“Second place is just the first-place loser. There is no room for second place.”
With the calendar flipping to June, the PGA Tour counts eight first-time winners this season, including the duo of Davis Riley and Nick Hardy, who teamed up for their first wins at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
McCarthy isn’t alone. So far this season, 14 different players have finished runner-up or tied for second 15 times while bidding for their first Tour title. If the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” taught us anything it is that winning is hard. (Don’t drink every time a player says just that or you may not make it through a single episode.)
“The only one who will remember you if you come in second place is your wife and your dog,” World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player once said, “and that is only if you have a good wife and a good dog.”
NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt didn’t mince words either, saying, “Second place is just the first-place loser. There is no room for second place.”
Nevertheless, let’s take a closer look at this year’s runner-ups, who were so close to tasting victory and climbing another rung on the professional golf ladder with their first Tour wins.
Keep an eye on this mix of veterans and rising stars in 2023.
After taking a nearly two-month holiday hiatus, the PGA Tour will return to action the first week of January with the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
The last time we saw the boys in action, Adam Svensson earned his first win on Tour at the RSM Classic in November. Tom Kim earned his second career win a month before at the Shriners Children’s Open.
There were 12 first-time winners on Tour in 2022. Golfweek predicted two of them, while four won on other tours. So who do we have our eyes on for next year? From veterans to rising stars from the amateur ranks, here are 10 players who we predict will hoist a trophy on Tour for the first time in 2023.
In windy conditions that must have reminded the 35-year-old Irishman of home, Seamus Power earned his second PGA Tour title.
As the top-ranked player in the field at No. 48 in the world, Seamus Power played with the knowledge that he was the favorite in a PGA Tour field for the first time. It didn’t bother him one bit.
Power poured in a 25-foot downhill birdie putt at No. 14 and withstood a couple of late bogeys to notch a one-stroke victory at the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
“I knew it was going to be really hard coming in and it was,” Power said. “I made hard work of it at the end but delighted to get it done.”
Power, the 54-hole co-leader, set a tournament record with 28 birdies for the week, including five in the final round. He closed with a 1-under 70 on Sunday at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, for a 72-hole total of 19-under 265 to beat Belgium’s Thomas Detry (67).
In windy conditions that must have reminded the 35-year-old Irishman of home, Power earned his second Tour title by making three birdies in his first seven holes and hanging on as the conditions worsened.
“It was a challenge on every putt, every tee shot,” said Detry, who holed a bunker shot at the last for birdie to secure solo second. “It was a commitment out there.”
Ben Griffin, who just 21 months ago had quit the game and had been working as a mortgage officer, made six birdies on his first 11 holes to stake himself to a two-stroke lead before his game unraveled. Port Royal is the shortest course on the Tour, but the wind is the major hazard a golfer must contend with and it howled to 35 miles per hour. The second nine is more exposed to the wind and Griffin’s game was blown away by the frisky gusts that nudged balls in all directions and the growing pressure of trying to close out his first win. He made four bogeys and a double bogey in a five-hole span to shoot 1-over 72 and tumble into a three-way tie for third. (On the bright side, it marks his best career result in eight Tour starts.)
Seamus Power hits his first shot on the 17th hole during the final round of the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course on Oct. 30, 2022 in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
“I had a couple shots get loose in the wind and you’ve got to be a little bit better, more precise when it gets windy like that or else you can kind of grind for pars and bogeys quick. That happened to me,” Griffin said. “It’s a learning experience and I’m just happy to be out here competing. I know my time will come soon.”
Power can relate to how hard it is to win. Fifteen times in his Tour career, Power had been in the top 10 heading into Sunday and only once had he improved his position, which was his victory in a six-hole playoff at the Barbasol Championship last summer. This time, Power believed in himself and his birdie putt at the par-4 14th hugged its line. It proved to be the turning point just after Griffin hooked his tee shot into trouble and made bogey. That two-stroke swing gave Power the lead and he never let go of it.
“They talk about trying to win for the first time or the second time, usually the guys who’ve been there before when the door is open, they smell it,” Golf Channel’s Curt Byrum said. “They stand there and they walk right through that opening.”
An imposing sequence of finishing holes test not only the skills but the nerves of a player. Bothered by a whipping west wind, Power gave a stroke back at 15, then took three putts from 70 feet at 16, but bounced back with a birdie at 17 and needed the cushion because he bogeyed the last.
“Completely different feeling but just as special,” Power said of validating his first win, which is expected to lift him to a career-best No. 32 in the world. “To be able to win again, it’s fantastic.”
Here’s what you missed from the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
JACKSON, Miss. – If the first two days were any indication, fans are in for a treat come the weekend at the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Friday’s second-round action from The Country Club of Jackson was filled with tons of low scores. Players are positioning themselves for a run at the trophy in the second PGA Tour event of the 2022-23 season. Emiliano Grillo shot 7-under, and one of his best shots of the day came after he threw his club.
There’s a duo tied at the top, but six golfers are within two shots of the lead. There are 10 within three shots.
Here’s a look at five things to know from the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Thomas Detry went on a wild ride on the back nine of the Austrian Open. Check out this scorecard.
Thomas Detry was even par through 54 holes of the Austrian Open. By the end of the day Sunday, however, Detry had fallen 34 spots on the leaderboard and was 10 over.
His scorecard tells some kind of story.
Fellow European Tour player Eddie Pepperell called attention to the colorful card on Twitter, asking Detry to simply “walk us through it.”
Detry’s response? “Get your glass of red ready Eddie! It might take a while…”
Playing at Diamond Country Club near Vienna, Austria, Detry, of Belgium, opened with eagle at the par-5 first and added birdies at Nos. 3 and 7. Back-to-back bogeys followed at Nos. 9 and 10. The back nine was a wild ride.
He’s generally having a good time of things on the course, and he’s a terrific player, so I don’t feel too bad about asking this publicly; @tomdetry, talk us through it… pic.twitter.com/UtF2QITvWH
Detry made double at No. 12 followed by a birdie on No. 13. The two par 3s, Nos. 14 and 18, he played in a total of 12 over – making a 10 on No. 14 and following with an 8 on No. 18. In addition there was another bogey at No. 17 and also three birdies.
All that added up to an 82, his highest score of the week by 10 shots.
Antoine Rozner of France shot a 6-under 66 Saturday to create a three-way tie for the lead after the third round of the Mauritius Open.
BEL-OMBRE, Mauritius – Antoine Rozner of France shot a 6-under 66 Saturday to create a three-way tie for the lead after the third round of the Mauritius Open.
Rozner is level with second-round leader Calum Hill of Scotland and Thomas Detry of Belgium on 16-under 200 going into the final round.
Detry shot a 67 despite two bogeys on his last six holes, while Hill birdied his last two holes for a 68.
Danish rookie Rasmus Hojgaard (66) and American golfer Sihwan Kim (67) were a shot off the lead.
Brandon Stone started the day a shot off the lead but triple-bogeyed the first hole before recovering with six birdies on the back nine to sit two strokes back, in joint sixth place with Renato Paratore.
Robin Sciot-Siegrist of France had the best round of the day with a 65 despite a bogey on the 18th, but is tied for 16th, six shots off the lead.
