Pick ‘Em Preview: The Open Championship

Adam Svensson captured his first PGA TOUR win at The RSM Classic. Check out his equipment setup below. RELATED: Final leaderboard from RSM Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS (9 degrees) Shaft: LA Golf prototype 3-wood: Callaway Rogue ST LS Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 110 M.S.I. 70 X Hybrid: Callaway Apex (18 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 100 6.5 Irons: Callaway X Forged CB (4), Callaway Apex MB (5-9) Shafts: Project X HZRDUS (4), Project X 6.5 (5-9) Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 (46, 52, 56, 60) Shafts: Project X 6.5 Putter: Odyssey Toulon Design Palm Beach Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

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CROMWELL, Conn. – Give yourself a gold star – heck, two or three gold stars – if you can remember that time from 11 years ago when we had Zack Sucher sharing a golf stage with Andrew Putnam. It was the 33rd U.S. vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship at Tokyo Golf Club and while the 37-23 victory that Sucher and Putnam and teammates such as Kevin O’Connell, Lizette Salas and Sydnee Michaels recorded gathered very little fanfare, it served as a launching pad for pro golf careers that have been a series of ups and downs. The most recent upswing? This week’s Travelers Championship where the 32-year-old Sucher – he of the last-minute spot in the field via the sponsor’s invite to a Korn Ferry Tour member – had an eagle and three birdies over his final six holes at TPC River Highlands to shoot a second-round 5-under 65 to push to 11-under 129. That Sucher’s lead was threatened by Putnam, who started his second round in the afternoon with five birdies in seven holes before cooling off, was secondary to this storyline: Where has Zack Sucher been and what is he doing in contention at the Travelers Championship? The smile and Sucher’s answer provided a lot of insight. “First year I can remember in a long time where I’m pain-free and it’s feeling really good. It’s nice to be out here,� said Sucher, who missed the cut in a Korn Ferry Tour stop in Springfield, Ill., and drove here, assuming he had a good chance to get that sponsor’s spot. His gut feeling has played out nicely, in stark contrast to the way his life has gone since he left the Travelers Championship in 2017. He missed the cut, played in an outing, but had had enough of constant pain in his left leg. He knew the knee was an issue, but it turns out “his ankle was a mess,� said his wife, Courtney. Major surgery on the ankle and the knee sidelined Sucher for more than a year and the return to competition has been a mixed bag. In 10 Korn Ferry Tour tournaments Sucher has two top 10s, but in three PGA TOUR starts he’s missed one cut and finished T-35 and T-50. In other words, nothing to make Sucher feel that he was ready to break out at TPC River Highlands, but he’s played plenty of competitive golf to know it’s a landscape that cannot be explained. “The last few years I had on the (Korn Ferry Tour) were a bit of a struggle,� said Sucher, who has a win and 13 other top 10s on that circuit. “And every time I made it here (he’s had PGA TOUR status in 2015 and 2017), it seemed the harder I worked, the more the left leg would hurt.� An Atlanta native who played at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Sucher gushes about doctors who repaired “two ligaments and a tendon in the ankle� and his knee problems. He even got plantar fasciitis in his right foot, said Courtney, shaking her head, recalling the mishap that occurred when her husband was shooting hoops during recovery. That injury probably wouldn’t surprise those who know that Sucher was a high school basketball standout at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile, Ala., and were he “a foot taller,� golf might not have been his calling. But at 6-foot, 210 pounds, Sucher faded from hoops and settled into this competitive PGA TOUR landscape. Despite all the missed cuts and surgeries and tough times, Sucher can smile, and so can Courtney, who has walked 36 holes in wet, muddy conditions to watch her husband make 12 birdies against one lone bogey. Months ago he wasn’t sure he’d play again on the PGA TOUR and seven days ago he wasn’t sure he had a spot in this field, yet here he is, No. 505 in the world, setting the pace that those in the top 10, and everyone else, are trying to keep pace with. The beauty of sports, so unscripted and unexplainable, eh? “Absolutely. It feels great,� said Sucher, whose best finish in 35 PGA TOUR tournaments across three seasons is a tie for 20th at the 2015 Barracuda Championship. “A lot of work to be done, but right now it’s feeling great.�

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Mark Hensby’s second PGA TOUR event in three and a half years, the Palmetto Championship at Congaree, was going OK through eight holes of Round 1 until he noticed something askew on his golf ball. It was a small dot on his Titleist ProV1 he hadn’t seen before. After rebounding from an early triple bogey with birdies on each of the front nine par-3s, he had just made a par on the eighth hole and was 2 over when he noticed the discrepancy. “I asked my caddie, ‘Hey what’s this dot on the ball? I’ve never noticed this before; did they do something with the new pro V1?’” Hensby told PGATOUR.COM. “And he didn’t know, so I asked my playing partners and they were like, ‘That’s a low spin ball.’ Now I don’t use this ball, so there was a lot of confusion where it came from – none of my others had the dot – but we knew I had played the wrong ball.” The 49-year-old Australian, who before February’s Puerto Rico Open hadn’t played since the 2017 Sanderson Farms Championship, called in Senior Tournament Referee Mike Peterson and was assessed a two-stroke penalty for each hole in which he used the ball under the Model Local Rule G-4 – sometimes known as the One Ball Rule. Hensby had unknowingly dropped the ball into play after hitting his third shot into the water at the fourth hole, meaning his bogey-birdie-par-birdie-par run became a triple bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey-double bogey annihilation, pushing him to 12 over. Despite being rattled by the news, he shot a respectable 1-over 36 on the back, leaving him with a 13-over 84. While unaware at the time, Hensby would later find out the ball in question belonged to Pat Perez and had been inadvertently switched while the two warmed up on the putting green. “Somehow I picked up one of Pat’s balls and he ended up with one of mine,” he said. “I only found this out because Titleist wanted to get to the bottom of it. I thought they had a wrong ball in the sleeve that I had. “If you look at both balls it’s hard to know the difference,” he continued. “It’s not like one is black and one is red. They’re both black, but one has a small dot on it and one doesn’t. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that. I’m glad he didn’t use mine.” Prior to rule changes in 2019, this type of infraction carried a maximum penalty of four strokes but now is two-shots per hole. The purpose of the rule is to prevent a player from using balls with different playing characteristics depending on the nature of the hole or shot to be played. Russell Henley unknowingly violated the One Ball Rule in the second round at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in 2019. He realized the infraction while signing autographs after the round, and after adding eight shots to his score went from being in contention to missing the cut. Similarly, Hensby had no chance to play on to the weekend after the violation. “For Mark to call that on himself speaks volumes about him and the integrity of the game,” PGA TOUR Senior Tournament Director Ken Tackett said. The 2004 John Deere Classic winner was a late call up off the alternate list. “I only got into the field on Tuesday,” Hensby said, “and I’d driven a moving truck from Scottsdale to San Antonio 14 hours straight on Sunday so I was a little stiff. I flew in Wednesday night, had to COVID test prior to my tee time, and there was a chance if the results were delayed, I’d be playing as a single at the back of the pack but thankfully those came through. “I was actually playing pretty decent,” he added. “I didn’t get off to the greatest start, but I birdied the par 3’s during that stretch and made some good pars. I was just 2 over at that point and feeling pretty good about my rebound. But after I got the penalty obviously it was tough from that point on, and it was a shame because I knew my tournament was over.” Hensby turns 50 on June 29 and as such has been looking to sharpen his game for PGA TOUR Champions, where he hopes to play alongside fellow Australians of his generation like Rod Pampling, John Senden, Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby. Hensby has qualified for the Senior U.S. Open at the Omaha Country Club, July 7-11. “I’m working hard to get my game back up there,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the Senior U.S. Open and the Senior British Open and hopefully getting status on PGA TOUR Champions so I can get some more regular playing time again.” Additional reporting by Cameron Morfit at Congaree.

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