Tag: Scott Piercy

Lefty Joe Highsmith pulls in front on bunched-up Puerto Rico Open leaderboard

The Pepperdine grad is angling to be the 16th left-handed golfer to win on the circuit.

There were eight golfers tied atop the 2024 Puerto Rico Open leaderboard after the first round, which finished Friday because of a weather delay Thursday.

The bunched-up leaderboard continued through the second round, as four golfers – Matti Schmid, Kevin Streelman, Rafael Campos and Ryo Hisatune – shared the 36-hole lead at the Grand Reserve Golf Club until late in the day when Joe Highsmith got to 13 under before play was suspended for darkness for a second night in a row.

The Pepperdine grad making his eighth PGA Tour start is angling to be the 16th left-handed golfer to win on the circuit.

He went out in 32 after a birdie on No. 8 and an eagle on No. 9. After a bogey on 10, he birdied Nos. 11, 13 and 14 before his day was over.

This is the first opposite-field event of the season, and in addition to the $720,000 first-place prize, the winner will earn a spot in the 2024 Players Championship, if not already eligible, as well as a two-year PGA Tour exemption.

A 4-time winner and a PGA Tour rookie are tied for lead at stormy Puerto Rico Open

The Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club is the Tour’s first opposite-field event of the year.

Scott Piercy is a four-time PGA Tour winner. Joe Highsmith is a Tour rookie.

Piercy, 45, is nearly twice as old as Highsmith, 23. The duo are in vastly different stages of their career, but they’re tied for the led at the 2024 Puerto Rico Open after their 7-under 65 opening rounds.

The Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club is the Tour’s first opposite-field event of the year, and Thursday’s opening round didn’t finish because of afternoon storms that rolled through the area, forcing a suspension of play for more than two hours for the afternoon groups.

The first round was suspended with 54 players still needing to complete their rounds. Play will resume at 7:20 a.m. ET Friday, with round two scheduled to begin at 7:50 a.m. ET.

Piercy and Highsmith finished their rounds in the morning and are the overnight leaders.

“I think today was a lot of progress on the mental side,” Highsmith said of his opening round. “I felt like this year I just haven’t done a great job kind of just focusing and being like clear on what I’m trying to do out there. It’s been easy to get distracted with a lot of stuff out here.”

2024 Puerto Rico Open
Joe Highsmith plays his shot from the fourth tee during the first round of the 2024 Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Club. (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Kevin Streelman was 6 under thru 14 when the horn sounded for the day, and he’s tied with Brice Garnett, Garrick Higgo and Erik Barnes at T-3.

Defending champion Nico Echavarria shot 4 under in the opening round and is T-17. Aaron Wise, in his first start since the 2023 U.S. Open, shot 4 over.

Tony Finau runs away with 3M Open victory after Scott Piercy falls apart late

Finau had a day to remember while Piercy had a round to forget.

Tony Finau had a day to remember while Scott Piercy had a round to forget.

The latter entered the final round of the 2022 3M Open with a four-shot lead before falling apart right around the turn. The former kept his cool and patiently made his way around TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, and took advantage of Piercy’s mistakes en route to a three-shot win.

The victory is Finau’s third in his PGA Tour career and first since the Northern Trust last year. The 32-year-old shot a 4-under 67 Sunday thanks to four birdies on his back nine, including three in a row from Nos. 14-16.

Piercy started out well and reached 20 under thanks to birdies on Nos. 2 and 6 before things went from bad to worse before and after the turn. The 43-year-old was looking for his first solo win since the 2015 Barbasol Championship (he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with partner Billy Horschel in 2018) before a pair of bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9 and another on No. 11 threatened to ruin his day. Piercy put some pressure on his wound with a birdie on No. 12, but that didn’t stop the bleeding as he went on to go bogey-double bogey-bogey over his next three holes to fall down the leaderboard while Finau ascended.

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Scott Piercy’s blister, Emiliano Grillo’s success on sixth hole among five takeaways from third round of 3M Open

The third round of the 3M Open ended more than 14 hours after it started with Scott Piercy still in the lead.

Scott Piercy has a blister on his right foot, but it didn’t stop him from stretching his lead at the 3M Open to four strokes.

Piercy, who led by three at the start of the day, blistered the field with five straight birdies beginning at No. 3, and carded a 5-under 66 at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, to build his lead over Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.

Piercy began taking his shoe off between shots beginning at No. 9 and continued to do so for several holes.

“And people say golf isn’t a sport,” Max Homa tweeted of Piercy dealing with his blister. “Check mate haters!”

The 43-year-old Piercy held a commanding six-stroke lead until he made his lone blunder of the day at the last. From 248 yards, Piercy fatted his second shot at the par-5 18th into the lake fronting the green, but he recovered to salvage a bogey. It was still good enough to set the 3M Open 54-hole tournament record (18-under 195) as he seeks a fifth career PGA Tour title and first individual title since the 2015 Barbasol Championship.

It was a long day that began bright and early to try to beat forecasted storms. The weatherman was right and play was suspended at 10:57 a.m. Six hours and 38 minutes later, play resumed.

“It was a weird round, I feel like two rounds,” Tony Finau said. “You know, played the first eight this morning and then the final 10 this evening, so it was just kind of a strange feel to it when you have that long of a delay, but roll with the punches.”

Scott Piercy channels David Bowie and makes tons of changes, grabs share of lead at 3M Open

“And I don’t like to change, so for me to have all these changes is a good thing, but it’s a little bit scary.”

Scott Piercy knew he had to make a change.

Check that.

Piercy knew he had to make changes.

Check that.

Piercy knew he had to make a lot of changes.

So, the veteran PGA Tour player with four wins on his resume overhauled nearly everything associated with his game heading into the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota.

It’s a long list.

Start with his new coach, Dana Dahlquist. Micah Fugitt, who was on the bag when Billy Horschel won the 2014 FedEx Cup, is the new caddie. A Titleist TSR2 driver is now in the bag. As is a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 square blade putter.

3M: PGA Tour Live streaming on ESPN+

Piercy, 43, also is working on a few alterations with his swing.

And he made all those changes last week.

“Just kind of a whole lot of stuff going on,” he said.

That would include a 6-under 65 Thursday in the opening round of the windy, tricky 3M Open to grab a share of the early lead with Sungjae Im. Piercy hit 16 greens in regulation, made three birdies in his first eight holes and then, after a sloppy bogey on his ninth hole, reeled off four birdies in five holes.

“If I can ride that putter, which I don’t like to talk about a whole lot. I’m normally a ball‑striker and the ball‑striking hasn’t been there either,” Piercy said. “Hitting 16 greens today and being able to roll in a few putts with the wedges being close it’s kind of like a perfect formula for me.

“I put in the work to make sure the stuff’s right. When it’s under the gun, it sometimes can be a little different, but the results with the putter today, I couldn’t be happier. It actually made me smile and I don’t smile much.”
There hasn’t been much to smile about lately. Piercy hasn’t won in more than four years, is 138th in the FedEx Cup standings and 297th in the official world golf rankings. And like he said, his bread-and-butter iron play has been toast.

“Oh, really? You noticed,” Piercy responded when told he’s been struggling. “The ball‑striking numbers over the last couple years have (been poor). Through my career, I’ve been in like the high 60s with my ball‑striking and I started looking at my stats over the last kind of two years and I was like 135 in ball‑striking. I’ve made all my money generally with ball‑striking.

“That was what spawned the coach stuff. The caddie, sometimes you just, you’ve got to make a change to get better. And I don’t like to change, so for me to have all these changes is a good thing, but it’s a little bit scary.

“But I feel comfortable with it.”

Piercy knows he has to start trending in the right direction to make the postseason. There is this week and two more for players to earn a spot.

“If I can take care of this week, then next two aren’t as important,” he said. “I feel pretty comfortable. I’ve made some swing changes, got a new coach, new caddie, so there’s a lot of stuff going on with me that I feel like is all good, just coming together could be really good.”

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Rules of golf: Slow play, a missed re-start, bad advice and even fire ants highlight 2021

Some rules violations hit harder than others, while others just make you scratch your head.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all on the golf course, something else comes along to baffle fans, players, and rules officials alike.

The rules of golf can come up and bite you (pun intended: see fire ants below), if you’re not paying attention. Other times, weird things just happen. Further still, sometimes golfers simply don’t know a particular rule.

New rules of golf were rolled out on Jan. 1, 2019, but most of what trips golfers up continues to be of the tried-and-true variety.

As we get set to close out the year that was 2021, here’s a rundown of some of the memorable moments that involved rules violations.

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio, Beth Ann Nichols, Adam Schupak and Adam Woodard contributed to this article.

On the bubble: A closer look at a few notable PGA Tour players ahead of the FedEx Cup Playoffs

Several players are still angling to make the PGA Tour postseason. Some are just inside the cutline while others have work to do.

The 50-event “super season” has been a wild ride with six majors, the Olympics and now, one final regular-season event before the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The Wyndham Championship this week will offer some PGA Tour players one last chance to improve their position or perhaps even make it into the field of 125 in the playoffs.

The three-event series starts at the Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, next week but many in the field at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, this week will be angling to keep their seasons alive.

Here’s a closer look at some interesting names on the FedEx Cup points standings, some who are inside the field, others who need to make up ground to get in, one who can make the playoffs only by winning this week and one who can’t play his way in because he’s not playing this week.

Charles Schwab Challenge: This week’s player disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard is…

Scott Piercy was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. He would’ve missed the cut anyway, but here’s why it still matters.

It’s starting to become a weekly occurrence on the PGA Tour. In three of the last five tournaments, a player has signed an incorrect scorecard and been disqualified as a result. This week’s culprit at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas was Scott Piercy.

He would’ve missed the 36-hole cut, which came at 1-over 141, anyway, having shot a pair of 72s, but this is becoming “a thing” on the Tour and it’s not a good look. Last week, Y.E. Yang was guilty of the same mistake at the 103rd PGA Championship, signing for a 4 on the par-4 10th when he actually made a 5. A few weeks before that, Scott Harrington would have been several shots too many in order to stick around and play on the weekend at the Valspar Championship.

It continues to be confounding why signing an incorrect scorecard (Rule 3.3b) is still treated as if it’s the early 20th century when in today’s day and age every shot is measured by ShotLink and most likely recorded. It’s almost equally hard to explain why players continue to make scoring mistakes. These circumstances where a player knows he’s going to miss the cut is a sign of disrespect to the game and one of the bedrocks of the game – keeping an honest scorecard and attesting to it at the end of the round. Take a minute, check the math and sign for the correct score. This isn’t rocket science but as long as it remains a Rule it should be treated as such. None of these three players made an attempt to play fast and loose with the Rules, but that doesn’t make their actions acceptable.

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Gary Woodland, Scott Piercy withdraw from Honda Classic after testing positive for COVID-19

Gary Woodland and Scott Piercy have withdrawn from the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic after testing positive for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again struck the PGA Tour.

On Monday afternoon the Tour announced that a pair of four-time winners had tested positive for COVID-19 and have withdrawn from this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida: 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and Scott Piercy.

“The players will have the PGA Tour’s full support throughout their self-isolation period under CDC guidelines,” said the Tour via a release.

Woodland is being replaced in the field by Sebastian Cappelen, a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour. D.J. Trahan, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, will replace Piercy.

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Lynch: In different ways, Rory McIlroy, industry leaders let conscience be their guide

While Scott Piercy shared his political views on Instagram, Rory McIlroy reiterated his stance on the Premier Golf League.

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ORLANDO — Most of the 121 men in the field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational are judged by a straightforward metric: a scorecard that documents the ebb and flow of their work day. Global brands — whether a corporation or an individual athlete — are measured against more complex and fluid standards, like the company they keep, the actions they take, the conscience they evidence.

These are not benchmarks against which golf has traditionally fared well. Until Thursday.

In the first round at Bay Hill, Rory McIlroy opened with a round of 66 that amply demonstrated his celebrated skill as a player. What followed established him as a leader.

Visiting the Golf Channel set for an interview, the world No. 1 was asked again about the Premier Golf League, a proposed splinter circuit that would pit a few dozen elite players against each other in lucrative tournaments around the world. McIlroy reiterated his recent comments declaring himself out on the concept.

“If we go to this new league, you’re going to be contracted to play 18 events,” he said. “They’re going to tell you where and when to be there, and as a golfer and independent contractor I didn’t like the sound of that.”

That part was unremarkable, just a golfer discussing the professional and personal logistics that mitigate against his joining the League. Then he added this: “I didn’t like where the money was coming from either. I wanted to be the first one to speak out against it and I’m glad that I have. I’m glad that I’ve done that.”

That part was remarkable, at least in the hidebound precincts of the PGA Tour — a global icon exhibiting a moral compass, one that is pointing him in the opposite direction from some of his colleagues.

The provenance of the Premier Golf League’s financing is still shrouded in secrecy, but its CEO Andrew Gardiner did acknowledge last month that one source is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which is bankrolled by the government of bone saw enthusiast Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. The Fund, Gardiner explained, “is incredibly passionate about golf and its future and I’m delighted to have them involved.”

Sportswashing is a cottage industry for the Saudis, who lavish cash on bringing events and stars to the country in an effort to project normalcy and distract from rampant human rights abuses. Nothing launders bloodstains more effectively than a large check, and in professional golf the Saudis have found no shortage of shameless money-grubbers willing to brazenly peddle claptrap about growing the game. McIlroy has consistently wanted no part of that, last year turning down a hefty appearance fee to play the Saudi International.

Yet McIlroy wasn’t the only brand in golf to offer a rare glimpse of social conscience Thursday.

Titleist, Footjoy and J. Lindeberg all cut ties with Scott Piercy after two Instagram posts, one a homophobic meme about Pete Buttigieg, the other referencing the far-right conspiracy theorists of QAnon, which is believed by the FBI to be a potential source of domestic terrorism. Three of the most respected brands in golf quickly decided that an imbecilic bigot is not the company they wish to keep, and in doing so set a standard that other companies will be judged against the next time a player broadcasts his ignorance in public.

There are probably other players on Tour who share Piercy’s rancid views. There are assuredly other players on Tour — some very prominent — who are slobbering at the prospect of pocketing a Saudi check. That’s nothing new. What is new in this sport is that prominent companies and the world’s best golfer are willing to publicly and firmly distance themselves from toxic associations.

It says a great deal about the character of Rory McIlroy that he’s willing to take the stand he did. It says no less about the character of some of his peers that they are unwilling to do the same.

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