A wild weekend of golf fanasy wrapped up with another first-time major winner at the PGA Championship and a rookie sensation continuing her amazing debut season with her first major title at the Women’s British Open. The 2016 Rio Olympics forced both events to be moved up on the schedule but neither disappointed despite weather taking its toll on the PGA Championship from Baltusrol. Here is a golf fantasy recap of the events from around the world this past weekend.
PGA Championship
PGA Tour
Jimmy Walker survived a rollercoaster of a final day and held off defending champion Jason Day to win his first major title at the PGA Championship in Sunday. Walker finished the tournament with a 67 in the final round of the weather-affected tournament to finish one shot ahead of Day at 14-under for the tournament. Walker was in control heading in to the stretch run but Day eagled the final hole to put the pressure on the leader and it was on Walker to finish strong in order to pull out the victory and the $1.8 million prize. Walker became the eighth wire-to-wire winner of the United State PGA Championship and the first since Phil Mickelson did it at Baltusrol back in 2005. Walker’s victory resulted in him booking a second consecutive appearance in the Ryder Cup and marked the complete sweep for first-time major winners following Danny Willett at The Masters, Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open and Henrik Stenson at The Open Championship. Meanwhile, other notable finishes included Stenson finishing tied for seventh at eight-under, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed tying for 13th at six-under and Phil Mickelson finishing tied for 33rd at three-under.
Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson failed to make the cut, which proved to be a huge bust for many people playing golf fantasy. Remember that both players were among the favorites for this event and Johnson came in as one of the hottest golfers on the Tour. He had six straight Top 10 results including five Top 5’s. That also included back-to-back wins at the U.S. Open and the WGC-Bridgestone. The fact that he couldn’t even make the cut caught a lot of golf fantasy experts off guard.
Next up for the PGA Tour is the Travelers Championship, which takes place this week from the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Top 10 Scores From The PGA Championship
Jimmy Walker -14
Jason Day -13
Daniel Summerhays -10
Branden Grace -9
Hideki Matsuyama -8
Brooks Koepka -9
Henrik Stenson -8
Martin Kaymer -8
Robert Streb -8
Tyrell Hatton -7
RICOH British Open
LPGA Tour
We start our golf fantasy recap with rookie sensation Ariya Jutanugarn. She continued her incredible run with a victory at the Women’s British Open on Sunday. Jutanugarn nearly let a six-stroke lead get away from her when she double-bogeyed on 13 but she rallied to hold on for a three-stroke victory over Mo Martin and Mirm Lee to clinch her first major championship. Other notable finishes included Stacy Lewis finishing fourth at 11-under. She has quietly had her best month of the season. Although she’s been overshadowed by a number of other golfers, she has now finished in the Top 7 in four straight events. We also saw Lexi Thompson end up at eight-under and world No. 1 Lydia Ko finishing tied for 40th at one-under. Canadian Brooke M. Henderson finished in a tie for 50th at +2.
Top 10 Scores From The British Open
Ariya Jutanugarn -16
Mo Martin -13
Mirim Lee -13
Stacy Lewis -11
Karrie Webb -9
Ha Na Jang -9
Catriona Matthew -9
In Gee Chun -8
So Yeon Ryu -8
Lexi Thompson -8
Kings’ Cup
European Tour
Taiwan’s Chan Shih-chang clinched his maiden European Tour title with a win at the King’s Cup at the Phoenix Golf Club in Pattaya, Thailand on Sunday. Chan closed with a 67 to secure a two-shot win over his fellow countrymen Lin Wen-tang at 12-under for the tournament. With the majority of the world’s best competing in the PGA Championship, there won’t many notable competitors in the field at the Kings’ Cup. The European Tour will be off for the next couple of weeks while the Rio Olympics taking place with the schedule resuming on August 18th when the D+D Czech Masters get underway.
Top 10 Scores From The Kings’ Cup
Shih-chang Chan -12
Wen-tang Lin -10
Danthai Boonma -9
Mark Foster -9
Lionel Weber -8
Pelle Edberg -7
Victor Gebhard Osterby -7
Eddie Pepperell -7
Chinnarat Phadungsil -7
Thitphun Chuayprakong -6
