For the second straight year, no LIV golfers will be in the field.
The pairings are out for Monday’s prestigious Seminole Pro-Member event in Florida, and there are plenty of familiar names on the tee sheet. Most notable, Tiger Woods.
Big Cat will play with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, and those two are paired with (guess who?) Justin Thomas and Mike Walrath, teeing off at 7:47 a.m. ET off the first tee at Seminole Golf Club.
Rory McIlroy is also in the field, playing with his father Gerry and in a group with Padraig Harrington and Ed Herlihy, a chairman of the PGA Tour.
Other pros in the field include Nelly Korda, the No. 2 female player in the world, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young, among others.
Woods will tee it up after withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational due to sickness two weeks ago. It’s unclear whether he will be in the field for the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week at Bay Hill in Orlando or the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass the following week.
For the second straight year, no LIV golfers will be in the field.
Here’s a look at the pairings for the Seminole Pro-Member.
University of Michigan alum has won an opportunity of a lifetime.
Earlier this week, Scott Stewart, a University of Michigan alum, won an opportunity of a lifetime.
Thanks to a winning bid of about $150,000 – the exact amount has not been confirmed – he’ll play golf alongside Jim Harbaugh and Tom Brady at Seminole in Juno Beach, Florida.
Harbaugh, the head coach of Michigan’s football team, and one of the Wolverines’ collectives, Champions Circle, held a golf outing at Orchard Lake Country Club on Monday, with proceeds going toward NIL opportunities for the school’s student-athletes.
The round with Brady and Harbaugh was one of the big-ticket auction items.
Brady played in the famed Seminole Member-Pro earlier this year. The legendary New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback retired from football after last season.
The word is that @TomBrady generously donated a round of Golf at Seminole with himself & Coach Harbaugh which was stolen with a generous bid to support UM NIL of $155K. Thank you! AwesoMe. https://t.co/NVPFc0cUKk
The field for the Pro-Member is often the envy of many Tour stops.
The increasingly bitter divide between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour is now impacting a high-profile event at one of America’s most prestigious clubs. Players who signed with LIV will not be welcome at next month’s Pro-Member tournament at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida.
The field for the Pro-Member — held annually on the Monday after the conclusion of the Honda Classic at nearby PGA National — is often the envy of many Tour stops. The two-person team event draws dozens of the game’s superstars. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay played in 2022. Last year’s edition also featured more than a dozen players who later signed with LIV, none of whom will be present at the 2023 Pro-Member on Feb. 27.
The decision not to invite LIV players was made by Jimmy Dunne, the president of Seminole. Dunne played last year with Dustin Johnson, who joined LIV in June. Previously, he partnered with Phil Mickelson, who also left for the Saudi-funded circuit. Dunne is veteran Wall Street figure who lost scores of friends in the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, where his company Sandler O’Neill (now known as Piper Sandler) was based. This year he plans to play with Max Homa.
“We are doing what we have always done,” Dunne told Golfweek on Thursday. “PGA Tour players get the first priority. This event has always been supported by the PGA Tour. We try to make this a special and unique day for Tour players.”
Players who defected to LIV were immediately suspended by the PGA Tour and some, including Johnson, resigned their Tour membership. Other LIV players who competed in the ’22 Pro-Member include Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer and Louis Oosthuizen, who partnered NFL great Tom Brady.
Bubba Watson, Hudson Swafford, Harold Varner III, Peter Uihlein, Andy Ogletree and Cameron Tringale were also in the field.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland embraces Seminole president Jimmy Dunne on the 18th green during a practice round prior to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the Old Course St. Andrews on September 28, 2022, in St Andrews, Scotland. Dunne made the decision to keep LIV Golf members. (Photo by Oisin Keniry/Getty Images)
“Candidly, I have a pretty good relationship with most people,” Dunne said. “These guys had a choice to make, but they’ve made it. That’s it. I’m not going to say something nasty about guys who participated in the past.”
Dunne has been president of Seminole since 2012 and was recently appointed to the board of the PGA Tour, where he joins two fellow Seminole members, Ed Herlihy and Mark Flaherty. Flaherty, a Goldman Sachs executive, won the Pro-Member last year with Cantlay. Dunne described his appointment to the board as “a war-time deal,” a reference to the ongoing battle with LIV. Other Seminole members prominent in the golf world include Mike Davis, the former head of the USGA, and Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America.
The Pro-Member began in 2004 and quickly became one of the most sought-after invitations for Tour players, many of whom live near the club. The 2014 field famously included all four major winners from the previous year: Mickelson, Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Jason Dufner, who posed for a photograph with their trophies.
It’s a trend that has trickled down from the LPGA.
This week in women’s college golf, teams competed across the country on an enviable slate of courses including Seminole Golf Club, Baltusrol (both Upper and Lower), The Merit Club and Medinah (No. 2).
It’s a trend that has trickled down from the LPGA, where each season the women play more historic and celebrated venues.
“It gives the student-athletes a sense of pride knowing that on the women’s side, that they matter. that they see the equality happening,” said Ohio State head coach Lisa Strom, who hosted the Barbara Nicklaus Cup earlier this year at Muirfield Village.
Strom notes that it takes visionaries to push the envelope, like longtime OSU coach Therese Hession, who started the Palos Verdes event more than 25 years ago and created the Muirfield event, which debuted last year as a mixed tournament.
“Junior golfers are looking at the sport at an entirely different level when they’re looking at schedules that say Pebble Beach, Baltusrol, Seminole,” said Mississippi State coach Charlie Ewing. “I just think that really changes the entire perspective of what college golf is like, especially on the women’s level.”
Here’s a look at 10 college events this fall that are scheduled at can’t-miss locations:
The women’s field features four of the top 10 teams in No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 5 South Carolina and No. 9 Arkansas.
Esteemed Seminole Golf Club will open its gates to 14 of the top men’s and women’s programs in college golf with the playing of the second annual Jackson T. Stephens Cup, a combined 54-hole stroke and match play event beginning on Monday in Juno Beach, Florida.
The event, named in honor of the late chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and prominent Arkansas businessman Jackson (Jack) Stephens, will feature 54-holes of stroke play followed by one day of match play. The first 54-holes of team stroke play will be used to determine the seeding for the men’s and women’s fields for the final day of match play. Individual and team champions will be crowned accordingly.
The men’s field is headlined by No. 2 (Golfweek/Sagarin) Stanford, No. 10 North Carolina, No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 16 Florida State, No. 22 and defending NCAA Champion Texas, Notre Dame and Arkansas.
The women’s field features four of the top 10 teams in the country in No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 5 South Carolina and No. 9 Arkansas, along with top-20 teams from Duke (12), USC (13) and LSU (19).
In addition, The Stephens Cup will feature some of the top players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and U.S. Military Service Academies (Army, Navy and Air Force).
The individuals featured in the women’s stroke play competition are Marley Franklin (Howard University), Kendall Jackson (Howard University), Jayla Rogers (North Carolina A&T) and Eve Worden (Naval Academy).
The event will be broadcast on Golf Channel at the following times:
Monday, October 10: 4-7 p.m. ET
Tuesday, October 11: 3-6 p.m. ET
Wednesday, October 12: 3-6 p.m. ET
Where to play golf of any kind in Florida? Check out these Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
The No. 1 public-access course in Florida isn’t really a surprise, seeing how it has been broadcast worldwide into living rooms during each year’s Players Championship for decades. The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass ranks as one of legendary designer Pete Dye’s top five masterpieces, perplexing PGA Tour pros since it opened in 1980, and it ties for No. 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses in the U.S.
And it isn’t the only course on the Ponte Vedra property to rank among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Florida. Next door to the Players Stadium Course is Dye’s Valley, which clocks in at No. 18 among the Sunshine State’s best public layouts. Dye’s Valley doesn’t have the scale or fame of its neighbor, but it does have plenty of the features, challenges and visual tricks that made its designer and namesake famous.
Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass in Florida (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)
Looking for even more highly ranked public-access courses all at one property? In Florida, that would be Streamsong, home to Nos. 2, 3 and 4 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts. The popular resort in Bowling Green, about an hour’s drive east of Tampa or 90 minutes southwest of Orlando, features courses by Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
Coore and Crenshaw’s Red Course tops the rankings for Streamsong’s courses, coming in at No. 2 among the state’s public-access layouts and tying for No. 37 among all modern courses in the U.S. Hanse’s Black Courses isn’t far behind, ranking No. 3 in the state and tying for 50th among modern courses. Doak’s Blue Course is right there, too, ranking No. 4 in the state and No. 53 among modern courses.
Streamsong’s Red Course (Courtesy of Streamsong/Laurence Lambrecht)
How do you choose which layout at Streamsong to play? Take our advice: Play all three, then get back to us on your favorite. Every player to visit has plenty of opinions on which course they prefer and why, and none of them are really wrong. Combined, the three layouts make Streamsong one of only a handful of resorts in the U.S. to offer so many highly ranked courses, and the resort also has started construction of a new short course, the Chain, by Coore and Crenshaw that promises even more golf.
No. 5 in the state is no stranger to PGA Tour fans either, as Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando is home each year to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. A statue of Palmer still stands guard near the first and 10th tees, reminding players of the decades in which the King lived at the resort while leaving his fingerprints on every aspect of the operation.
Florida is also home to a staggering array of private courses, many of which serve as winter retreats for well-heeled clientele and residents who chase the warmth south each year. Topping the list of private courses in the state is Seminole, a Donald Ross design in Juno Beach that is No. 12 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S. and one of the most exclusive clubs in the U.S.
Can’t get a tee time at Seminole? Get in line – almost all of us are waiting on that call. In the meantime, check out the rest of the best public-access and private clubs in Florida below.
Golfweek’s raters have ranked the top 200 courses built in the United States before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses before 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Modern Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino
* Indicates new to or returning to this list.
Editor’s note:The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for the top 200 layouts built after 1960 in the U.S. was published Monday, May 23. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.
The Walker Cup is already great, but it can be better.
I love the Walker Cup. Or, to be more accurate, I love most everything about it. Watching amateurs compete in a match play team format is golf at its purest and the Walker Cup is contested on courses superior to those that host the Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup. Well, just because something is great doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. Look at New Coke. OK, bad example, there, but here’s how I’d make the Walker Cup even better.
The 48th playing of the biennial competition between a team of 10 U.S. male amateur golfers and 10 players from Great Britain and Ireland was staged in early May this year ostensibly due to weather reasons. Florida in the traditional fall date during Hurricane season could have been a (natural) disaster. But I’ve been saying this for a while: The dates need to be shifted permanently to May or early June at the latest.
GB&I may not like it because the golf season across the pond is just getting started, but the reality is that the September date is antiquated for these college-aged players, many of whom plan to turn pro and no longer want to wait and miss out on sponsor’s invites and the chance to earn enough money and qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The week after the NCAA Men’s Championship finishes (first week of June) is about as late as this competition should be contested. We want to see the best 10 players on each side, not just the best 10 that didn’t turn pro early.
Cole Hammer celebrates making a birdie putt on the 18 hole to win his Foursomes match at the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida on Saturday, May 8, 2021. (Photo: Scott Halleran/USGA)
That brings me to my next change. Out of concern for COVID-19, both teams had two alternates available that traveled to the matches. That became important to the success of the matches when a different virus reared its ugly head and 18 of the 24 competitors dealt with a stomach virus. It forced both teams to use alternates for the first time in the 99-year history of the competition. It’s time to expand the roster to 12 members to a team. As Team USA alternate Mac Meissner said, “I worked my butt off to be on this team.”
But he didn’t do so to wear an ear piece all weekend and have a beach holiday. The Ryder Cup already has proved that 12 is the magic number.
Speaking of the much ballyhooed pro version of the Walker Cup, it’s time for the USGA to take a page out of the Ryder Cup playbook and expand the GB&I side to constitute all of Europe. Doing so rejuvenated the Ryder Cup from what was a stale competition into arguably the biggest deal in golf.
Ricky Castillo and Mac Meissner fist bump on the 17th hole during Foursomes at the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida on Saturday, May 8, 2021. (Photo: Chris Keane/USGA)
While GB&I put up a noble fight, losing 14-12, the U.S. now holds a 38-9-1 all-time record in the competition. It isn’t quite the Harlem Globetrotters dominance of the Washington Generals, but it is lopsided enough to resemble Alabama over the rest of the SEC. Four years from now when GB&I returns to the U.S. for the matches at Cypress Point, it is likely that none of the competitors will have been born since GB&I last won on U.S. soil (in 2001). We’ll never know how much of a difference Spain’s Jon Rahm and Norway’s Viktor Hovland would have made, but I’d love to find out from the next generation of continental Europe stars and put to bed the nickname of “the Walk-over Cup.”
And while we’re borrowing from the Ryder Cup, let’s add a third day of competition. This has been widely discussed before and I just don’t see what the downside to another day of competition should be. Two years of buildup for two days? We can do better than that. We’ve got the best players assembled, so let them settle who’s best on the course and enough with the practice rounds. Even U.S. team captain Nathaniel Crosby seemed to be on board with several of these suggestions.
“I’d love to see it go to 12 players, a couple alternates and three days,” he said. “The guys fight so hard to get here. It takes two years. But that’s my opinion, and I’m sure that there’s a dogfight back in some conference room that I’m not invited to on that.
“But this has been the thrill of a lifetime. When I say something out of bounds like that, it’s certainly not a reflection of the USGA’s opinion or the R&A’s opinion, and they’ve earned their right to continue the tradition as is. For me to say anything to have a subtle variation of the format would be out of bounds for me.”
Tradition be damned. If baseball’s National League can do away with pitchers batting after all these years, the Walker Cup can take the necessary steps to evolve and continue to be the pinnacle of amateur golf.
Seminole, with its faster-than-lightning-quick greens and doesn’t-seem-like-in-you’re-Florida elevation changes, was made-for-TV golf.
JUNO BEACH, Fla. — As soon as the final putt was conceded and hats were taken off for the last time after two glorious days of golf at revered Seminole Golf Club, the question became obvious Sunday.
When is the Walker Cup coming back to Seminole Golf Club?
Not as quick as you think. Or prefer.
“That’s a question for another (USGA) board and (Seminole) president,” U.S. captain Nathaniel Crosby, a longtime Seminole member, said after leading the Americans to a 14-12 victory over Great Britain-Ireland.
“It’s a perfect event for Seminole. But you have to remember this: Cypress Point hosted its first Walker Cup in 1979, and it’s not getting its second chance until 2025. It’s not like this is a U.S. Open rotation, where it can come back every six or eight years.”
No, the Walker Cup is held on U.S. soil only once every four years and there are other classic courses – Pine Valley, which recently announced it will allow female members, for instance – that will be ahead of Seminole.
It took 99 years of the Walker Cup for Seminole to finally play host. Safe to say it won’t take another 99 years.
It proved to be worth the wait. Seminole, situated hard on the Atlantic Ocean, with its faster-than-lightning-quick greens, ever-changing winds and doesn’t-seem-like-you’re-in-Florida elevation changes, was made-for-TV golf.
“Seminole was the star this week,” NBC/Golf Channel golf analyst Paul Azinger said. “I knew it would look good on TV. I didn’t know it would look this good.”
The Donald Ross-designed golf course has always had this allure to it, in part because the members love their privacy as much as their golf. For years, Seminole resisted opportunities to host USGA or other outside events (last year’s TaylorMade Driving Relief pandemic event doesn’t really count).
That changed when Jimmy Dunne became Seminole’s president in 2012. He believed it was the club’s responsibility to help amateur golf by hosting an event such as the Walker Cup.
Golf fans’ first peek at Seminole at last year’s TaylorMade event wasn’t a fair one because it rained several inches the night before and it was calm. Not Seminole conditions, in other words.
Even with Seminole having to be shut down three times last Thursday because of storms, the course took little time to regain its teeth for the Walker Cup.
“We were actually worried Thursday night after all the rain,” Dunne said Sunday. “It turns out that was a good thing because with the wind and the lack of humidity the last two days, it would have really played tough.”
Golf fans were treated to plenty of looks at Seminole’s two closing holes that are as tough as any in golf – the par-3 17th and the par-4 18th than run next to the ocean. Incredibly, 14 of the 26 matches reached the 18th and five others got as far as the 17th.
The other 16 holes aren’t pushovers, either. Ben Hogan, who spent most of his winters at Seminole, said the par-4 sixth hole was his favorite.
The beauty of the course is that it never plays the same. We also got to see why Seminole’s members use their own statistic – greens visited in regulation.
When will we see Seminole again?
“I know I won’t be the one to make that call, but I hope we do,” Dunne said. “Whoever that man is, he can call me, and I’ll tell him what a great event it is and we should do it again.”
There was a lot to learn from the 48th Walker Cup.
JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Cole Hammer has long seemed destined for the kind of Walker Cup glory he found on Sunday at Seminole Golf Club. Hammer won his third match outright (after tying his morning foursomes match) to secure the Cup once again for the Americans. A few minutes later, 30-year-old Stewart Hagestad claimed the 14th and winning point.
“It means the world. I honestly had no idea that my match was going to be the clinching point but it is really special,” Hammer said. “Waited two years for this. It was really close going into this afternoon and to be able to be the one to clinch it is a cool deal.”
The Americans didn’t romp to a blowout victory the way many predicted they would this week. A stomach bug – which also affected the Great Britain & Ireland team – threw a wrench in the plans on both sides. Sickness aside, here are the major takeaways from the 48th Walker Cup:
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At the end of the day, WAGR is just a number.
There was never a head-to-head match at Seminole Golf Club where a GB&I player out-ranked his opponent. The Americans were wildly ahead according to the rankings, but if we’d all paid attention to those, and awarded points accordingly, this thing would have been over before it even started.
The closest Sunday singles match, according to the WAGR, was the one between Alex Fitzpatrick (No. 12) and Pierceson Coody (No. 2). Coody birdied the 17th hole to close out Fitzpatrick for the second day in a row.
Ranking doesn’t account for much in Fitzpatrick’s mind – especially not in match play. In fact, a better ranking might even create more pressure.
“The chances are that the higher ranked player is probably a better player, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to win,” he said.
Asked if talk of rankings discrepancies lit a fire under his team, GB&I captain Stuart Wilson said he was unaware of it.
“There were a lot of comments about us hanging in well and fighting really hard,” he said. “I was more of the opinion we were letting the Americans away with it. My mindset on the whole thing, the guys played well and played really well. I think on another day, the match would have been a totally different result.”
Stuart Wilson, L-R, Mark Power and John Murphy watch the action on the 18th green during Foursomes at the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. on Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Scott Halleran/USGA)
What was GB&I’s secret sauce?
Windy conditions with firm, fast greens seemed to play a bit into GB&I’s hands this week, but the close outcome wasn’t so much about what GB&I did surprisingly well, as Wilson noted, but where they played solidly. There was no keep-it-close mindset, and GB&I displayed that all week.
Ultimately Wilson felt a few loose shots cost his team the victory, and took that all the way back to the foursomes sessions.
“Maybe let the Americans get away with a little but too much and a few slack shots here and there,” he said.
His plan was to win foursomes on Sunday (check) then frontload the singles lineup to try to pull it off. At times, it looked as if the math would work in their favor.
Wilson highlighted preparation and on-site practice early week, even if it was interrupted by illness, as being key in GB&I’s success.
“I felt like we were bonding really well all week, had some great team morale, some great advice from Paul McGinley, just felt good out there,” GB&I player Joe Long said.
The United States Walker Cup team, with only one player (John Pak) not pictured. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
What if the alternates were always in play at the Walker Cup?
As a Walker Cup alternate, it would be hard to bring a better disposition to the occasion than the one Cooper Dossey brought to Seminole. He found out three weeks before the matches that he would serve as an on-site alternate, a decision made in light of COVID.
As a stomach bug ripped through the team, Dossey had a real chance of playing. Ultimately, his fellow alternate Mac Meissner got into the opening four-ball session, but Dossey only spent the week outfitted with an earpiece. He appeared on the first tee with the team and walked most of Sunday afternoon with an ailing Tyler Strafaci.
“I got here on Saturday and that’s what really intrigued me was they have treated me like I was on the team from the get-go,” he said. “I’ve played every practice round with them, I’ve gotten every piece of gear they’ve gotten, my own hotel room. It’s been pretty sweet.”
Only eight players compete in the first three sessions as it is and choosing who sits among the core 10 players is already a hard decision. Interestingly, in 2019 Crosby had all four lineups decided before the matches ever started – that meant he ended up sitting some of his hottest players, notably John Pak. Crosby indicated he’d have done that again but for have to deal with so much sickness.
While alternates were certainly necessary this week, it seems unlikely they’ll be in the mix again anytime soon.
“I’m not so sure we really need traveling reserves in a regular year,” Wilson said. “I think the 10-man squad is quite good as it is because you’ve kind of got natural two reserves naturally for the first three sessions as it is. I think the 10-man squad is quite good as it is because you’ve kind of got natural two reserves naturally for the first three sessions as it is.”
Jack Dyer of Team Great Britain and Ireland (L) meets with Tyler Strafaci of Team USA after Dyer won their match during Sunday singles matches on Day Two of The Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club on May 09, 2021 in Juno Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Applaud Strafaci simply for staying on his feet.
Strafaci, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, took himself out of Saturday singles at the last minute. The 22-year-old said later, after a trip to the hospital for IV fluids, that he was seeing two golf balls while he was trying to warm up. In close matches such as these, it was arguably the most heroic move he could have made – Strafaci’s withdrawal allowed William Mouw to step in and score a point against Ben Jones.
On Sunday, a slightly-recovered Strafaci appeared in two sessions and by late afternoon was bending over slowly and walking gingerly. Strafaci failed to put a point on the board on the final day – though he did nearly hole his final bunker shot on the closing hole – but the sheer strength it took just to stay on his feet will be a lasting memory from these matches.
