05 Jul 2021 | Professional golf |
Aussies on Tour: 'Generation next' conquer the world
by PGA of Australia
By Tony Webeck
The next generation of Australian superstars have announced their arrival in spectacular fashion with a weekend of wins unlike anything the game in this country has ever seen before.
Their names may be unfamiliar to many but 26-year-old Cameron Davis, 25-year-old Lucas Herbert and 20-year-old Stephanie Kyriacou all won on major tours in a fashion that suggests that they are just getting started.
The 2017 Australian Open champion, Davis (67) came from the clouds in the closing stages of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, playing his final seven holes in 5-under par to join a playoff with Joaquin Niemann and Troy Merritt at 18-under.
Niemann fell by the wayside at the first playoff hole, Davis missing opportunities to win on the first four sudden-death holes before Merritt’s bogey on the fifth and Davis’s tap-in par secured his breakthrough PGA TOUR title.
Hours earlier Lucas Herbert completed a wire-to-wire win at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet Estate for his second European Tour title, bringing out the bulldog within to complete a three-stroke victory that was not as straightforward as the margin suggests.
Fighting a misbehaving driver, Herbert (68) scrapped and clawed his way to an outward nine of 35 as challengers joined him at the top of the leaderboard.
A birdie at 10 restored the one-stroke advantage with which Herbert began the day but he gave it straight back at the par-3 11th. Pars followed at the next three holes and when he left the 14th green he and American Johannes Veerman were locked together at the top once again.
But two brilliant bunker shots on the next two holes – for birdie at 15 and par at 16 – gave the Bendigo native the momentum to push towards victory, two closing birdies completing a remarkable week that began with a round of 8-under 64 on Thursday.
Not only does the win secure Herbert a place in The Open Championship to be held at Royal St George’s next week but is projected to move him up to a career high of 54 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
But it all began with Kyriacou, who like Herbert led from day one in claiming the Ladies European Tour’s Big Green Open in the Netherlands in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Winner of the Australian Ladies Classic at Bonville whilst still an amateur on her way to the 2020 LET Rookie of the Year, Kyriacou produced a bogey-free 5-under 67 in the final round to win by two strokes at Rosendaelsche Golf Club.
Central Coast product Dimi Papadatos almost made it four professional wins in the one weekend as he finished second by one stroke at the Kaskada Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour while Queensland amateur Louis Dobbelaar continued his excellent results in America, adding the prestigious North and South Amateur to his victory at the Dogwood Invitational last month.
Results
PGA TOUR
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan
Winner Cam Davis 68-68-67-67—270 $US1.35m
Won on the fifth hole of sudden death playoff
T14 Jason Day 67-73-69-66—275 $121,875
T41 Cameron Percy 71-70-71-68—280 $24,115
T41 Aaron Baddeley 69-70-69-72—280 $24,115
T52 Matt Jones 70-69-71-71—281 $17,775
MC Danny Lee 71-73—144
MC Rhein Gibson 73-72—145
European Tour
Dubai Duty Free Irish Open
Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland
Winner Lucas Herbert 64-67-70-68—269 €484,990
T9 Jason Scrivener 67-69-70-69—275 €58,699
T17 Min Woo Lee 68-68-73-69—278 €35,970
T28 Maverick Antcliff 69-72-68-71—280 €26,338
MC Wade Ormsby 71-72—143
MC Jake McLeod 77-72—149
MC Ryan Fox 76-76—152
MC Scott Hend 75-78—153
Ladies European Tour
Big Green Egg Open
Rosendaelsche Golf Club, Netherlands
Winner Stephanie Kyriacou 66-72-65-67—270 €30,000
T29 Whitney Hillier 74-73-68-74—289 €2,006
MC Kristalle Blum 79-77—156
MC Amy Walsh 81-78—159
Challenge Tour
Kaskada Golf Challenge
Kaskada Golf Resort, Brno, Czech Republic
Winner Marcel Schneider 65-65-71-67—268 €32,000
T2 Josh Geary 69-67-66-67—269 €16,000
T2 Dimitrios Papadatos 70-67-65-67—269 €16,000
T54 Blake Windred 65-73-72-74—284 €730
MC Deyen Lawson 70-71—141
MC David Micheluzzi 74-72—146
LPGA Tour
Volunteers of America Classic
Old American Golf Club, The Colony, Texas
Winner Jin Young Ko 63-70-66-69—268 $US225,000
T26 Katherine Kirk 68-69-70-72—279 $12,786
T47 Sarah Jane Smith 66-74-71-72—283 $5,158
Champions Tour
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open
En-Joie Golf Club, Endicott, New York
Winner Cameron Beckman 67-69-68—204
T38 David McKenzie 71-69-74—214
T49 Stephen Leaney 73-71-72—216
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