seven major tournaments so far in his young career, but failed to make the cut in his only other appearance at Augusta in 2018.
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Joaquin Niemann has informed Augusta National Golf Club that he will not participate in the 2020 Masters Tournament due to a positive COVID-19 test result. pic.twitter.com/oZur2JcNWl
— The Masters (@TheMasters) November 6, 2020
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Here is what the Top-10 finishers at the CJ Cup took home from Shadow Creek Country Club.
10th Place: Harris English
$263,250.
9th Place: Sebastian Munoz
$282,750.
T – 7th Place: Bubba Watson + Lanto Griffin
$314,438.
6th Place: Joaquin Niemann
$351,000.
5th Place: Talor Gooch
$390,000.
T – 3rd Place: Tyrrell Hatton + Russell Henley
$565,500.
2nd Place: Xander Schauffele
$1,053,000.
1st Place: Jason Kokrak
$1,755,000
Here is what the Top-10 finishers at the CJ Cup took home from Shadow Creek Country Club.
10th Place: Harris English
$263,250.
9th Place: Sebastian Munoz
$282,750.
T – 7th Place: Bubba Watson + Lanto Griffin
$314,438.
6th Place: Joaquin Niemann
$351,000.
5th Place: Talor Gooch
$390,000.
T – 3rd Place: Tyrrell Hatton + Russell Henley
$565,500.
2nd Place: Xander Schauffele
$1,053,000.
1st Place: Jason Kokrak
$1,755,000
Jon Rahm overcame a first-round 75 and a third-round knuckle-head penalty to win the BMW Championship on Sunday.
Dustin Johnson drained a snaking 43-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole on Sunday to force a playoff in the BMW Championship with Jon Rahm.
But on the first playoff hole, Rahm poured in a 66-footer for birdie to win the tournament, his second of the year and fifth PGA Tour win.
Rahm overcame a first-round 75 and a third-round penalty to shoot 66-64 over the weekend. He led by two late Sunday, but Johnson birdied the 15th to make it a one-shot deficit. Johnson’s birdie on 18 forged a tie.
Johnson won last week’s Northern Trust. He’ll start next week’s Tour Championship in the pole position, 10 shots ahead of the field.
66 FEET for the WIN! 🏆
UNBELIEVABLE putt from @JonRahmPGA to claim @BMWChamps in a playoff! #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/DktJRjZLoj
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 30, 2020
Rahm will start second, two shots back.
On Saturday, after hitting a solid drive on the 421-yard par-4 5th hole, Rahm then found the green with his second from 129 yards and had 44 feet for birdie. Walking to the green, he was jiggling his ball marker – an Arizona State poker chip – in his right pocket.
He bent over and picked up his ball but the ball marker was still in his pocket. Rahm was penalized one stroke under Rule 9.4b/1 for touching his ball while it was in play without putting a marker down first.
BMW Championship: Leaderboard | Photos
Rahm won the Memorial in July after also committing a penalty. He chipped in from behind the 16th green for birdie to take a four-shot lead but as he soled his club right before the chip, the ball moved and didn’t return to its original spot before Rahm hit his shot.
Rahm was penalized two shots for the infraction. He didn’t learn about the situation on the 16th until he had finished his round.
Only five golfers at the BMW finished under par: Rahm (-4), Johnson (-3), Niemann (-2), Hideki Matsuyama (-2) and Tony Finau (-1).
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Joaquin Niemann shoots a bogey-free 8-under 63 at Harbour Town to jump into contention at the RBC Heritage.
After the way Joaquin Niemann played in his third trip around Harbour Town Golf Links during his debut performance in the RBC Heritage, he came to this conclusion.
“I don’t know why I didn’t play here sooner,” he said of the seaside Pete Dye layout that has hosted the PGA Tour since 1969.
Niemann, 21, should be back for many years to come with his world-class talent, which he displayed for every one to see early Saturday morning. He raced out to six birdies on his opening nine and sank a putt from off the green at 16 for his eighth birdie of the day and signed for a bogey-free 63 to go from the cut line to contention for the winner’s tartan jacket on Sunday.
“The first couple of days, I didn’t score pretty good, but I think I was waiting for one low score,” said Niemann who opened with rounds of 70-69. “Now I think I’m ready for Sunday.”
When you're hot, you're hot. 🔥🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/N2sAkbCNJb
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 20, 2020
Niemann became the first Chilean to win on the PGA Tour when he won A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in September, and he said he nearly played in Hilton Head last year, but went back home for the Chilean Open instead.
Niemann was a captain’s pick for the 2019 Presidents Cup, and though he went winless in his debut, he called it one of the best experiences since turning pro.
“I shared a lot of moments with the best players in the world. I got Ernie (Els) as a captain. That is just awesome. That week was really special for me,” he said earlier this year.
When the Players was canceled due to the global pandemic, Niemann flew home to Chile and spent time with his family.
Leaderboard | Photos | How to watch | Tee times | Updates
“After two weeks, I was like, I’ve got nothing to do. I want to go back to practice. I couldn’t do anything for two months because in Chile everything was locked down. … We’re going through really hard times in Chile. There’s like 20 million people in the whole country, and last couple months we’ve been getting like 4,000 a day of the virus. So it’s pretty high,” he said. “I think it’s getting bad there because right now it’s winter, and they say that the winter is not good for the virus. So, yeah, we’re staying safe. My family’s staying safe, which is good.”
Niemann described it as “pretty easy” to receive a special visa for work or sport and return to the U.S. He said he’s been extremely careful while traveling to play golf and had found a Mexican restaurant, Java Burrito, he likes with cheap eats to grab take-out.
“I’ve been there almost every day like at 5 (p.m.) because at 7 (p.m.) it gets too packed, too many people,” he said. “It’s a good burrito, good bowls.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Harbour Town reminds Niemann of the course he grew up playing in Chile.
“When you miss a fairway here, to have a shot, you’ve got to have a lot of imagination. I like that. I like playing that golf,” he said. “Where I grew up, it’s kind of like a similar style. It’s tight, and you’ve got to move the ball.”
On Saturday, Niemann did his moving up the leaderboard to 13 under (tied with Chris Stroud, who matched Niemann’s 63) and now he can spend his afternoon eating a burrito and seeing just how good of a chance he’ll have on Sunday to earn his second Tour title.
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Analyzing the golf betting odds to win the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational, with PGA Tour betting odds, picks, predictions and best bets.
Five of the top 10 golfers in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings are in the field this week at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Fla., for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Eight-time champion and 11th-ranked golfer Tiger Woods won’t be on hand, as he ensures his body is in peak shape for next month’s Masters. Below, we look at the golf betting odds and make our picks to win the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The key stats for the 7,454-yard, par-72 Bay Hill Club and Lodge are:
My model at Fantasy National looks at the most recent 36 rounds for each golfer in the field.
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 4:15 a.m. ET.
No one in the field with a minimum of 10 rounds played at Bay Hill has gained more strokes per round than McIlroy’s 2.78, according to Data Golf. The 2018 champ followed it up with a T-6 finish last year, and he tied for fourth in 2017.
He has finished in the top five in each of his last six worldwide events, including a win at the WGC-HSBC Champions. He’ll defend his 2019 Players Championship crown next week.
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The books seem to be toying with us by continuing to offer these lofty odds on the former world No. 1. He missed the cut at last week’s Honda Classic following a T-43 at the Genesis Invitational, and has had poor results here with a missed cut in 2017 and 2019. Auto-betting him at these odds is just a good overall strategy because as soon as he wins again, he’s back down to less than 10/1.
Niemann ranks second to only McIlroy in my stat model. He’s fifth in the field in opportunities gained and 11th in Proximity from the key distance. He tied for 46th last year, but has since picked up his first PGA Tour win.
Francesco Molinari (+9000)
A $10 bet on the defending champ would return a profit of $900 if he were to go back-to-back. The last golfer to win at Bay Hill in consecutive years was Matt Every in 2014 and 2015, and needless to say, Molinari is the far more accomplished golfer. He ranks second to McIlroy with 2.21 strokes gained per round at this venue in 28 career rounds played.
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Howell has played 72 career rounds at Bay Hill to rank fourth in the field. He’s coming off a T-53 finish at the WGC-Mexico Championship following a T-59 at the Genesis Invitational, but his experience is worth a shot at these long odds.
Like Niemann, Munoz has a win already in the 2019-20 PGA Tour season. He comes into the week ranked third in my stat model and 76th in the Golfweek rankings. He leads the field in Opportunities Gained and ranks fifth in scoring on the long par 3s.
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The Latin America Amateur Championship will be Jan. 16-19 at El Camaleón Golf Club at Rosewood Mayakoba Resort in Playa del Carmen.
The Latin America Amateur Championship – which offers its winner berths in the Masters, the U.S. Amateur, the British Amateur and final-stage qualifying for the British Open – will be held in Mexico for the first time this weekend.
The sixth edition of the LAAC will be Jan. 16-19 at El Camaleón Golf Club at Rosewood Mayakoba Resort in Playa del Carmen. The previous editions of the LAAC were at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic (twice), Prince of Wales Country Club in Chile, Club de Golf de Panama and Pilar Golf in Argentina.
Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico, who played college golf at Arkansas through the 2018 season, won the LAAC in 2019, then finished T-36 at the 2019 Masters before turning pro. Joaquin Niemann won the 2018 LAAC before turning pro, joining the PGA Tour and winning his first Tour event this season at the Military Tribute at the Greenbrier in September.
The LAAC was created in 2014, a year before the first playing of the event, by the Masters Tournament, the R&A and the U.S. Golf Association to promote the development of golf in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. It follows a model established by the Masters and the R&A with the creation of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2009, which also offers spots in top international events to its winner.
This year’s field of 108, who are invited through their national golf federations based on World Amateur Golf Ranking status, will play the 20th-ranked course in Golfweek’s Best 2020 list of courses for the Caribbean and Mexico. A Greg Norman design, El Camaleón opened in 2006.
This year’s event features players from 29 countries and territories: Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uruguay, Venezuela and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
