Best par save ever? After two in water, Bae holes out from 250 yards

We’ll take some literary license here, given that the times around which this story has played out are so extraordinary. The scene was Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Dothan, Alabama. The day was March 13, 2020. The backdrop was the final round of the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tournament. Those are the facts, but here’s the liberty we spoke about, a guess at what the thought process was for Quade Cummins and Garett Reband as they walked from the 72nd green, having finished second and joint fourth, respectively: “Mission accomplished. We’re riding high. So good. We’ve qualified; we’ve got some security, a place to play pro golf this summer, while staying amateur for right now. “Life is good. So, let’s hop onto that plane for a flight to Arizona, catch up to our Oklahoma teammates for this weekend’s big tournament. Maybe win that, build some momentum, carry OU to an NCAA crown in a few months.” The story gets interrupted by a phone call from Reband’s father. Swiftly, the story turns upside down. “You’re kidding me? Our college career is over.” Had the story ended there, it would have been unfortunate. But just as the pandemic did with virtually every facet of everyone’s life, it sent the storylines for Cummins and Reband into a tailspin. It was a stretch of turbulence that tested their patience and left them wondering where they were with their golf careers. Turns out, they are not where they’d imagined they would be at this point in their careers. But nor are they as bad off as they thought they were when Reband hung up from his father after walking off the 18th green, then confirmed the rumors with Ryan Hybl, his head coach at OU. Indeed, March 13 was the day their emotions were jolted. In response to the fast-moving spread of the coronavirus, the NCAA had canceled the spring golf season, so Cummins and Reband – numb and speechless – were told by Hybl to forget the flight to Arizona. Instead, they went back to Norman, Oklahoma, trying to absorb this stunning end to their collegiate careers. Within a few days, Cummins and Reband digested the fact that not only were their NCAA dreams crushed, but that endeavor at the Mackenzie Tour Q-School had been for naught; those tournaments had to be canceled. “We had it all planned out,” said Cummins. “Then it fell apart.” They weren’t alone, of course. The entire world was in disarray and nearly every hour brought a shift in news. For Cummins and Reband, the updates soon turned positive, and came in waves. First, the NCAA granted senior golfers a fifth year of eligibility, and both Cummins and Reband were good with that. That part of the dream was back on. “My motivation will be to win a national championship,” said Cummins, whose Sooners were ranked No. 1 when the season was canceled. The next layer of news was even better. PGA TOUR University had been put in motion – a bold and intriguing initiative that plays right into the strength of both Cummins and Reband, as they were 3rd and 5th, respectively, in the Golfweek rankings when the season was rudely halted. They are 24th and 21st, respectively, in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). While on the surface it would appear as if “PGA TOUR U” – which will reward top-ranked collegiate golfers with immediate access to the Korn Ferry and International Tours – was a reaction to the chaos created by the pandemic, but the picture deserves a wider lens. Truth is, this initiative between the PGA TOUR, the folks who conduct the WAGR and a number of other leading constituents in the game had been in the works for several years. That it was far enough along to be announced at a time when the collegiate golf picture became disjointed is pure happenstance. In contrast to an avalanche of heartbreaking news, PGA TOUR U was positive reinforcement when college golfers most needed it and PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan was thrilled to announce it. “With the level of immediate success from the top collegiate players in the last decade, our team has done extensive research over time and developed a plan to provide a pathway for those players as they begin their journeys into the professional ranks,” Monahan said. When the first PGA TOUR U class graduates next June – all having completed at least four years of college – the top five will be granted immediate status on the Korn Ferry Tour, while Nos. 6 through 15 will be given status on either the Mackenzie Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica or PGA TOUR Series China. The PGA TOUR will work with WAGR to create the PGA TOUR U standings, which will be derived from all NCAA Division I competitions and all PGA TOUR tournaments, including the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship. The gate will go up on the rankings later this year and it appears a certainty that Cummins and Reband will be prominent names in the thick of things all year. Theirs are resumes that glitter and given the remarkable swing of emotions – from thinking all was lost on March 13 to realizing several positives were back in play just a few weeks later – it’s likely these young men from Weatherford, Oklahoma (Cummins), and Fort Worth, Texas (Reband), are going to be committed to not letting this opportunity slip by. In fact, Cummins joked that his only disappointment is that “the PGA TOUR didn’t do this last year.” That way, he likely would have been top five and possibly out playing some Korn Ferry Tour tournaments right now. But kidding aside, Cummins, like Reband, appreciates how the picture has changed and beyond the chance to fulfill his goal of leading OU to another national championship, there is the potential for a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour. That’s far better than coming out of college, writing for exemptions and chasing Monday qualifiers. “It might be one year later, but it’s worked out great,” said Cummins. “We hope to come out (of the pandemic) with guns blazin’.” “We have unfinished business (at Oklahoma),” said Reband, who, like Cummins, was a freshman when the Sooners won the NCAA title in 2017. “But (beyond that) the PGA TOUR U gives us more incentive. It’s a great idea.” Neither Cummins nor Reband were in the lineup for the title win as freshmen, but they’ve progressed nicely in their collegiate and amateur careers. Both have qualified for U.S. Amateurs; both were finalists for the Haskins Award in 2019-20; and both will be on the United States team for the Palmer Cup in December (Cummins also played on the 2019 squad that lost to the International Team). Cummins, who committed to OU when he was 13, won the Pacific Coast Amateur in 2019 and the Oklahoma State Amateur in 2016. Reband was in the process of a stellar senior season for the Sooners – co-winner of the Puerto Rico Classic and a top-10 finisher in five of six tournaments – before things came to a screeching halt. What adds to the anticipation Cummins and Reband have for the 2020-21 season is the addition of another collegiate standout – Jonathan Brightwell, a graduate transfer from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro who earned second-team All-America honors. It’s why Cummins, as much as he can’t wait to play pro golf, isn’t rushing things. “Turning pro can wait another year,” he said. “You can always turn pro; you can’t always win a national championship.” That in essence is what motivated the PGA TOUR to back this initiative. “By focusing our efforts on players who have completed a minimum of four years, PGA TOUR University will not deter from the college game, while ensuring its graduates benefit from their maturity and experience,” said Monahan.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Gary Woodland denied Brooks Koepka’s bold bid at history and made U.S. Open memories of his own Sunday with two clutch shots, a birdie putt on the final hole and the silver trophy in his hands at Pebble Beach. Koepka, trying to match a 114-year-old record with his third straight U.S. Open, kept the pressure on until the very end. Woodland was just as unflappable and got better with each big moment he faced, whether it was a 3-wood from 263 yards or a lob wedge from the putting surface that will take its place with other big moments on the 17th hole of Pebble Beach. Needing three putts to win, Woodland finished in style with a 30-foot birdie putt for a 2-under 69, giving him the lowest 72-hole score in six U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach and a three-shot victory over Koepka. He raised both arms in the air to salute the crowd, turned toward the Pacific and slammed down his fist. “I never let myself get ahead,” Woodland said. “Once that went in, it all came out of me. It’s special to finish it off here at Pebble Beach.” Koepka had to settle for a footnote in history. He closed with a 68, making him the first player with all four rounds in the 60s at a U.S. Open without winning. But he made Woodland earn every bit of his first major championship. Clinging to a one-shot lead with more pressure than he has ever felt, Woodland seized control by going for the green on the par-5 14th hole with a 3-wood from 263 yards, narrowly clearing a cavernous bunker and setting up a simple up-and-down for a two-shot lead. “The idea was to play for the win,” Woodland said. “I could have laid up. That 3-wood separated me a little bit.” It was the shot of the tournament, until Woodland hit one even better. He dropped the 5-iron from his hands when it sailed well to the right on the par-3 17th, the edge of the green with the pin 90 feet away over a hump. Up ahead on the par-5 18th, Koepka drilled a 3-iron just over the back of the green, leaving him a 50-foot chip for eagle to tie, with a birdie likely to do the trick considering what Woodland faced on the 17th. Koepka chipped to 10 feet and narrowly missed the birdie putt. Woodland, unable to hit putter and get anywhere near the hole, opted to pitch it. He clipped it perfectly just over the hump, and it checked about 12 feet from the hole and trickled out to tap-in range. “I was just trying to get it over that hump,” Woodland said. “I thought it had a chance to go in, but it’s not one I want over.” That effectively ended the U.S. Open. Woodland, a 35-year-old who played basketball for one year at Washburn before taking a golf scholarship at Kansas, is immensely popular with his peers, many of whom gathered behind the 18th to celebrate his first major with him. His biggest moment of the year wasn’t any shot he hit. He starred in a viral video shared by the PGA TOUR with Amy Bockerstette, a 20-year-old with Down Syndrome, during the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Woodland invited her to play the par-3 16th, and Amy hit into a bunker, blasted onto the green and made the par putt, all the while saying, “You got this.” That was the message she sent Woodland on Saturday night. Woodland played conservatively down the 18th and made one last birdie that only mattered in the record book. He was aware that Tiger Woods had a 12-under 272 during his historic rout at Pebble Beach in 2000, and he topped him. That birdie put him at 13-under 271 and earned him $2.25 million. Koepka started four shots behind in his bid to join Willie Anderson as the only players to go back-to-back-to-back at the U.S. Open. He made up ground quickly with four birdies in five holes. “I felt like, ‘We’ve got a ball game now,'” Koepka said. He failed to get up-and-down from a bunker for birdie on the par-5 sixth, and missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh. Still, he stayed within range, just like he wanted, knowing that anything could happen on the back nine of a U.S. Open. Something wonderful happened to Woodland. “Gary played a hell of a round today,” Koepka said. “Props to him to hang in there. To go out in style like that is pretty cool.” Of the four other players who had a shot at three straight U.S. Opens, no one came closer than Koepka. He now has a victory in the PGA Championship and runner-up finishes in the Masters and U.S. Open. Justin Rose was the only one who caught Woodland all day, with a birdie on the opening hole. Rose bogeyed from the bunker on No. 2 as Woodland birdied, and he never caught up. Rose fell out of the race with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the back nine. He shot 74 and shared third with Xander Schauffele (67), Jon Rahm (68) and Chez Reavie (71). Woods birdied six of his last 12 holes and was never a factor. He tied for 21st, 11 shots behind.

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