Lee captures first career win at Byron Nelson

MELBOURNE, Australia – Joseph Naffah smiled when he revealed he used to beat Jhonattan Vegas regularly when they were growing up together in Venezuela. Vegas – his ISPS Melbourne World Cup of Golf teammate – would only say they had “healthy competitionâ€�. But while Vegas forged an incredible professional career with three PGA TOUR wins his friend Naffah was living a nightmare. After getting a scholarship at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Naffah succumbed to a back injury in his freshman year. The diagnosis was spondylolisthesis which is when a vertebra slips forward onto the bone below it – something doctors said was genetic. “Golf kind of aggravated it, all the swinging and hip movements, so that kind of accelerated the process of injury,â€� Naffah explained. It was an issue that could have been fixed with a Tiger Woods style fusion surgery and some time out of the game. But Naffah would make a decision that would dramatically affect his life. “I avoided surgery for like two years … all I needed was like a single fusion … but I had no idea what it was all about. I wish I just would have done it immediately, but I didn’t. “Then I started getting creative with some injections and that’s what pretty much messed me up. I got infected over the initial injury and lost two of the disks, part of the bone and everything.â€� In the end he needed three fusions. “They put a cage through the front and they put six screws in my back above it. They pretty much flipped me in the surgery room. It’s intense,â€� he explained. “I was very unlucky, and that kind of killed my golfing career. At that point, golfing was out of the question and I just wanted to get healthy to be able to create a family. God gave me that, I created a family, three beautiful children, and I feel pleased.â€� But a few years ago Naffah started to get the itch again. He was watching Vegas go on to great things and wondered if he could give it another go. “Following this path with him, he reinspired me to play again,â€� Naffah said. “I got back in shape over the last five years, hit the gym really hard and got fit again. He told me, just give it a shot, play again, take it one step at a time, because he knew it was my passion to play at the highest level. So here I am, you know? 12 years later.â€� And Vegas was similarly inspired. He watched closely as Naffah began on the mini tours once more. He kept an eye on the 12 starts he made on the PGA TOUR – Latino America over the last few years. And he provided a carrot. “They told him that you’re lucky if you walk again and forget about playing golf and obviously he took it as a challenge to kind of get back at it,â€� a stirred Vegas said. “When the opportunity came, obviously I wanted to inspire him to play harder, so I told him, if you have some good events that you make a cut or play solid, I’ll definitely take you for the World Cup. “He had to prove himself. For me it’s also a little bit of a challenge too because there was a little bit of controversy, I can’t deny, from a lot of the players from the country. It’s a challenge for us to play hard and play well and show the world and our country that we can do it.â€� And do it they did in the opening round Fourball. The pair combined for a best ball score of 7-under 65 at Metropolitan Golf Club to be just three shots off the lead. And Naffah was the man to provide the first two birdies early in the round.   “I think we combined really well today, even though I left him hanging there in the middle,â€� Naffah said. “But I started a little hot and I think that helped a little bit, kind of turned on the machine and got it going. “We were walking down the fairway, I didn’t feel that nervous for some reason. I probably expected to be more nervous. But I felt a good internal peace.â€� And with that his golfing dream has been realized, although already there is a new dream … providing Venezuela with its first World Cup title. “Vamos Venezuela!,â€� the pair screamed in unison.

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SILVIS, Ill. — Michael Kim took a five-shot lead Saturday at the John Deere Classic in a third round delayed twice for a total of roughly 4 hours because of bad weather and concerns over lightning. Kim, who has just one top-10 finish in 84 career PGA TOUR starts, shot a 7-under 64 — closing with four straight birdies — for a three-day total of 22-under 191. Bronson Burgoon (66) is 17 under and Australian Matt Jones (66) is 16 under. Harold Varner III (66) is alone in fourth place at 15 under. Andres Romero of Argentina is 14 under after shooting 64, as is Sam Ryder (67). Tyler Duncan had the day’s best round with a 63. 

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JACKSON, Miss. – What does it take to win? That question will hover over the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship, where seven of the top nine contenders would be first-time winners on the PGA TOUR. Max Homa said at the season-opening Fortinet Championship two weeks ago that he plays knowing he’s not the final arbiter of who wins, given the bounces and breaks that must go one’s way to do so. RELATED: Leaderboard | Sahith Theegala’s special feel for the game helps him earn first PGA TOUR card Then he won for the third time. “A hundred percent, I agree with Max that certain things have to go your way for the week for you to be able to win,” said Sahith Theegala, whose third-round 67 left him with a one shot lead over four players. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of exceptions to that.” The caveat, he added, is that winning is a habit that can be developed over time. Theegala has certainly developed it. A product of Southern California public courses, he went to Diamond Bar High School, the same school that produced Kevin Na nearly two decades earlier. Theegala played for Pepperdine, where he won four times and swept the awards for the nation’s top collegiate in 2020, and also won the Australian Masters of the Amateurs tournament, in Victoria. “I think it’s really important that a lot of guys have learned to win at every level,” he said. Of the four players just one back – Sam Burns (65), Denny McCarthy (65), Cameron Tringale (62), Cameron Young (67) – Burns is the only one with a TOUR win (2021 Valspar Championship). He lost a playoff to Abraham Ancer at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August and is making his first start of the new season. “I haven’t putted it like I want to yet,” said Burns, who ranks a lowly 59th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.414). “Hopefully that’s coming tomorrow.” Tringale might be the hottest of the four closest pursuers, having eagled the par-5 fifth and 14th holes and made 130 feet of putts. He’s second in SG: Putting and seeking victory No. 1 in his 311th TOUR start. “Just the competition,” Tringale, 34, said when asked what keeps him motivated. “I love playing, obviously I’ve been out here a long time, I haven’t won, but I love competing and I just want to see if I can keep beating guys and you know you compete every day – Sunday they give the trophies away, but you’re really out there grinding and you’re playing against yourself. “But it’s just fun to see how I can match up when I’m playing well,” he continued, “and even when I’m not, just how to manage that and get the most out of each week. That’s kind of the fun part for me. I’m kind of a journeyman to this point and I’m enjoying the journey.” Six of the last seven winners of the Sanderson Farms have been first-timer winners, with Sergio Garcia last year being the lone exception. (Fresh off the Ryder Cup, he missed the cut this week.) Burns is the highest ranked player in the Sanderson field (25), Aaron Wise (67, T8) is the next player on the leaderboard who has hoisted a trophy on the PGA TOUR (2018 AT&T Byron Nelson). He also has won on the Korn Ferry Tour, Forme Tour, and at University of Oregon. Other proven winners include Corey Conners (66), Andrew Landry (66), C.T. Pan (67) and Nick Watney (71), who are among a sixsome tied for 10th place, just three back. That hardly seems like much distance to make up, considering we’ve already seen a course-record 61 this week. Five-time TOUR winner Watney, 40, will try to break a drought that goes back to 2012. Such dry spells serve to remind how hard it is to win at the game’s highest level, and are one more reason why hopefuls like Theegala, or anyone, really, would do well to heed to words of Homa at the Fortinet. Play hard, do all you can, and go home knowing the end result was never entirely up to you.

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