Team Troon On Tour: Thomas and Kuchar with T13/T42 finishes in Phoenix
Before we dive into specific Team Troon results this past week, we must first give a collective GREAT JOB to the entire team at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club for hosting a successful Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers. The course looked great on the global television coverage and the golf was equally great. The leaderboard was filled with top players in the world and world #1 Dustin Johnson ended up being victorious once again (this was his 4th win in the past 8 starts). Again congrats to the Royal Greens team on an amazing event.
As noted last week, the other cool factoid was that the past three weeks of the European Tour schedule included two events at Troon-managed facilities. The Tour kicked off 2021 at Abu Dhabi Golf Club for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship…made a stop in Dubai…then this past week executed the Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club. So it’s been a busy three week stretch for our clubs and the Troon International Team! Great job again.
PGA TOUR
The PGA Tour moved from California to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona for the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, AZ. Team Troon had a few players in the field, two of which would play into the weekend and have solid finishes. Justin Thomas would lead Team Troon with a T13 finish. He had an up and down start in round one, posting a 70 with a triple bogey on 17. But he blistered the next two rounds, posting 65-64 on Friday and Saturday, respectively. On Sunday, Justin was undoubtedly playing with a heavy heart as he learned of his grandfather’s passing the day prior. His grandfather (Paul, 89) like Justin’s dad, Mike, was also a golf professional. Paul had also competed in the 1960 and 1961 PGA Championship. A championship that would end up being Justin’s first major. All three Thomas’ have been in the industry/game from their young ages and all have a true love for the game. Our thoughts are certainly with the Thomas Family, during this trying time.
The other Team Troon solid start this week was from Matt Kuchar. Matt posted a solid T42 finish at the WM Phoenix Open after rounds of 69, 67, 73 and 67 to finish at -8. Complete Team Troon finishes are as followers.
- T13 Justin Thomas, -13
- T42 Matt Kuchar, -8
Gary Woodland was also in the field but struggled in round one, posting a 76. He would come back with a 67, but that would be just shy of the -3 cut line going into Saturday. Regardless, tournament coverage during the opening rounds included “flash backs” of that magical moment in 2019 when Gary (who was also playing with Matt Kuchar) invited Amy Bockerstette from Special Olympics Arizona (and the first collegiate golfer to compete with an intellectual disability such as Down Syndrome) to play the infamous 16th hole with him during the practice round. This will go down as one of the most “magical moments” in WM Phoenix Open history and it was great that the moment was supported by Team Troon member in Gary Woodland. For those that haven’t seen it check it out at: https://youtu.be/rYSjFvCNP7Q
Coming Up This Week
The PGA TOUR heads back to California for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at famed Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Monterey peninsula. Two Team Troon members are in the field including:
Matt Kuchar and Alex Noren
Shareable
Cheyenne Woods was spotted working on her game at Troon North Golf Club this week. She pushed out a cool Instagram story to her 154k Instagram followers tagging Troon North and Troon. A snip of that is below. Thank you Cheyenne…we are looking forward to having you out to play/practice at other Troon locales.
Have a great week and Go #TeamTroon