The USGA announced several championships and Cup events well into this century. While it’s important to recognize where Bennett Scheffler and Sammy Spieth might be playing future Walker Cups or a U.S. Open against grizzled veteran Charlie Woods, there was too much good golf to celebrate in one edition of The Quad.
This is all a fancy way of saying the staff voted unanimously to deal with the 2045 U.S. Open and 2048 Walker Cup reveals in another edition. In the meantime, a bunch of people played some amazing golf at tournaments across the globe. And then there was Shane Lowry.
Plenty of golfers have been eaten alive during agonizing Bear Trap maulings. These warriors in their moisture-wicking shirts typically dunk a ball in the water short of the green or maybe embarrassingly catch too much ball from just over, accidentally contributing to PGA National’s water ball resale bin.
And the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year contending again at a place where he’s already lost one heartbreaker in the tournament formerly known as the Honda Classic?
Shane Lowry appeared to be coasting along the PGA National highway in a bid to win at the same place where he’s recorded a bunch of top-fives and low scores. His sweet daughter would see him win a significant tournament. Life was good for the guy who just months ago made the Ryder Cup clinching putt.
Lowry got to 19-under-par, cranked up his favorite band on the radio, revved his back nine engine going four-under through four, and could start dreaming of his first individual win since 2022’s BMW PGA Championship.
But the second leg of the Bear Trap caused Lowry to swerve his courtesy car into a 16th hole guardrail, leading to a bizarre double bogey where his three-iron tee shot went only 211 yards and where no leader ever could have imagined driving.
He regained control by salvaging a double-bogey via a back bunker save, only to have a bigger bear scare him off the road, down an embankment, and into the water so far right of the green that it’s hard to fathom how he’s ever the same following Sunday’s disaster.
Then again, that’s why they invented adult beverages.
Here’s hoping the Seminole Pro-Member offers some hangover-friendly breakfast burritos for Lowry’s 8:18 a.m. tee time tomorrow alongside partner Ed Herlihy and team McIlroy (Gerry/Rory).
I know, Seminole doesn’t seem like a breakfast burrito kind of place.
Anyway, of greater concern after Lowry’s shocking Cognizant Classic In The Palm Beaches collapse: how can the Irishman ever recover from the pair of double bogeys at Nos. 16 and 17? After building a three-stroke lead with three to go and seemingly en route to a 20-under-par win?
“I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes,” he said after finishing T2 behind Nico Echavarria. “It’s never happened to me before. I said to Darren [Reynolds, his caddie], how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Bethpage and got through that fine. I just felt like it was weird out there; I just really — yeah, just couldn’t feel the club face the last three holes then after my tee shot on 16. It was strange.”
None of this should take away from Echavarria and his pair of weekend 66s. While the Colombian wasn’t exactly sure what was happening behind him, the two-time winner knew he was back in the event when arriving at the difficult 17th. He took a bold line at the far right pin cut just over the water, stuck it 10’5”.
“When that ball on 17 came up and it was pushed and the wind was taking it, I lost a lot of weight,” Echavarria said. “The good thing is it was hit solid, so the push carried enough, but it didn’t even pitch on the green. It pitched a few inches off the green. But I’m happy it stayed there.
“It’s the easiest putt you can have on the green; let’s make this thing. I was only thinking of making the putt.”
He did. Then parred the 18th for his first win since the 2024 Baycurrent Classic. The 31-year-old earns an exemption through 2028 and becomes the first PGA Tour player in 2026 to win his way into The Masters. He finished 51st last year in his debut.
As for Lowry?
“I have a tee time next Thursday in Bay Hill, and I have no choice but to move on,” he said. “The hardest thing about today is I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me. Yeah, I only wanted it for her today. I didn’t want it for — I don’t care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win.”
Also…
Echavarria made just three bogeys over 72 holes at PGA National.
In six starts this year, Echavarria recorded four missed cuts but has two top-10s (T8/AT&T Pebble Beach, Win/2026 Cognizant).
Brooks Koepka (T9/-10) posted a final-round 65 en route to his best finish in three starts this season since re-joining the PGA Tour through the Returning Member Big Charity Check But No Equity Program.
Max McGreevy (T40/-4) made the first albatross since the Tour moved this event to PGA National in 2007. His two came at the par-5 third after holing out from 246 yards.
The Kalshi prediction market is quite a thing to watch during a final round (unless you’re an executive or shareholder in the PGA Tour’s partner, DraftKings). Setting aside the ways these unregulated betting platforms could lead to someone sabotaging the competition more easily than via traditional platforms, the dollar figures involved have to be driving everyone nuts who are involved in corrupting the fanbases. A “volume” of $42.6 million was wagered bet parlayed predicted on the final round of the Cognizant.
Data Golf had Lowry with a 96.7% chance of winning standing on the 16th tee. The Kalshi crowd never had Lowry higher than 81.2%. Guess the people know the Bear Trap better than the algorithms?
After a half-inch of rain, “preferred lies” were invoked for the final round and for the fourth time this year on the PGA Tour. Fun fact: preferred lies have been invoked once in nearly 1900 rounds of major championship golf.
The spectacular drone tracers seen during CBS’s West Coast Swing coverage apparently took the week off despite very little wind by PGA National standards. Maybe they need batteries recharged before signature events the next two weeks? Overall, NBC seemed to go with a more minimalist approach that was a noticeable step beneath CBS’s Pebble Beach and Riviera coverage.
There was quite a bit of debate about PGA National’s overseed and what kind of challenge players should face. I share Billy Horschel’s deep thoughts later on in this issue.
Casey Jarvis took a two-stroke lead to the last hole at Stellenbosch Golf Club. And then the South African had to wait out an hour rain delay to claim the biggest win of his life.
A shaky tee shot at the last was rescued by a fine iron shot and two putts to claim the Investec South African Open Championship at 14-under-par 266, three clear of Francesco Laporta, Frederick Lacroix, and Hennie du Plessis.
With is second win in as many weeks, Jarvis earns the first-ever invitations to The Masters and The Open. He has one major appearance to date: a missed cut at in the 2024 U.S. Open.
Laporta and Lacroix also qualified for The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale through the Open Qualifying Series. After hitting his final hole approach into the hazard, Hennie du Plessis fell into the second-place tie and missed out on The Open due to his lower world ranking than Laporta and LaCroix.
Lacroix, Jarvis, Laporta
Jarvis splits his time between the DP World and Sunshine Tours. Before his win last week in the Magical Kenya Open, he was best known for having shot 59 in the 2023 Stella Artois Players Championship and earning Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year before winning the Euram Bank Open in Austria.
“I just had a slight feeling at the start of the week that something crazy was going to happen,” Jarvis said.
Patrick Reed posted a final round 68 to tie for 29th.
I lied!
Turns out there was a live stream of the Argentine Open pointed out by an eagle-eyed reader. But in my defense, it was not listed on the official Korn Ferry Tour site and was in Spanish. Yet the feed is worth checking out for the limited coverage embedded above. Soak up the tight turf, all-one-cut, firm and fast Jockey Club’s incredible manmade features. It’d be nice to see a little more of this shine, speed and artistry at another MacKenzie in April:
Either way, isn’t it charming that Alistair Docherty took home the 119th Visa Open de Argentina on an Alister MacKenzie design?
The victory exempts Docherty into the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.
Entering the week as World No. 301, the Canadian-born pro who grew up in Vancouver, Washington, captured his first Korn Ferry Tour win thanks to a five-under-par 65 to hold off 54-hole co-leader S.Y. Noh and American Chris Korte.
Docherty birdies the last to win
Docherty played collegiately at Chico State University and represented the USA in the 2016 Arnold Palmer Cup at the otherworldly Formby Golf Club, just a short drive from where he will make his Open debut in July.
He missed the cut at last year’s U.S. Open in his major debut.
According to Monday Q’s Ryan French, Docherty was out of cash just a few years ago and was ready to start sleeping in his car to keep chasing the dream. A follower of French’s granted Docherty $15,000, and now he’s the holder of a national open title on a celebrated course. A trip to The Open in July awaits.
Daniel Hillier wins in New Zealand
Daniel Hillier claimed the 105th New Zealand Open presented by Millbrook by two strokes, ending a nine-year win drought for Kiwis in their national open.
“It’s the second best day of my life behind my wedding last week,” Hillier said after parring the one-shot 18th hole. “I don’t know what number New Zealand Open this is for me, but ever since I started playing it, it was the one I wanted to get.”
This was the eighth pro win of the 28-year-old’s career and his first since the British Masters on the DP World Tour in 2023. Hillier has been on a steady run since last year’s DP World Tour playoffs: T5-T16-T5-T6-2-T26-T4-T20. He entered the New Zealand Open ranked 100th in the world and will have to work a few more miracles to reach the OWGR top 50 in time for the Masters cut-off.
With Hillier already exempt into Birkdale, New Zealand’s Open Qualifying Series spot went to runner-up Lucas Herbert. The Australian and a member of LIV’s Zippers finished three clear of Kerry Mountcastle and Tomoyo Ikemura.
“(I was) 3-over through three on Thursday, and I made two bogeys for the rest of the week,” Herbert said. “I’m pretty proud of that. The way I was able to fight back and get myself a ticket to Birkdale.”
Former (ageless) Open Champions Bob Charles and Ian Baker Finch were on hand to congratulate Hillier and to present Herbert with a flag commemorating his berth into The Open.
