Park Hyun-kyung bags first professional win at Korean LPGA Championship as live golf returns

MEXICO CITY – Jon Rahm aced the 17th hole on the way to a course-record, 10-under-par 61 at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec. He reached 11 under total, just four off the lead of previous course record holder Justin Thomas (65), after a round that saw Rahm birdie six of his first seven holes. “With the start I had today, the only thing in mind was trying to get as close as possible to the leaders,� said the 25-year-old Rahm, who has three PGA TOUR victories. RELATED: Leaderboard Thomas and Erik van Rooyen had previously shot 62. Thomas had done it twice. The hole-in-one on 17 was from 158 yards and Rahm used a gap wedge. It was his second career ace on the PGA TOUR. Chez Reavie also had a hole-in-one, at the third hole, Saturday. Rahm’s hot start was tempered some by a three-putt bogey at the eighth hole and his failure to birdie the downhill, par-5 11th, but he finished with birdies on 13 and 15 before his ace on 17. When did he begin to suspect it might be a special day? “After four,� he said. “I basically had tap-in, tap-in, tap-in and 10 feet for birdie.� Rahm hit nine of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens, and took just 25 putts, his fewest of the week by three. He made 111 feet of putts, and ranked third in Strokes Gained: Putting for the day. “I think a lot of us like to talk sometimes about how unlucky we get,� said Rahm, who got up and down for par both times he missed the green, “and I think today was one of those days where I got fortunate. I hit the right shots and I got the right bounces, and I took advantage of it.�

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the pool where he trained a year ago in March, Tommy Hughson had to get creative. He had aspirations of swimming in college, and he had to stay in shape. So, during the week, the high school senior would run and ride bikes to work on his cardiovascular fitness. Then, on Saturdays, Hughson, who has competed at junior nationals since he was in ninth grade, would swim in the river near a friend’s house. One day they saw an alligator about 200 yards in the distance, and they did the only logical thing. “We swam the other way,” Hughson says matter-of-factly. Meanwhile, Julia Kubec and her mother were spending some of their free time in the early stages of the nationwide shutdown last April and May sewing personalized home-made masks and handing them out to medical workers at various facilities on Hilton Head Island. “I’m not the best sewer, but we made them by hand,” Kubec says. If it’s true, as playwright Oscar Wilde once said, that no good deed goes unpunished, though, Kubec’s gesture turned out to be one of them. In October, she tested positive for COVID-19, along with several other members of the Seahawk soccer team at Hilton Head Island High. It was the weekend before Kubec was set to return to in-person classes. “At first I was like really concerned, but I was pretty asymptomatic, so I wasn’t super worried about it,” recalls Kubec, who did lose her sense of taste and smell. “But in my house, like, my family would not even acknowledge me whatsoever. They would leave food like outside my door.” Later this spring, Kubec and Hughson will graduate from high school this spring with GPAs in excess of 5.0, heading to Duke and the University of Chicago, respectively. They are among 11 seniors from Beaufort and Jasper counties who were named Heritage Classic Foundation Scholars earlier this year. All were deeply affected by COVID-19. One of the recipient’s father was in the hospital for 11 days battling acute respiratory distress syndrome, viral pneumonia and sepsis. He survived thanks to a transfusion of convalescent plasma. Another family needed food bank donations after several members tested positive and had to stop working. One recipient worked at a local pharmacy and delivered medications while separated from his mom and sister, who couldn’t get back home from Nevada due to travel restrictions. Ten of those impressive students received four-year awards that ranged from $16,000-20,000 while the 11th was a one-year grant of $3,000. A total of 353 students have been named RBC Scholars and earned grants totaling $4.63 million since the beginning of the program in 1993. The Heritage Classic Foundation Scholars program is funded by members of the Tartan Club, who make a minimum family contribution of $1,000 year, and ticket sales. “It means a lot,” Hughson says. “It really means a lot. And it puts me again in debt to this Island. I’ve grown up here and I’ve gotten so much from this Island. I have so many great memories and yet again, I’m being helped along in my life by something amazing.” Kubec’s reaction was similar. “I feel like it kind of is a way for me, like, all the sacrifices and hard work that I’ve accomplished over the past few years finally feel like they’re being recognized kind of, because there’s just been so much that I’ve had to give up throughout high school in order for like my academics and athletics,” she says. “So. with this, it just finally feels like worth it.” Academic success, leadership and community service – three hallmarks of the RBC Scholar program — go hand in hand for Kubec and Hughson. Kubec was vice president of her freshman and sophomore class and president as a junior. She’s helped organize homecoming activities and food drives and donations for local animal shelters. The last year has been different, though, and milestones like graduation ceremonies and the prom are up in the air. “It’s just been crazy and I’m not like the biggest fan of like surprises, but everything with COVID just feels like new surprises showing up every week,” Kubec says. “It’s been really interesting, like kind of disappointing in some ways, because a lot of the things that we may have been like looking forward to this year, haven’t been able to go on. … “So that’s definitely been upsetting, but I feel like everyone, especially our school has been really good at like adapting to it. And they still like have tried at least to provide us with some of those things, which is positive.” Kubec, who will attend Duke in the fall and likely study economics, has also taken mission trips with her church to work at youth recreation camps in the Honduras and build houses in the Dominican Republic. She calls the experience “life changing. “Just seeing how different, life is in one of those countries and even just like the culture and the way that people interact,” Kupec says. “The communities are so close and everyone is just so like appreciative of everything. Especially when we worked with the children, just seeing how even despite like the language barriers and everything, we were just able to like form these close relationships with them. It was very heartwarming.” Hughson, who will swim for the University of Chicago next year, is president of the Model United Nations and French National Honor Society at Hilton Head Island High. If not for COVID-19, Hughson would be preparing to travel to a conference where students like him roleplay as delegates to the UN. This year it’s on-line. “You pretend to be a country or a representative from that country and you debate and argue and try to solve world issues such as maybe a hunger crisis in a country or a conflict over in another region,” Hughson explains. “So, you have to do it through diplomacy, and you have to make decisions and write the laws and bills. It’s really interesting.” Small wonder, then, that Hughson hopes to work in the State Department. As much as he’s interested in current events, though, the Seahawk swim team captain also loves looking into the past. Hughson has been interested in archeology since he was in preschool – “I’ve always liked old ruins, digging in the dirt and finding old stuff,” he says. His interest is so keen that the local archeological society has given him the opportunity to work on a native American shell ring that turned out to be 3,500 years old. Hughson started small, moving dirt, then screening through it to find artifacts. As he gained experience, he was able to operate some of the machinery like the magnetometer and spectrometer. He calls the opportunity “pretty cool.” “Growing up with the island, you only really know about the beaches and the tourists and all the big hotels,” Hughson says. “So, I didn’t really know we had such a rich history.”

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Kuala Lumpur – The CIMB Classic will celebrate its ninth edition from 11 to 14 October 2018, with the sole PGA TOUR-sanctioned tournament in Southeast Asia primed to serve another exciting week of world-class golf in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. CIMB Classic 2018 was launched today by Malaysia’s Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, His Honourable Steven Sim Chee Keong, together with Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, Group CEO, CIMB Group, Datuk Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau, Chairman of Tourism Malaysia, Effendy Shahul Hamid, CEO of Group Commercial Banking and Group Asset Management & Investments, CIMB Group and Todd Rhinehart, Vice President and Executive Director of PGA TOUR. Title holder Pat Perez of the United States has confirmed his return to Malaysia to defend the CIMB Classic after a dominant four-shot victory over compatriot Keegan Bradley in 2017. With a US $7 million prize fund, which is not only amongst the Top 3 richest tournaments in Asia Pacific, but also Malaysia’s biggest annual sporting showpiece, CIMB Classic will feature 60 professional golfers from the 2017-18 PGA TOUR’s FedExCup final points standing at TPC Kuala Lumpur’s newly-upgraded West course. At the launch, Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, Group CEO, CIMB Group said, “Since the launch of the CIMB Classic eight years ago, we are proud and feel privileged that our flagship sporting showcase has helped profile Malaysia to a truly global audience of over 1 billion homes and 226 countries via live broadcast annually. The tournament has placed the country as a prime stage for world-class sports given Malaysia’s central location for golf fans in ASEAN and beyond to visit and experience world-class golf action at their doorstep. The CIMB Classic has also grown the game in Malaysia by inspiring and providing opportunities for Malaysian professional golfers to achieve their best.â€� Two Malaysian golfers will once again have the opportunity to compete against global stars from the PGA TOUR during the CIMB Classic. One slot has been allocated to the winner of the CIMB National Championship which is scheduled for 25 to 28 September at TPC Kuala Lumpur. Subsequently, the highest ranked Malaysian on the Official World Golf Ranking as of 1 October 2018 will also earn the right to play in the CIMB Classic which was inaugurated in 2010. Since its first staging, the CIMB Classic has attracted top professional golfers such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Ernie Els. It has also proven to be a successful launchpad for many of the game’s newest stars. Justin Thomas won his first PGA TOUR tournament at the 2015 CIMB Classic before returning to successfully defend his title in 2016. He has since gone on to win a total of nine PGA TOUR tournaments, including a major victory, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in May. Other young stars who have used the CIMB Classic to launch their careers on the PGA TOUR include Japan’s No. 1 Hideki Matsuyama and India’s Anirban Lahiri. Todd Rhinehart, Vice President and Executive Director, PGA TOUR, said: “As a leading ASEAN universal bank, CIMB has proven to be a terrific partner for the PGA TOUR. Our players always enjoy coming to Malaysia and we look forward to another memorable CIMB Classic. “We are pleased to announce Pat Perez will return to defend his title and we will unveil other leading names over the coming weeks. Our tournament here has been headlined by proven champions and rising stars over the years and I’m convinced golf fans in Malaysia will have another wonderful experience when they visit TPC Kuala Lumpur in October. Apart from world-class golf, we will offer engaging activities for everyone in the family to enjoy themselves beyond the golf action.â€� Tickets for the CIMB Classic will go on sale beginning 3 September, 2018.  For more details on ticketing prices, please visit www.cimbclassic.com Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Professional Golf Association of Malaysia, the CIMB Classic features a limited field of 78 players. Qualifiers include the top 60 available players from the previous season’s FedExCup points list, the top-10 available money leaders from the Asian Tour Habitat for Humanity standings and eight sponsor exemptions, which include two Malaysians.

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