Brice Garnett grabs first PGA TOUR win at Corales Puntacana

Click here to read the full article…

Whether it’s fashion, cars or electronics, Japan has always had a knack for trend-spotting. The latest trend comes to us from the world of amateur golf, where over the past two years the world’s top amateur and McCormack medal recipient has been a product of the land of the rising sun: Keita Nakajima. Following in the footsteps of former No. 1 and fellow Japan National team star Takumi Kanaya, Nakajima sits atop the world amateur rankings., Nakajima has already shone while playing amongst the top professionals on the Japan Golf Tour (JGTO), including his first professional win (as an amateur) earlier this fall at the Panasonic Open. The Japan Sports Science University junior also has a runner-up finish at the 2020 Token Homemate Cup and top-20 finishes at the 2021 Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup, 2020 Japan Open Championship and 2019 Mitsui Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters, where Kanaya captured his first professional win, as an amateur. Perhaps Nakajima can one-up his “Senpai” Kanaya and get his first win on the PGA TOUR as he tees it up this week in his first PGA TOUR event as a professional at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, played at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. The ZOZO will make a long-awaited return to Japan and will be the TOUR’s only Asia swing event played in Asia over the past two seasons due to the COVID pandemic. (The 2020 ZOZO, won by Patrick Cantlay, was held at Sherwood Country Club outside Los Angeles.) Here, PGATOUR.com sits down with Nakajima to learn about Japan’s next superstar. PGATOUR.com: Why did you start playing golf? KN: My family all play golf and I started playing when I was around 6 years old. Was golf always your thing, or did you try out different sports and eventually land on golf? Whenever I would watch the PGA TOUR on TV, I’d always see Tiger Woods playing and since then, probably around the time I was in junior high school, I have always wanted to become a professional golfer. Do you have a favorite golfer? The first player I ever remember seeing on TV was Tiger Woods. I don’t really remember any particular shots, I just remember his huge fist pumps every time he wins, which I always thought was really cool. Is there a particular player or something that a player does that you try and pattern your game after? Tiger is definitely a clutch player so I would like to become more like him. I was also very impressed by Collin Morikawa’s winner’s speech at The Open this year. I hope to one day become a player that can deliver a speech like that. You are currently the top-ranked amateur and also recently won your first professional event. Is there anything in your career thus far that you are particularly proud of? Being a part of the (Japan) national team and playing with all the great players on that team has been a tremendous honor for me. Playing with those guys has really taught me a lot and inspired me to reach my goals. But I’m very proud of all my achievements: reaching world No. 1 as an amateur, receiving the McCormack Medal and winning on the Japan Golf Tour. Do you have any other hobbies or interests apart from golf? I like watching and playing other sports, and I especially like playing baseball and volleyball, but never really played any team sports growing up. What obstacles, if any, have you faced in getting to where you are today? I think the golf swing adds a lot of undue strain on your body and sometimes I don’t have enough time to properly care for myself after I work out, and every year I seem to have some kind of injury. There’s actually been a few times I’ve had to withdraw because of my back, most recently just a couple weeks ago. I’ve also had a finger injury that has kept me out of a few events as well. It’s been very frustrating. So I guess I am kind of failing in terms of conditioning my body appropriately. Is there anyone in particular that you pattern your swing after? I have never really seen someone swing like me and I haven’t tried to make my swing like somebody else’s, but in a recent Golf Digest (Japan) article, they compared my impact position to being very similar to Dustin Johnson. I definitely don’t hit it as far as Dustin, but I am working on hitting it farther. ZOZO will be your first start on the PGA TOUR. How are you feeling? I am very excited, especially because I will be competing as an amateur ranked No. 1 in the world. I just hope I can play well, play my golf, and play with confidence. I’ve played and won on the JGTO so hopefully I can take that experience and trust what I have been able to do in the past and put four good rounds together. But my goal for the week is keep myself in contention every day and with their being fans onsite this week, I really hope they will be there to support me. What are your plans for your golf career? I haven’t decided yet on when I will turn pro, maybe next fall, but my main goal is to successfully play on the PGA TOUR. For the rest of my amateur career, I hope to use that time to continue to improve my game and get it to a level to where I can compete on the PGA TOUR. I’ll keep competing in as many JGTO events as I can, but if a chance to go to the U.S. and play should come up, whether that’s on the PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour, I definitely would love to go over there and start my career. Have you received any advice from anyone on how to continue to improve your game and your career? Takumi Kanaya has become a good friend and mentor to me, and we played on the National team together for some time. He once told me to “Confront yourself and keep challenging.” I really like that and will try and follow his advice. What is your biggest goal? I honestly haven’t set any concrete long-term goals for myself at this point, but wherever I go in the world, as long as I can play golf and play in front of my fans that support me, I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.

Click here to read the full article…

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Matt Jones’ opening round at The Honda Classic was remarkable. He was remarkably unimpressed. RELATED: Leaderboard | Adam Scott strips off shoes to make stunning par save from water Jones tied the course record Thursday on a typically windy day at PGA National with a bogey-free 9-under 61 giving him a three-shot lead. He matched the mark set by Brian Harman in the second round in 2012, and was one shot better than the final-round 62 that Tiger Woods posted that year. “That’s an incredible round of golf,” said Lee Westwood, who opened with an even-par 70. “Could be the round of the year, 61 around here, when it’s flat calm, impressive. But when there’s a 15-, 20-mile-an-hour wind blowing, greens are fast, a lot of crosswinds, that’s an incredible round of golf.” All told, there have been roughly 6,000 tournament rounds at The Honda Classic since it moved to PGA National in 2007. None was better than the one Thursday from Jones. He seemed most unfazed afterward. “I play golf for a living,” Jones said. “I mean, I should be able to shoot a good golf score occasionally. It doesn’t happen as much as I want. But yes, I’m very happy with it. I was very calm, I was very relaxed out there. I’m normally a bit more amped-up and hyped-up and I had a different goal this week, to be a little more calm than normally and walk slower.” It worked wonders. He’s not into charting superlatives. He doesn’t know how many course records he holds, or how many holes in one he’s made. He wasn’t even aware he had four consecutive birdies on the front nine Thursday until he saw his card on a giant leaderboard as his round was ending. “I was just managing the golf course and hitting good shots,” Jones said. Russell Henley and Aaron Wise shot 64s, matching the best score at The Honda Classic by anyone — Jones excluded — since Rory McIlroy and Russell Knox had 63s in 2014. Nobody in the field last year shot better than a 66. And Henley and Wise still walked off the course three shots back. “That’s an amazing round,” Wise said. “But I felt like I played one, too.” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker, Scott Harrington, Kevin Chappell, Joseph Bramlett and Cameron Davis shot 66. Defending champion Sungjae Im opened with a 68. Jones had the four consecutive birdies on Nos. 2-5, had others on the par-4 11th and par-4 13th, then finished with birdies on each of his final three holes and never dropped a shot despite The Honda’s usual windy conditions. Adam Hadwin, who played in Jones’ group, said “good shot” more times than he could count. “I just stopped saying it at a certain point,” Hadwin said. “He just hit so many, you just stop saying it. You’re just under the assumption that it was good.” Jones has one PGA TOUR victory, that coming with a chip-in to win a playoff at the 2014 Houston Open. He hasn’t made the cut in a major since the 2016 Open Championship and has never finished better than tied for fourth at The Honda, doing that in his debut at the event in 2008. “Whatever Matt Jones is doing, I want to see it because 61 out there is incredible,” said Shane Lowry, who shot 67 in his opening round. “That’s just incredible.” It was still a befuddling day for many. Graeme McDowell played the “Bear Trap” stretch — the par-3 15th, par-4 16th and par-3 17th — in 6 over, after making a quadruple bogey at 15 and a double bogey on 17. And Hunter Mahan had a six-hole stretch in which he made, in order, eagle, bogey, bogey, triple bogey, bogey, birdie. Mahan finished at 77, McDowell at 79. “It’s just so hard, so tricky,” Lowry said. “There’s a lot of disaster holes.” Jones, at least for one day, avoided them all. “It was a very good day,” he said.

Click here to read the full article…