Every PGA Tour event has a handful or so of spots in the field to dole out to golfers who didn’t otherwise qualify.
Those spots may go to a past champion. They often are awarded to a rising star in the game. The strategy there is that perhaps the up-and-comer will remember the courtesy later in his pro career and will become a regular at that particular Tour stop.
Sometimes a sponsor exemption gets doled out to someone noteworthy as a means to drive interest in a tournament, such as former NFL quarterback Tony Romo, who got into the Charles Schwab Challenge, or LPGA star Lexi Thompson, who wowed the Las Vegas crowd last October before just missing the weekend cut at the Shriners Children’s Open.
According to the PGA Tour, since 1990 there have been just 12 golfers to win a tournament after getting a sponsor exemption. There’s been over 1,000 PGA Tour events in that time, proving the long odds a sponsor invite faces.
Here’s the list of those who won on the PGA Tour after receiving a sponsor exemption since 1990.
The first encounter with the Arnold Palmer Invitational’s namesake had a way of leaving a lasting impression.
They say never meet your heroes.
The implication is that doing so will fail to live up to your expectations and the resulting bad experience will negate what they meant to you. While there may be some truth in that adage, they should’ve added one caveat – unless your hero happens to be Arnold Palmer.
Any time spent with Palmer was time well spent, but the first encounter with the Arnold Palmer Invitational’s namesake had a way of leaving a lasting impression.
Here are the remembrances of more than a half-dozen PGA Tour pros past and present, who enjoyed that privilege before his passing in September 2016, and never forgot their first encounter with Mr. Palmer – and for good reason.
Martin Laird in position to win at Bay Hill through 36 holes while Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth lurk at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
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ORLANDO – Martin Laird ended a winless stretch of seven years when he won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open last fall.
His wait for another PGA Tour title could be much shorter than that.
Like six years and seven months shorter.
Laird shot up the leaderboard late in the day in Friday’s second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a 5-under-par 67 at Bay Hill and is within one shot of lead set by Corey Connors, who posted a 69 earlier to get to 9 under.
“I knew my game was pretty good. I’ve been getting a little impatient on the golf course the last few weeks and really made a conscious effort to just not worry about anything else, just focus on myself and stay as patient as I can,” said Laird, who won Arnie’s annual gathering in 2011. “And it’s been paying off.”
Two strokes back of Conners and one back of Laird were Viktor Hovland (68), Lanto Griffin (68) and 2018 winner Rory McIlroy (71).
Bryson DeChambeau, who again did not try to drive the par-5 sixth green over the lake on Friday, is at 6 under after a 71. Four players are at 5 under, including Jordan Spieth (69).
McIlroy, taking a page out of the eight-time API winner Tiger Woods’ playbook for success in this tournament, stayed patient, played conservatively when need be and took care of the par-5s as he tries to end a winless streak stretching back to the 2019 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions.
“Today was a bit more of a battle,” McIlroy said. “But stayed patient. I picked off three of the par-5s, which is good around here. When I put it in trouble I got it out of trouble. A couple of really loose tee shots, one on the 8th hole, I made bogey from there. One on 13, I made bogey from there.
“So hit a few better shots coming down the stretch, but just going to go and work on a couple things here on the range. I think with the way the course is playing and with the weather coming in, if you get it to double digits under par this weekend, you’re going to have a really good chance.
“You don’t need to do anything special, you just need to be really solid, limit your mistakes. I feel like it was a day out there today that I sort of did that.”
Ah, yes, the weather. The forecast calls for rain all throughout Saturday’s third round, with half-an-inch of precipitation expected to fall. As well, winds will be in the 15-20 mph range and will get stronger for Sunday’s final round.
That’s the way Spieth likes it. Making his tournament debut, Spieth said he’s enjoyed trying to get to know the difficult course.
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“Even though I kind of feel like I’m still progressing, you can play this golf course and feel like, well maybe I’m not quite as close as I think I am. Just because you have to be so precise,” said Spieth, who is trying to end his winless streak that stretches back to the 2017 Open Championship. “We got what looks to be anywhere from 10- to 20-miles an hour winds and some rain tomorrow and then gusts to 25 or 30 on Sunday.
“So it’s going to be difficult to hit the fairways, which means it’s going to be really hard to hit the greens and you got to be out there scrambling. So I like the idea of that I’m coming from four behind.”
Laird doesn’t mind his spot, either.
“Obviously I have good feelings about this place after winning here, but this course, I like it, it’s a hard golf course,” he said. “I feel like it’s a course you really got to pick your spots. There’s two or three times I said to my caddie, it doesn’t even matter where the pin is, you’re just trying to get it to the middle of the green.
“And I like golf courses like that where you really got to pick your way around it and pick your spots to be aggressive. So hopefully I can keep making good decisions the next two rounds and see what happens.”
Coming off a knee surgery, Martin Laid snapped his seven-year winless streak on the PGA Tour at the Shriners Hospitals for Childrens Open.
LAS VEGAS – The third time proved to be the charm for Martin Laird.
After failing to end matters on the 72nd hole and then again on the first playoff hole, Laird knocked in a 23-foot putt for birdie on the second extra hole to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Sunday’s fading light at TPC Summerlin.
Laird, who shared the overnight lead and led by three at the turn, made an astounding par on the 17th hole in regulation to protect his one-shot lead but missed his par attempt on the 72nd home from 28 feet and headed to a playoff against Austin Cook and Matthew Wolff.
On the first extra hole at the par-4 18th, Laird had a chance to end the tournament but his attempt from 31 feet just grazed the hole. But after Cook and Wolff both missed their birdie attempts on the 195-yard par-3 17th, Laird rolled in his winner.
It was his first win in seven years and his second Shriners title; in 2009, he won in a playoff here on the 18th hole. He has four PGA Tour titles. Laird, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, will certainly move up from his ranking of 358 in the world.
“It’s been a while, so I’ve been working hard. Seven years since my last one,” Laird said. “Probably feel like now my game is really as good as it has been. Been playing well the last few weeks; just haven’t had the results.
“But I love it here. I’m going to really enjoy this one. I can’t wait to go back and see my kids and my wife and celebrate with them.”
Martin Laird after winning the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. (Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)
Laird (68), Cook (66) and Wolff (66) ended regulation at 23-under 261.
“Overall this is the best finish in three years since the win,” Cook said of his 2017 victory in the RMC Classic. “Game is on the right track. It’s kind of an emotional day. It’s been such a grind to get back here. Just being back in the moment, I loved it, and I can’t wait to do it again.”
Wolff, 21, was trying to become the youngest multiple winner on the PGA Tour since Sergio Garcia in 2001. Wolff had three eagles in a five-hole stretch en route to a 61 in the third round and eagle the 16th Sunday to give himself a chance.
Abraham Ancer closed with a 67 to finish fourth, three shots back. Peter Malnati (66), Will Zalatoris (69) and James Hahn (68) tied for fifth, four shots back. It was Hahn’s third consecutive top-10 to start the season.
In a group in a tie for eighth five shots back were reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (66) and Patrick Cantlay (73). Cantlay, who won here in 2017 and finished runner-up the past two years, was trying to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Gary Player as the only players in the last 60 years to finish first or second in the same tournament in four consecutive years.
Laird owes much of his Shriners this year to the par-5, 558-yard ninth. In the last round, from a plugged lie in a bunker from 22 feet, he took a mighty swing and somehow knocked it in for eagle. He had also eagled the ninth in the third and second rounds and made birdie in the first round. That’s 7 under on one hole.
Laird also wouldn’t have made it to the winner’s circle without his magician-type work on the 17th hole. After he disappointingly three-putted the par-5 16th for par, his tee shot on 17 hit a car path and ended 100 feet to the right of the hole.
From a patchy lie, with trees in his way and water just past the putting surface, he pitched to 18 feet and then rolled in the putt for par.
“That was one of my better ever up-and-downs,” Laird said.
Three holes later, the same hole paid off again.
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The victory ended a weird stretch for Laird. He was playing a ton of golf, practicing all out and counting down the days until the PGA Tour returned after a break due to COVID. The week before the Tour restarted, however, his left knee went out. Instead of joining his colleagues when the Tour returned in June after being dark for 13 weeks, Laird was having knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and then spending time recuperating on his coach in his home in Colorado.
“It was pretty hard for a couple weeks, not going to lie,” Laird said.
While he still can’t squat and has to take a knee with his right leg to read putts, he stood tall with the championship hardware in his hands.
“Feel like a bit of an old man out here doing that,” he said.
He’s feeling a lot younger now.
“I made a conscious effort to be patient,” Laird said about his return after knee surgery. “Sometimes you come back and just want to be playing great right away. I knew it would be a process. Every week I’ve been trending, every week I’ve played I felt like I played a little better, got a little sharper.
“Putting has been getting a little better. I knew it was trending the right direction and I was coming to a course I love. I’m unbelievably excited to have pulled that off today. It’s been a while since my last one, and you have some doubts at times whether you’re going to get another one.
“To see that putt go in on that hole, I mean, it was pretty special.”
Eighteen players are within five shots of the lead and another 11 are six shots back heading into Sunday’s final round at TPC Summerlin.
LAS VEGAS – Handicapping the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open is one tough assignment.
Eighteen players are within five shots of the lead and another 11 are six shots back heading into Sunday’s final round at TPC Summerlin, where par isn’t your friend and red numbers are aplenty.
Players have been tearing up TPC Summerlin from Thursday’s start and the cut was 7-under 135 – the lowest 36-hole cut in a 72-hole event in Tour history. With little wind expected for the final round, scoring binges should more than likely continue across this desert layout.
Which necessitates one mental approach, many players said after Saturday’s third round: You have to put the pedal to the metal on this track to emerge from the stampede at the finish line.
“By the time I tee off tomorrow I’m sure (the lead) will be more than 20 under, so it’s going to be the same mentality tomorrow. I’ll be aggressive when I hit the ball in the fairway and get a wedge in my hand, and other than that I’ll stay patient and try and shot a good round like I did the first three two days,” Patrick Cantlay said.
Patrick Cantlay during round three of the 2020 Shriners Hospitals For Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Cantlay, who won here in 2017 and finished runner-up in 2018 and 2019, and Martin Laird sit atop the crowded leaderboard at 20 under, with both shooting 6-under-par 65.
Four players sit two back at 18 under – Matthew Wolff (61), Wyndham Clark (65), Harman (67) and Austin Cook (67). Wolff, teeing off four hours before the leaders, made three eagles in a five-hole stretch and his 61 is the lowest round of the week.
“I put myself in a really good spot for the final day,” he said. “I’m pretty pleased with my ball striking and how everything has come together.”
At 17 under are Will Zalatoris (64) and Kevin Na (64), who is in a good spot to join Jim Furyk (1998-99) as the only players to win back-to-back Shriners.
“I figure 7 under, I got a chance to win,” Na said. “I need to make more putts. I made some good putts today, but I definitely left a few out there.”
Five players are at 16 under, including Adam Hadwin, who shot 62 on Saturday, and five more player are at 15 under.
And can you really dismiss reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau and all his firepower? DeChambeau made two double-bogeys and two bogeys in his first six holes but salvaged a 71 with six birdies in his last 11 holes. He’ll start the final round seven shots behind but he shot 62 in Thursday’s first round.
“It was really weird. I don’t know. It’s golf, right?” DeChambeau said. “You’re never going to play your best all the time, right? So I just felt like a couple things got off a little bit. Didn’t really hit bad shots, just didn’t go where I wanted to.
“Went into some really bad places. But I think I did a decent job of holding my head high and plugging forward. Just one of those days.
“Tomorrow’s a new day. You just keep plugging along.”
Viktor Hovland holds a one-shot lead at the Puerto Rico Open entering the event’s final round at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club.
Viktor Hovland shot 8-under 64 during the third round of the Puerto Rico Open to take the solo lead entering the final round.
Hovland, who was one of four co-leaders to start the round at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club, finished Sautrday with a clean scorecard. The 22-year-old’s round featured five birdies on the back nine, including three of the final four holes.
Hovland leads Martin Laird, who fired 63, by one shot entering the final round. Josh Teater is in third at 16 under and Emiliano Grillo sits in fourth at 13 under.
Grillo, Teater and first-round leader Kyle Stanley shared the lead with Hovland after 36 holes at 10 under. Stanley tumbled to T-7 at 11 under Saturday along with four other golfers after shooting a 71. Eight others sit T-12 at 10 under.
Hovland, from Norway, and Laird, from Scotland, are paired in the last group of the Puerto Rico Open’s final round. Their pairing marks only the second all-international final grouping of the season after Sebastian Munoz and Carlos Ortiz were paired for the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. Hovland is seeking his first PGA Tour title while Laird is chasing his fourth Tour title and looking to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2013 Valero Texas Open.
Final-round television coverage of the Puerto Rico Open begins Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
