Weekend: Eckroat Books Masters Invite
Plus, Waring wins in Abu Dhabi, Langer sinks historic putt, McIlroy changing '25 schedule with majors in mind, Rea elected PGA Prez, and retiring Lanny sounds off on "windowless room" announcing.
When historians sift through the PGA Tour record books to pinpoint seminal events in the circuit’s history, the Worldwide Technology Championship won’t be one of them.
I know, I know. So cynical. But by definition, seminal refers to a work, event, moment, or figure strongly influencing later developments. So if they ever take away Masters invites for fall PGA Tour winners, or scrap the late season events altogether, the World Wide Technology could be the one they say convinced Masters Chairman Fred Ridley and others to say, “Uh, yeah we’ll send a few tournament winner invitations elsewhere.”
Mercifully for all, Austin Eckroat birdied nine of his first 12 holes(!) to put this one away early and capture his second win of 2024. An 11-birdie final day 63 will send him to the Masters for the second time after Eckroat missed the cut in his debut this year.
The 25-year-old’s best major finish in six starts is a T10 at the 2023 U.S. Open.
By holding off Justin Lower and Carson Young with his -24, 264 total on Cabo’s El Cardonal at Diamante, Eckroate moves into the world top 50 after starting the week ranked 59th. In March, Eckroat won the Something of the Something Somewhere In Palm Beach, a.k.a., the former Honda Classic.
Another nice twist with the former Oklahoma State star’s win: five years ago he captured the Cabo Collegiate down Highway 1 at Querencia.
The win puts Eckroat in elite company as the seventh player with multiple victories in 2024, joining this group: Scottie Scheffler/7, Rory McIlroy/2, Robert MacIntyre/2, Xander Schauffele/2, Nick Dunlap/2, Hideki Matsuyama/2).
Now, the seminal part.
Eckroat’s win came over a thin 120-player field. One where only 25 contestants were ranked inside the world’s top 120 players and where the 34th alternate got in. That’s not a typo. Hit the link if you don’t believe me.
The Official World Golf Ranking rating for the Worldwide Technologies field was slightly higher than the DP World Tour stop in Abu Dhabi. But because it had a larger field, it awarded fewer points to the winner. Consider the numbers:
The PGA Tour’s Cabo event featured a whopping 40 players ranked outside the top 300.
There were four unranked players, an astounding feat even by Fall Finish standards.
One of those unranked players was the Champions Tour’s Billy Andrade, who has one top 10 on the geezer circuit in 2024.
The Worldwide Technologies had just two players ranked inside the world top 50, only nine from the top 75.
Max Greyerson, world No. 40, was the headliner.
In contrast the 70-player Abu Dhabi HSBC featured two from the world top 10, four from the top 20, nine top 50 players, but three players outside the top 300 in contrast to Cabo’s 40 outside the top 300.
These are all just numbers. I get it. And if the sponsor is happy with such a paltry turnout, then so be it. The Fall has always been for sorting out card status while offering supreme afternoon siesta opportunities interspersed with the occasional life-changing win. However, awarding a Masters invite merely because the PGA Tour assigns full FedExCup points increasingly appears excessive given how many fine national opens and other stronger world events could be recognized. At least in this case, Eckroat is a rising talent who stood a good chance of finding his way to Augusta one way or another.
Waring Wins Abu Dhabi HSBC
A brilliant final round 66 allowed Paul Waring to hold off headliners Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Matt Wallace and Thorbjørn Olesen to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. The win in the first of two “playoff” events is Waring’s second on the DP World Tour, his first Rolex Series title and moves him to fifth in the Race rankings.
Translation: a 2025 PGA Tour card is his if the Englishman wants it.
The 39-year-old finished at 24 under par and two shots ahead of the impressive closing skills by Hatton (64). Two back of Waring were McIlroy (64), Wallace (63) and Olesen (66).
Waring posted a course-record 61 on Friday at the glorious, enchanting, intricately routed, and full-bodied Yas Links. But Waring had to grind down the stretch to win his second title after capturing the Nordea Masters six years ago. He made a 40-footer at the 17th and birdied the 18th after reaching the green in two.
“Me and my caddie, we had a look at the lines,” Waring said of the epic putt at 17. “To be fair, we really fancied it, really, really fancied it, and as soon as it left the blade, I knew it was in. I know that sounds a bit cocky or whatever, but it was so pure. I knew it was dead middle as soon as I hit it, and I was just absolutely buzzing to see that go.”
The Race to Dubai concludes with the season-ending DP World Tour Championship next week in—wait for it—Dubai. Those marketing people are good!
Waring’s putt at 17 and remaining highlights:
Elsewhere…
67-year-old Bernhard Langer sunk a long birdie putt at the last to keep his Champions Tour annual win streak alive at 18 seasons. His 47th victory in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship came at Phoenix CC and puts Langer two clear of Hale Irwin’s 45 PGA Tour Champions wins. With the putt, Langer also extended his record as the oldest winner in Champions Tour history (67 years, 2 months, 14 days). The two-time Masters Champion hit a wild tee shot at the par-5 finisher but got his next back into play, played a wedge to 30 feet and sank the epic putt:
A Lim Kim won the Lotte Championship by two strokes for her first LPGA Tour win since the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champions. The wire-to-wire win held off Russian rookie Nataliya Guseva.
Ryder Cup Vice Captain Edoardo Molinari remains clear of the pack following the opening three rounds of DP World Tour Final Stage Qualifying School. With three more rounds to go Molinari holds a four-stroke lead over France’s Clément Sordet.