Modleski is the second player from Notre Dame to win the Jones Cup in the past three years.
Jacob Modleski wasn’t in the 2024 Jones Cup Invitational field at Ocean Forest Golf Club when the week began. However, at the end, he was the one holding the trophy.
The freshman at Notre Dame captured the 2024 Jones Cup, shooting 3-under 69 in the final round to finish at 1-under 215 for the tournament, the only player in the 84-person field to finish under par. He beat Tennessee sophomore Caleb Surratt, who had the round of the tournament Sunday with a 5-under 67, and Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun by one shot.
North Florida senior Nick Gabrelcik, who led after the first round, finished solo fourth at 2 over. Gordon Sargent, a junior at Vanderbilt and No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, tied for seventh at 4 over.
The Jones Cup has become one of the premier amateur events on the schedule and is the first major one in the calendar year. Past champions include Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Ludvig Aberg and Akshay Bhatia.
Modleski is the second player from Notre Dame to win the Jones Cup in the past three years, joining Palmer Jackson. With the win, Modleski earns an exemption into the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic in November.
Nick Gabrelcik won his fourth career college title, contended at the Jones Cup and now continues his spring season with renewed putting confidence.
Winter golf has a way of stripping away big expectations. So despite having won his fourth career college title three days before the start of the Jones Cup, North Florida sophomore Nick Gabrelcik looked at his brother and caddie Donnie before the final round of the coveted amateur event and decided to throw scoring expectations out the window.
“They were probably the hardest conditions I’ve ever seen,” Gabrelcik said of that round at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, when cold winds howled. “…I went into the round, my brother was caddying for me, and I just looked at him and I’m like, ‘Let’s just go play golf and try and have the most fun we can. Whatever happens, happens.’”
Gabrelcik added a final-round 74 to previous rounds of 68-76 and tied for fourth in his first time playing the Jones Cup. But the number – particularly on Sunday – doesn’t tell the whole story. Only two players in the field broke par.
“I wasn’t going to let the score determine how I felt I played,” Gabrelcik said of his mindset entering that round.
A challenge for Gabrelcik this season has been in keeping a level head no matter where he falls amid lofty expectations. With his Sea Best title, Gabrelcik has now won four times in 13 career starts as a college player. He rose to No. 26 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings with that win.
But how does one set goals after a freshman season that earned him national recognition as the Phil Mickelson Award winner, landed him as the No. 3-ranked player in the country, and ended with a U.S. Amateur semifinal run? In a word, realistically.
When UNF head coach Scott Schroeder sat down with Gabrelcik to talk about his goals at the start of the fall season, “he kind of looked at me and was like, your expectations are good but coming off the spring we know it’s going to be difficult to relive that or make it even better.”
Gabrelcik wants to win events, and he wants to make another run at the Haskins Award, given to college golf’s best player as voted on by coaches, peers, and golf media. The secret is in his putter.
Nick Gabrelcik hits a bunker on the 18th hole during the quarterfinals at the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Jason E. Miczek/USGA)
The 19-year-old didn’t win a college title in the fall, but has since begun work with Ramon Bescansa, a Jacksonville-based putting coach who works with a bevy of Tour players. Turns out it was the missing piece to get Gabrelcik back to the top.
“I’m a big confidence guy so if I’m not seeing the putts go in the hole, I kind of get down on myself which is something I’m working on,” he said. “That’s what I tend to do, I just misread putts at times and then Ramon gives me some drills and we look at stuff just green-reading wise.”
Anticipating a big spring season – UNF will compete nine times – Gabrelcik used the winter break as his “lay-low period.” But before the Sea Best rolled around, he found himself struggling with putting again. An hour lesson made all the difference.
“Three days later I felt like I was prime Tiger with the putter in my hand and ultimately it led to having a great week at Sea Best.”
The momentum followed him to Sea Island, and now Gabrelcik is well on his way.
The man behind the medal
Look closely at the hardware that went home with Jones Cup winner Palmer Jackson and you’ll get a bit of a history lesson.
For the first time in 2022, the name Layne Williams is inscribed on the top of the champion’s medal. Officials have named the award after Williams, the longtime rules official who was instrumental in the rules side of the major amateur event.
Williams served as Official in Charge or on the Rules Committee at over 250 GSGA competitions and numerous USGA events, including the U.S. Open Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship, and U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. In 2015, Williams was a recipient of the USGA’s Ike Grainger Award, which recognizes 25 years of service to the organization.
Congratulations to our 2022 Jones Cup Invitational Champion, Palmer Jackson! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YgOCF6KVVZ
While the Jones Cup past champions list is distinguished, featuring major winners like Patrick Reed (2010) and Justin Thomas (2012), a highly experienced player doesn’t always walk away with the title. To wit, LSU senior Garrett Barber was a senior in high school when he won the title in 2018 and a 17-year-old Akshay Bhatia claimed the trophy the year after that.
Top juniors are well-represented in the field and often factor in prominently at the top of the leaderboard. This year’s junior head-turner was Ben James, a University of Virginia commit who finished solo third after rounds of 69-75-73. James racked up junior golf victories in 2021, winning the Scott Robertson Memorial plus three AJGA Invitationals as well as the New England Junior Amateur.
Benjamin James claimed his first invitational title at the Team TaylorMade Invitational. (AJGA photo)
James gained entry to several amateur events in the summer of 2020 but told Golfweek a year later that he got a little beat up in those events.
“It was a great learning experience for me to see how those guys play because they are really good,” James said in May.
Now James is applying those lessons, and they floated him all the way to the top.
Mid-amateur presence
The Jones Cup field featured seven mid-amateur players. Not surprisingly, reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad logged the best finish, a tie for 24th. Hagestad was in the mix early before falling down the leaderboard with a final-round 80
“I’m trying to knock the rust off and will try to be competitive,” Hagested told AmateurGolf.com before the Jones Cup. “I didn’t really play after the Mid-Am last year through the end of December. I played 18 holes here and there, but it’s not like I spent four or five hours on a Saturday working on my game like I’m starting to do now.”
Also of note, 2019 Western Amateur champion Garrett Rank finished T-63.
Palmer Jackson will always remember his final round in the 2022 Jones Cup Invitational.
For starters, it finished off the biggest victory to this point in his young career. But also, he had to battle the toughest playing conditions he had ever faced over 18 holes before he could hoist the champion’s trophy in the prestigious tournament held at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga.
“That was the most difficult tournament round I’ve ever had to play,” said Jackson, a junior standout at Notre Dame. “I think I have faced similar conditions to that before, but not on a golf course where you’ve got to hit it straight on every hole. And, when the wind picked up out here out by the coast, it was a true challenge. Just making par felt like birdie on a lot of holes. That’s fun to do, but not when you’re in the lead. So, I’m happy I got it in.”
Jackson led from wire to wire in the 18th edition of the tournament played near the shores of the ocean on the Georgia coast. He closed the tournament Sunday with a 4-over-par 76 score which allowed him to finish the 54-hole tournament at 5-under 211 and post a three-shot win.
Jackson’s final-round score was obviously his highest of the weekend, but it was still pretty impressive considering the severe conditions the players faced Sunday with temperatures remaining in the low- to-mid 40s and strong winds blowing 25 mph throughout the round with gusts coming in harder than that especially on the holes nearest the sandy shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s really just a mental challenge, fighting through the wind,” Jackson said. “It takes a lot out of your body, too. It feels like you’re playing 36 holes when you’re only playing 18. Out here, you have to be so focused already, and with that much wind, your focus has to intensify. That’s what is most difficult, but it’s really rewarding to have it pay off.”
It took nearly six hours for the players to finish their rounds Sunday with players teeing off in threesomes on both sides of the 7,308-yard course which played even longer in Sunday’s brutal wind.
When all the scores had been counted, only two players were below par for the tournament which featured 84 of the best amateur golfers across the globe.
One of those players was Jackson, of course, and the other was Logan McAllister who plays at Oklahoma. The senior All-American for the Sooners carded an 1-under 71 in the closing round to grab the runner-up position on the final leaderboard with a 2-under score over the three days.
Jackson and McAllister were two of only four players who were able to finish under par in two of the three rounds as well. Jackson opened with a 66 on Friday to take a one-shot lead into round two when he shot a 69 while stretching his lead to five strokes going into Sunday’s finish.
McAllister started out with a 73 on Friday before shooting 70 and 71 the last two days. His 1-under score on Sunday was the lowest by any player in the field.
The other two golfers scoring in red numbers twice were Pietro Bovari and Caleb Surratt who ended up tying for 16th overall with a large group of players. Bovari shot a 71 on Sunday to equal the best score of the final round. He shot 70 on Friday, but the University of Virginia player was hurt by his 82 on Saturday which cost him a much better finish.
Meantime, Surratt who played with Jackson in the final pairing, was third going into the final 18 after posting 70 and 71 over the first two days before the University of Tennessee standout’s closing 82 sent him backward on the leaderboard.
Actually, on Sunday, no one shot a round of par. The next best score to the 71s posted by McAllister and Bovari was a 73 by five different players. One of those was Reid Davenport of defending Southeastern Conference champion Vanderbilt who ended up finishing in a six-way tie for seventh at 4-over for the three rounds.
Virginia’s Ben James took solo third at 1-over for the championship. He opened with a 69 Friday before playing the final two rounds 4-over. He was one of the players with a 73 on Sunday.
Two players – Nick Gabrelcik of North Florida and Kelly Chinn from Duke – shared fourth at 2-over for the tournament.
Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan, who was second behind Jackson after each of the first two rounds, settled for a 79 in the final round while playing in the last group and wound up solo sixth at 3-over.
Jackson, who won two times last year, also earned an invitation to the RSM Classic this coming November with his win this week. The PGA Tour event is hosted by the Davis Love Foundation and is played at Sea Island Golf Club.
“That was definitely on my mind today, a little extra motivation,” Jackson said of the RSM invite. “I was happy I was able to control my emotions enough to succeed. I’ve never played in a PGA Tour event, so this will be new ground for me, but definitely something I’m looking forward to.”
He maintained the lead throughout the final round and his spot atop the leaderboard was never really threatened. Jackson said he felt like his swing was as good Sunday as it was the two previous days, but like everyone, he wasn’t immune to the tough conditions.
Jackson made a bogey on the par-4 first but rebounded to par the remaining eight holes on the outward nine to drop only one shot. He also made bogey on the par-5 10th which played into the wind and also made bogeys on the par-4 16th and par-3 17th which played into the teeth of the wind off the ocean.
“I did feel like my game was as good,” he said. “I had to hit certain shots I didn’t want to hit because of the situation I was in.
“I had enough trust in myself that I knew if I made a mistake that I could get it back if I needed to. I played a little bit conservative on some holes today just to avoid a big number, but throughout the day, I tried to focus on myself and make myself as comfortable as I could. That was my goal.”
And of course, he wanted to win one for ole Notre Dame, too. After all, inscribed on one of his headcovers was “God. Country and Notre Dame.”
Jackson joins an impressive list of champions in the Jones Cup that includes current PGA Tour stars and major winners Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed and several others who have gone on to play in the professional ranks.
“There are so many great players here, so many great players that have won this event before,” Jackson said. “To have my name among theirs is a true honor. This is a top-tier event, one of the best I have ever played, and to be champion is something I’ll never forget.”
There’s a reason that, in three trips to the Jones Cup, Maxwell Moldovan has always been in the mix.
Maxwell Moldovan spent the days leading up to the Jones Cup eyeing the weather in Sea Island, Georgia. Moldovan, a 19-year-old Ohio State sophomore, got excited by forecasted weekend conditions that probably made much of the rest of the field cringe. There’s a reason that, in three trips to the Jones Cup, Moldovan has always been in the mix.
For Saturday’s second round, a south wind switched directions and blew twice as hard, and the temperature dropped roughly 20 degrees. Moldovan’s game holds up well in those kind of conditions.
“We’re not strangers to wind at all, especially the cooler temperatures,” said Moldovan, an Ohio native.
On Saturday, only eight players broke par and many of the names on the top of the leaderboard backed up from low scores on Friday. Moldovan fired a 1-over 73 at Ocean Forest Golf Club, three shots higher than his first-round score. A triple bogey on No. 11 and a double bogey on No. 14 drove up his score but he offset those with five birdies – including a hole-out from a bunker on No. 17.
“I did feel like my round today was kind of a good example of what happens at the Jones Cup when the wind is up,” he said.
Moldovan plays a low ball flight, which works to his benefit in tough conditions. On days like Saturday, his mantra is just to keep it in play.
“You don’t always need to attack pins when the weather is like this,” he said. “If you can get it on the green and give yourself 20, 30, 40 feet, you’re picking up shots on the field.”
Moldovan finished 11th here in 2021 and eighth in 2020. Both finishes fell in the midst of a two-year winless drought that Moldovan cracked in July when he won the Southern Amateur by a record margin. His 20-under 72-hole total at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi, shattered Justin Leonard’s winning record from 1993 by six shots.
Looking back on that stretch of golf, Moldovan maintains that all things happen for a reason.
“I’ve never let the tough finishes and tough weeks get to me more than a couple of days after and I’ve always tried to continue to work and push through them,” he said. “I worked really hard during that win drought and even though the results didn’t always show – I had some good tournaments in that stretch and I had some bad ones – although the results didn’t show, I knew I was getting better.”
Moldovan’s year took off after his Southern Amateur victory. He made match play at the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur. He was seventh at the Maridoe Collegiate and third at the Windon Memorial – both college events – and scored a top 10 at the Patriot All-America Invitational to end the year.
In a year and a half as a college golfer, the venues have been thrilling for Moldovan. The Floridian, which annually hosts the Valspar Collegiate in the spring, has been his favorite. He finished runner-up there last year. Moldovan recognizes the fields are deeper than they were in junior golf too.
“Now with college golf, over half the guys are very capable of winning with a good week,” he said. “The competition makes everybody better, and the golf courses too.”
Moldovan enters the final round eight shots off the pace set by Palmer Jackson, a Notre Dame junior who has had rounds of 66-69 this week. A lot can transpire in the wind, and Moldovan hopes to keep it interesting on Sunday.
“I’m just going to try to take care of my business and make as many pars as I can, hopefully a few birdies go down,” he said. “… Ocean Forest is a place where shots can come and go really fast.”
The LSU freshman returns to the Jones Cup with even more tools in his pocket.
When the Jones Cup rolled around in 2020, a 17-year-old Cohen Trolio wasn’t even sure he’d play. It was right in the middle of basketball season for Oak Hill Academy in West Point, Mississippi. Trolio, a shooting guard, had spent the winters immersed in basketball since the fifth grade.
“A body can get so messed up if all it does is golf from the time you’re born to 18 years old,” Trolio reasoned, citing wisdom from dad and swing coach V.J. Trolio, a teaching pro at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, who always encouraged his son to play other sports growing up.
Cohen, the offensive MVP for Oak Hill during his junior season, brought his basketball shoes to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last fall just to shoot around in the gym every now and then. But high tops are mostly just a relic from a past life for Cohen, a freshman on the LSU men’s golf team.
This is the third straight year Trolio, now 19, has teed it up in what is arguably the most important men’s winter amateur tournament on the calendar. It usually feels like winter in Sea Island when the Jones Cup is played at Ocean Forest Golf Club, but a south wind greeted the field on Friday which not only felt refreshingly balmy but made many of the long holes play downwind.
Palmer Jackson led the field with a 6-under 66 in Friday’s first round, but Trolio was only five behind after a round that included three birdies on the front nine and two bogeys on the back. For the second round, Trolio was anticipating a change in wind direction and a drop in temperature.
Two years ago, Trolio played his way into the final group at the Jones Cup and was tied for the lead with Davis Thompson. He was still a relative unknown despite his U.S Amateur semifinal run the previous August (which he made without a World Amateur Golf Ranking number next to his name considering he didn’t even appear in those rankings). Trolio slid to a tie for sixth in the final round but still finished among a handful of U.S. Walker Cup team members and players vastly more experienced than him.
“(Thompson) broke the course record that day so there wasn’t really much catching up,” Trolio remembered of the final round, “but I learned a lot from it and we’ll see what I can apply to the place this year.”
Basketball behind him, the Jones Cup now falls squarely in the middle of the college golf season. Trolio broke for the winter with a list of needed improvements from head coach Chuck Winstead and went home to his team — which not only includes dad V.J. but also short-game coach Tim Yelverton, who teaches out of the bay right next to the senior Trolio at Old Waverly Golf Club — to put together a plan. He already likes where that’s taken him.
Last year, Trolio was third at the Terra Cotta Invitational, won the Mississippi State Amateur and finished in the top 25 at the Southern Amateur. He only played one junior golf tournament – the U.S. Junior Amateur – and finished runner-up to Nicholas Dunlap there.
Cohen Trolio hits his second shot from the fifth fairway during the final match at the 2021 U.S. Junior at The Country Club of North in Village of Pinehurst, N.C. on Saturday, July 24, 2021. (Chris Keane/USGA)
The Mississippi State Amateur victory brought a spot in the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson (Mississippi). Trolio opened with 1-under 71 but missed the cut after a second-round 75. He won’t forget being with his dad and Yelverton on the range — just another pupil among Tour players like Chad Ramey, Scott Stallings, Lucas Glover and Kevin Kisner.
“It was kind of fun hanging out with that whole crew and dad kind of being a coach to us all,” he said.
The 2020 Jones Cup was the first tournament Trolio played after his semifinal run at the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst. He remembers the noise from that week and felt lucky to have been working with sports psychologist Brett McCabe from the time he was 15 to learn how to handle it better. He also returned home grateful for a network of better players who helped him keep the accomplishment in perspective.
Back at Old Waverly, Trolio “got beat up a little bit so I came back down to where I needed to be.”
“That kind of molded me, was a part of molding my game into what it hopefully will be one day,” he said of the experience. “I’m not near what I need to be yet but we’re getting closer and closer every day.”
Everything has a purpose on Trolio’s path. High school hoops made him anything but shy despite being a freshman.
“I learned how to be a leader as the underclassmen and I kind of saw what good leadership looked like,” he said. “When I get to college golf, like it doesn’t feel weird for me to speak up when I’m a freshman when I see something.”
Ludvig Aberg proved he can play in any decisions and deliver down-the-stretch firepower in winning the Jones Cup in Sea Island, Georgia.
You won’t see Ludvig Aberg’s name in a Walker Cup lineup, but he might show up on a Ryder Cup roster down the road a few years. Over a long weekend at the Jones Cup, where qualification for the Walker Cup – a biennial amateur team competition between the U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland – was an intriguing sub-plot, Sweden’s Aberg demonstrated an ability to compete in any kind of weather.
And to hold off some of America’s best with down-the-stretch firepower.
Aberg needed to birdie the 18th hole on Sunday in Sea Island, Georgia, to avoid a playoff with Americans Cole Hammer and Davis Thompson, two very likely picks for the U.S. Walker Cup team, and England’s Alex Fitzpatrick. Aberg, a sophomore at Texas Tech, hammered a drive down the middle at Ocean Forest Golf Club’s par-4 closing hole and stuck an 8-iron to 7 feet. He drained the putt to end it there.
“It was really cool to be able to do that on that kind of stage against those kind of players,” Aberg said at the end of the round.
The putt on the 18th green sealed it, but arguably, Aberg’s most heroic act of the weekend came on Saturday. Scoring conditions were ripe in Friday’s opening round as a south wind made Ocean Forest getable. Aberg posted an even-par 72, which left him trailing Fitzpatrick, who had a tournament-record 64, by eight shots.
Conditions reversed on Saturday, with wind and rain driving Fitzpatrick’s score 13 shots higher. Many players in the field had a similar turnaround, but not Aberg. His 2-under 70 was his low round of the week and tied Duke commit Kelly Chinn for the low round of the day.
“Yesterday obviously the weather was brutal,” Aberg said. “Wind coming sideways and rain just shattering down. It was really tough yesterday and I’m really proud of how I handled not only myself but my golf game yesterday.”
Aberg’s goal was to reach 4 under on Sunday – he thought that would be enough to clinch the title. A closing 72 left him at 2 under, but still one shot ahead of not only Hammer and Thompson but also Fitzpatrick, a Wake Forest junior who was a major factor for Great Britain and Ireland at the 2019 Walker Cup.
At the start of the day, Aberg was one shot behind the leaders. He played the front nine in 1 over but birdied the 10th hole. At the 14th hole, he flared his second shot right and landed in a golf cart, walking away with bogey.
“I hit the side and it ended up staying in the golf cart,” he said. “God knows what would have happened if it didn’t hit the cart.”
On the next tee box, Aberg asked Fitzpatrick, playing in the same group, if he knew what the leaders were doing. Fitzpatrick thought Thompson had played his way to 3 under. When Aberg made birdie at No. 15, it put him in the driver’s seat.
Aberg had the solo lead but lost it with a bogey at No. 17. That left him needing the birdie to win.
A week ago, Aberg was still on the waiting list for this event. As he returns to Lubbock, Texas, this week, team qualifying awaits. Aberg decided to add the Jones Cup to his schedule – or try to – because of the history associated with the event.
“I obviously heard a lot of stories about the tournament, how good the stats are, how good the course is and the field this year was incredible,” he said. “Obviously getting to play a tournament before our actual spring season starts is huge.”
Last spring’s COVID shutdown happened quickly, from Aberg’s perspective. One minute he was anticipating the next tournament start and the next he was flying home to Sweden. He spent nearly six months there, but that time also included a pair of victories on a Swedish pro tour called the Nordic Golf League. Aberg compares it to the Mackenzie Tour or Latinoamerica Tour.
Aberg last won an amateur event in the U.S. in November 2019, when he prevailed at the Sun Bowl All-American Classic.
“I didn’t necessarily work on anything specific more than the usual things I work on,” he said of the COVID break. “I really took the time to work on my technique. I felt like we’re going to have a few months now where you can really develop in terms of strength and staying uninjured. I really used the time to get stronger, basically.”
Aberg returned to Texas Tech in the fall and made two starts with the team. He feels himself feeding off his coaches and teammates, and they’ll likely be feeding off him just as much, especially after his Jones Cup win.
“You can’t really deny the fact that all of us are good players,” he said, “and that we are getting better because of each other.”
Alex Fitzpatrick, a GB&I Walker Cup hopeful, leads the Jones Cup after a tournament-record 64 to open the event.
Expect Walker Cup selectors to be eyeing the Jones Cup, this week’s major amateur event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, quite closely. That goes for the Great Britain & Ireland team just as much as for the U.S. team and on Friday, a GB&I player stole the show.
Alex Fitzpatrick, a Wake Forest junior from Sheffield, England, started on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 at Ocean Forest and never let up. After five back-nine birdies, he added three more on the front for a tournament-record 8-under 64.
Interestingly, it didn’t give him much space at the top of the leaderboard. Five other men dove below 70 in the first round, including Georgia fifth-year senior Spencer Ralston, who is close on Fitzpatrick’s heels with a 7-under 65.
Fitzpatrick already has been named to the R&A’s Walker Cup practice squad. He was part of the 2019 GB&I Walker Cup team that competed at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England two years ago. Fitzpatrick provided some stability for his side that week, going out as the lead man in every session. He played to a 2-2-0 record.
Alex Fitzpatrick fires a TOURNAMENT RECORD 64 at the 2021 Jones Cup Invitational! Great playing! pic.twitter.com/mVmzp5gkVz
Tee times were moved up at Ocean Forest on Friday in anticipation of inclement weather moving through in the afternoon, and several players used the opportunity to score.
A year ago, Fitzpatrick, who is ranked No. 31 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished 31st at the Jones Cup. This week, he is coming off a fourth-play finish across the country at the Arizona Intercollegiate with his Wake Forest team.
Plenty of U.S. Walker Cup hopefuls are in the field, too. Put Ralston, winner of the 2019 Players Amateur and quarterfinalist at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, on that list.
A pair of twins, Maxwell Ford and David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, represent the junior contingent high up on the leaderboard. Maxwell Ford fired a 5-under 67 for solo third. His brother David, ranked No. 1 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, sits in solo sixth at 3 under.
William Holcomb V, a fifth-year senior at Sam Houston State, has made no bones about his mission this week: He wants to play on this year’s Walker Cup team. Holcomb got hot early, making birdie on his first three holes to shoot to the top of the leaderboard. Another birdie followed at No. 6, but Holcomb had some missteps, too – bogeys at Nos. 7 and 11, and a double-bogey at No. 17.
Holcomb finished with a 2-under 70, good for a share of seventh with Ford Clegg, Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer.
Of note concerning the latter two in that group: Hammer is coming off a win in December at the South Beach International Amateur and Thompson is defending champion this week. Thompson is also No. 2 in the WAGR and, if he can hold that position through this week’s event, would secure an automatic selection to the U.S. Walker Cup team next week.
Will Holcomb would like to close the amateur chapter of his golf career with a turn on the U.S. Walker Cup team this spring.
The driving range at Spring Creek Country Club, a nine-hole facility in Crockett, Texas, was practically at the end of Will Holcomb’s driveway as a kid. Holcomb can’t tell you how many times he found himself in an intense game at Spring Creek – often one in which he wouldn’t be allowed to use his driver, but would still have to give up strokes anyway. He was always welcome, and he was always challenged.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re 100 with one lung and one leg … or if you’re 14 or 15, just a good group of guys who play together and compete and anybody is invited,” Holcomb said. “There’s trash talk and I can’t tell you how many times somebody has said something while I was over a putt.”
It’s no wonder Holcomb craves that setting. As a fifth-year senior on the Sam Houston State roster, Holcomb recently found himself less than excited about going to golf practice as he helped a friend with a home project. But when he got to the golf course, he discovered head coach Brandt Kieschnick had planned an up-and-down competition.
Holcomb’s switch flipped – instant engagement.
“I love it – that’s what I want to do,” he said. “I want to just beat somebody. I don’t know where I got that from.”
The switch will flip again on Friday as Holcomb tees it up among the world’s best amateurs at the Jones Cup, a 54-hole event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. The objective is simple: Holcomb wants to play his way onto the U.S. Walker Cup team.
No one else like him
As Kieschnick likes to say, there’s a Navy SEAL-style discipline to the way Holcomb goes about business, and the killer instinct figures in. Holcomb thinks he’s such a good match-play player because he hates to lose more than he likes to win.
“He wants to win more than anyone out there,” Kieschnick said.
Discipline is maybe the unseen layer to Holcomb’s success – or at the least the one that gets overlooked. Holcomb is a quick talker and a cut-up, and those qualities come through first. Personality was arguably the biggest takeaway from Holcomb’s break-out performance at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, when he played his way to the semifinals after entering the week ranked No. 328 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“He proved to himself that his good golf is as good as anybody’s good golf in the country,” Kieshnick said of that week. “He’s continued to prove that.”
Will Holcomb with Sam Houston State coach Brandt Kieschnick. (Photo: Sam Houston State Athletics)
Kieschnick saw a kid with the whole package on the recruiting trail in the summer of 2015. Sam Houston State had finished the previous season as a top-50 team in the nation, and Kieschnick really wanted the fast-talking player from Crockett with serious game. Keischnick secured the commitment over dinner at the Holcomb family’s table.
There are no boring moments with Holcomb on the roster.
“He would hit shots – he’d be trying to hook this 3-iron, he’d yell hook and he would spin on his feet three three times round for that ball to hook,” Kieschnick said. “That’s how much he talked to the ball. He’s spinning his body three full circles for that thing to hook.”
“When he hits a shot and he gets a good bounce he says, ‘The good lord takes care of the needy boy,” and he just keeps going.”
The Holcomb file is equal parts one-liners and statistics. It speaks of faith and character. Holcomb has steadily improved on the golf course because of a single-minded commitment, but Keischnick also remembers Holcomb coming to his office the summer after his freshman year to talk about proposing to his girlfriend. Holcomb and Graycie were ultimately married in August. Holcomb broke his foot at the wedding, but told his coach he’d play through it – and did.
“He played the whole semester in a boot, was our No. 1 player, almost won a couple times,” Kieschnick said. “… It was just the most amazing thing you ever saw.”
One box left to check
With a transition approaching, Holcomb would like to close this chapter as a Walker Cupper.
“I wouldn’t have gone to the South Beach (International Amateur) and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Walker Cup,” Holcomb said flatly. “I’ll get to play plenty of golf in this life, I didn’t really necessarily have to play any more.”
Realistically, Holcomb, as a U.S. Amateur semifinalist, was one match away from serious consideration for the last U.S. Walker Cup team. Ultimately, however, it took two more years and a head-turning stroke-play performance at the inaugural Maridoe Amateur in December to lift him into the conversation for the squad that will compete at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, on May 8-9.
“I’ve wanted to be on the team,” said Holcomb. “I want to play against the Europeans. I want to compete in match play with the best amateurs in the country and so I’ve always wanted to play it.”
Only one position on the 10-man team is spoken for – it went to Tyler Strafaci as winner of the 2020 U.S. Amateur. The USGA’s International Team Selection Committee will select three more players (the top three players in the WAGR) at the conclusion of the Jones Cup. Holcomb currently is ranked No. 71.
Will Holcomb with his trophy as Maridoe Amateur medalist.
It’s safe to assume the winner of the Jones Cup, if he is American, will get serious consideration. Holcomb knows what he has to do.
A 16-man practice squad invited was selected the week before Holcomb’s run at the Maridoe Amateur or he would conceivably have been in that elite group. After he wrapped up the stroke-play medal, Holcomb was introduced to Walker Cup captain Nathanial Crosby. He relished the face time.
“It’s kind of like, you’re not going to want to go on a date with somebody unless you’ve probably met them, even if everybody says great things about them, you don’t know them,” Holcomb reasoned.
The Maridoe medal amounted to a major feather in Holcomb’s cap. It goes along with a runner-up at the North & South Amateur, the Trinity Forest Amateur title and a top-10 finish at the Azalea Invitational.
“He truly believes he’s one of the best in the country and he’s not afraid to play anybody,” Kieschnick said. “He definitely respects his competition, he knows he has to play well. He wants the moment and he’s kind of the guy who wants the ball. I think the bigger the scenario, the better he is.”
This moment is big, and as he always does before major amateur events, Holcomb has spent three days at Ocean Forest getting lines and committing to spots. He’s already noted the small greens there, which will work in his favor. After all, some of his crowning achievements have come at Pinehurst No. 2, where he deftly navigated tricky green complexes. That’s not to say it’s the only place he’s a factor.
As Holcomb noted, “Cup’s the same width at Pinehurst as it is here, I think.”
Davis Thompson won the Jones Cup title at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia.
Davis Thompson didn’t have a bogey on his card Sunday as he put the finishing touches on a decisive Jones Cup victory at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia.
The Georgia junior started with a birdie on his opening hole and never looked back. Six more birdies would follow on what was arguably the nicest weather day all week in Sea Island, but it was the one at the first hole that is particularly noteworthy.
A year ago in this event, torrential rains caused the third and final round to be wiped out. Thompson was tied with Akshay Bhatia at the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes, so the two had to go back to the course for sudden death. Thompson put his drive in the water at No. 1, the first playoff hole, and made bogey, opening the door for a Bhatia victory.
The Jones Cup typically awards its champion a spot in the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, played each fall in Sea Island. That went to Bhatia, but since the teen had turned professional by the time the opportunity rolled around, the tournament committee reached out to Thompson, offering him an opportunity to play in the event as an amateur.
That week, in his PGA Tour debut, Thompson finished T-23. It was a huge boost of confidence for a player who admits to being a bit of an introvert.
“I was able to go out and play with the best players in the world and I know that I still have areas to improve for sure,” he said. “It was just encouraging that I’m good enough to compete at that level.”
At Ocean Forest, Thompson’s bogey-free 65 on Sunday came on the heels of opening rounds of 70-68. He dove to 13 under for the week, which was nine shots better than David Perkins, an Illinois State senior from East Peoria, Illinois. Jackson Suber, an Ole Miss sophomore from Tampa, Florida, finished third another shot back.
Thompson hardly dwelled on his Jones Cup loss a year ago, but says it was definitely something he thought about. As it turns out, that week kick-started a mammoth year that came full-circle at the RSM Classic.
During the months in between, Thompson won an NCAA Regional, finished at the top of Western Amateur stroke play and won another college title. He finished the fall as Georgia’s leading scorer.
“I kind of used that as confidence, I just built off that,” he said. “I guess I kind of used a little bit of motivation to win outright.”
Despite being played in the south, the Jones Cup is very much a winter tournament. It often feels that way in Sea Island. Cold winds howled on and off all weekend, including on Sunday.
“I putted great all week, but today all my irons shots started on line where I wanted them to. That was key for me because I was putting myself in position,” Thompson said of his play. “I think (the course) suits me. I’m a pretty good ballstriker and you really have to hit it well around there.
“You just have to be really mentally sharp, which I think I am.”
Thompson grew up in Auburn, Alabama, but his parents have since moved to nearby St. Simons Island, Georgia. It allowed him to sleep in his own bed this week as he made his third consecutive Jones Cup start.
With each career milestone, like that first PGA Tour start, Thompson keeps moving forward. He’s particularly excited about what his Georgia team, which ended the fall ranked No. 22 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, can do.
Thompson, ranked No. 23 individually by Golfweek, typically sits down before each semester and writes down goals for the coming months. He places that list in his locker at the University of Georgia, where he knows he’ll see it often.
The loftiest goal for this spring?
“I wrote down, ‘Win the Haskins Award,’” he said. “That’s a pretty lofty goal for me. I think I’m in a good spot if I continue to play well in the spring.”
Davis Thompson is in position to claim the one that got away last year at the Jones Cup.
Davis Thompson is in position to claim the one that got away last year. Thompson, a junior at Georgia and the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, took advantage of what you might call moving day at the Jones Cup, the first major amateur event of 2020. He posted a second-round 4-under 68 at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, and will take a two-shot lead into the final round.
A year ago, Thompson was tied with Akshay Bhatia after 36 holes when torrential rain wiped out the final round. He and Bhatia went to the par-4 first hole for sudden death, but Bhatia made quick work of him when Thompson put his drive in the water and made bogey.
In the year since, Thompson has won an NCAA Regional, finished at the top of Western Amateur stroke play, won another college title and played the RSM Classic on the PGA Tour, finishing in the top 25.
Thompson did most of his damage Saturday in the later part of his round. He made three birdies from Nos. 9-13, then added one more at the par-4 18th.
Before that, the second round had been the Cohen Trolio show. The West Point, Mississippi-based high-school junior surged into contention with a second-round 68 of his own that also included five birdies. It helped him reach 4 under and made him Thompson’s closest pursuer.
Trolio entered the limelight in August with a semifinal run at the U.S. Amateur, and a Jones Cup title would do much to cement him as one of the most promising up-and-comers in the game.
David Perkins, an Illinois State senior from East Peoria, Illinois, is solo third after rounds of 71-70 left him at 3 under. A large group at 2 under and in a tie for fourth includes Julien Sale, the Arkansas State standout, and Oklahoma senior Quade Cummins.
