Day: March 15, 2022

Monday qualifiers: Valspar ChampionshipMonday qualifiers: Valspar Championship

March 15, 2022March 15, 2022| 3:51

Here’s a capsule look at the four players to earn Valspar Championship tee times via Monday’s open qualifier … Blake Kennedy (5-under 67) Age: 27 College: Clemson University Turned pro: 2016 PGA TOUR starts: 1 Cuts made: 0 Notes: Will make his first PGA TOUR start since the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship … Earned conditional status for the first half of the 2020 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica season at PTLA Qualifying Tournament – Weston Hills CC … Won 2019 SwingThought tournament at Belmont Lake CC … Qualified for the 2014 U.S. Amateur at Atlanta Athletic Club … Was a part-time starter on Clemson’s 2014 team that reached the NCAA Tournament …. Worked at Ruth’s Chris Steak House after college to help finance his professional golf career. Kiradech Aphibarnrat (5-under 67) Age: 32 Turned pro: 2008 PGA TOUR starts: 91 Cuts made: 51 Notes: Will make his eighth start of the 2021-22 season … Has made majority of starts this year on exempt status via 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals … Best finish this season came at the Puerto Rico Open (T28) … Won the 2021 22nd Singha Thailand Masters … Played four events on the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour with best result coming the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron (T20) … Played 17 events on the 2020-21 PGA TOUR, making five cuts, with best finish coming at the Bermuda Championship (T11) … Played 20 events on the 2018-19 PGA TOUR, making 13 cuts … Had top-5 finishes in the WGC-Mexico Championship and WGC-HSBC Champions that year … Became first player from Thailand to earn membership on the PGA TOUR by virtue of earning as many as or more non-member points as the No. 125 player in the FedExCup standings after the Wyndham Championship in 2018 … That year, he made 11 cuts in 14 starts, finishing in the top-10 twice, both T5 results in World Golf Championships events … Represented Thailand at the 2018 Olympics and finished T5 … Recorded top-10 finishes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in back-to-back years (2015 and 2016) … Finished T25 at the 2013 PGA Championship … Competed at the 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018 World Cup … Was previously known as Anujit Hirunatanakorn but changed his name, a Thai tradition that is said to bring good luck … Stands No. 234 on Official World Golf Ranking. Andrew McCain (5-under 67) Age: 27 College: University of Maryland Turned pro: 2018 PGA TOUR starts: 1 Cuts made: 0 Notes: Will make his second career PGA TOUR start … Last start was the 2020 Honda Classic … Played three events on the Korn Ferry Tour between 2018 and 2021 … Competed in eight events on the 2021 PGA TOUR Canada …. Finished T17 at the Rolling Green Championship and T27 at the Forme Tour Championship … Finished T20 at the 2019 Canada Life Championship … Played in 21 events on The Dakotas Tour between 2017 and 2021, with best finish coming at the 2017 Bobcat (second) and 2020 The Ridge/Sioux Center (T2) … Won the 2015 Minnesota State Open as an amateur. Luke Guthrie (4-under 68) Age: 32 College: University of Illinois PGA TOUR starts: 104 Cuts made: 59 Notes: Will make his first PGA TOUR start since the 2019 U.S. Open … Currently a member on the Korn Ferry Tour via advancing to Final Stage of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament … Finished T10 at the 2020 Panama Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour … Last played full PGA TOUR season in 2016 … Finished T10 at that year’s Fortinet Championship … Made 18 of 26 cuts on the PGA TOUR in 2014 with two top-10s including a T8 finish at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday … Made 14 of 27 cuts in his rookie season (2013) and made it to the FedExCup Playoffs … Won the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2012 Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron and WNB Golf Classic … Helped Fighting Illini win four consecutive Big Ten Conference Championships and won seven times as an individual … Won a pair of Big Ten titles in 2011 and 2012, becoming first to do so since Luke Donald (2000-01 at Northwestern) … Named the 2012 Big Ten Conference Player of the Year … Two-time Illinois state champion at Quincy Senior High School. 2021-22 Monday qualifier statistics Top-25s: Martin Contini (T16, The Honda Classic); Grant Hirschman (T17, Sanderson Farms Championship); Patrick Flavin (T17, Butterfield Bermuda Championship); Patrick Flavin (T22, Puerto Rico Open) Best finish: Martin Contini (T16, The Honda Classic) Most times qualified (2): Patrick Flavin; Kyle Wilshire; Ben Silverman Last event’s qualifier results (Puerto Rico Open): Patrick Flavin (T22), Christian Salzer (MC), Alejandro Tosti (MC), Brett Stegmaier (MC) Next PGA TOUR qualifier: Valero Texas Open qualifier, contested at The Club at Comanche Trace (Hills/Creek) in Kerville, TX on March 28

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The toughness of Cameron SmithThe toughness of Cameron Smith

March 15, 2022March 15, 2022| 2:13

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – His father gave him the golf part. Cameron Smith would go out with dad, Des, on weekends at Wantima Golf Club, first beating the old man when he was 12. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Smith’s bag? How he came by the toughness part, though, is harder to pinpoint. “I think both sides of my family, my mum and my dad’s side,” Smith said after making 10 birdies and staving off disaster on 18 to shoot 66 and win THE PLAYERS Championship on Monday. “Both have – just both mentally strong. They’re working-class people who have had to work their whole life to live basically, and yeah, I guess that’s just kind of what I grew up in.” Which means? Sharon Smith, Cameron’s mother, smiled from under her beige broad brim hat. “My father rode bulls,” she said as she walked the soggy back nine at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. “My mum made him choose, and he was smart. He picked her.” Strict constructionists will tell you it was Smith who grabbed this PLAYERS by the collar with five birdies in his first six holes and limited the damage of a wayward driver late on the back nine. But he brought a lot of people, those who came before him, along for the ride en route to his fifth PGA TOUR win. And it’s only when you get to know one of them, his maternal grandfather, that his seemingly preternatural toughness starts to make sense. Working class? John Hilliar, who will turn 83 next month, was the second-to-last of 13 kids growing up in Kempsey, New South Wales. The area is known for its national parks and farmland, and the Hilliar family made their living off the latter, milking cows and running cattle. “It was not a big house,” Sharon said. “They would fight for a bed after dinner.” Although Hilliar picked up golf recreationally, and Sharon expected her dad was almost certainly watching Smith from Brisbane on Monday, glued to the TV set, the sport that would make his grandson famous would have meant nothing to him then. The prospect of whether you used an interlocking or overlapping grip was immaterial next to whether you’d fixed the fence. “He has hard-working hands,” his daughter said. “They’ve done just about everything.” Sharon Smith stepped carefully around the soft areas on the course, careful to take the high ground. She said more than once that Cameron was a product of his father’s side, too. Cameron has settled in Ponte Vedra Beach, and he hadn’t seen Sharon or his little sister, Mel, in over two years. Late last month they made the long journey from Brisbane to Jacksonville. They were to meet him in baggage claim, but Cameron came as far toward the gate as security would allow. “Mel started crying first,” Sharon said. “Then I started crying.” And Cameron? “He had a bit of a giggle. He’s like me. He likes to keep things light.” It wasn’t until after Smith had salted away the tournament, the result becoming official only when Lahiri failed to birdie the 18th hole, that Smith blinked back tears, his voice breaking. “It’s just really nice to have them here,” he said. “It’s nice to give Mom a hug, and – yeah.” The three have been palling around, making up for lost time. Along with Smith’s agent, Bud Martin, they flew to Tampa last week to catch a hockey game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins. They sailed around on Smith’s boat, ordering takeout from a popular restaurant just up the Intracoastal. They ventured as far south as St. Augustine. Cameron gets a kick out of the stories about his grandfather, but his toughness is a product of more than that. Generations he never even knew. The ethos of being a Queenslander. Also, he’s not always so tough. It’s not an accident that his first two individual victories on TOUR, at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Sentry Tournament Champions, both came in Hawaii, Sharon said. “He likes Hawaii because it’s closest to home,” she said. “It’s only 10 hours.” At the start of his TOUR career, Smith suffered from acute homesickness. He tried to base himself in Australia, then, upon moving to Northeast Florida, kept flying home. He finally had to accept that it was just too far, and set about making a life for himself here, leaning on friends like Aron Price, himself an Aussie touring professional before turning to real estate. But Smith held fast to his working-class roots. He’s so tough, in part, because it’s his connection to home. “I think it’s probably just never give up,” he said. “I grew up watching rugby league and watching the Queenslanders come from behind, and even when it got gritty they’d somehow manage to win. I think that’s kind of instilled in all of us.” Said his pal Price, “He thinks head-to-head he’s got the wood on everyone.” That could mean world No. 1 Jon Rahm, whom Smith held off with a record-breaking performance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January. Or it could mean Justin Thomas, whom Smith beat in singles at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. “He thinks back to a time when he beat them,” Price said. “His self-belief is everything. I play a lot of golf with him. Even if he’s playing s— he’ll birdie the last three holes and take all your money. I don’t know where he gets it. His dad? Queenslanders are tough.” Sharon and Mel Smith will head back home on Friday. They wiped away tears, indulged the TV cameras. Cameron held them close, along with his girlfriend, Shanel Naoum. Cameron was bear-hugged by his friend and right-hand man, Jack Wilkosz, who was in tears. They shared the moment with Jack’s mom, also named Sharon, and her fiancé, and Cameron’s agent. It was Tuesday morning in Brisbane, where, one might imagine, an old man with working hands pointed the remote and clicked off the TV. His golfing grandson, rawhide-tough, had fought hard and prevailed. Cameron Smith would sleep well Monday night, in a bed of his own.

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