Weekend: Thomas Takes The Heritage
Playoff victory over Novak is his first since 2022's PGA. Plus, Lindblad takes LPGA's LA eventm remembering Jay Sigel, more numbers from McIlroy's Masters win, and a Chevron Championship preview.
Justin Thomas defeated Andrew Novak on the first playoff hole to win the 17th playoff in RBC Heritage Classic history. The 31-year-old two-time PGA Champion earned his 16th career victory and ended a victory drought spanning 1,064 days dating to his 2022 PGA playoff win at Southern Hills.
The impressive triumph comes as Thomas prepares to return to Quail Hollow in a few weeks to defend his 2017 PGA Championship win at the Charlotte course. With his 16th Tour title, Thomas becomes the 58th player to reach at least that many winds and moves to T54 on the all time win list alongside greats Jack Burke, Jr., Ralph Guldahl, Mark O'Meara and Tom Weiskopf.
Since last winning, Thomas has made multiple coach and caddie changes in a bid to rekindle his winning formula. And at a fast, firm and fiery Harbour Town, he had Joe Greiner looping after his regular bagman suffered a back injury.
The win was also notable thanks to Thomas’s one-stroke penalty to open round three where he caused his ball to move while in a waste area. Naturally, this act brought out the deep tissue ego massage therapist in every golf announcer who felt the need to swoon over Thomas’ willingness to call for an official. The move eventually cost him a stroke even though there was not video evidence of the infraction, only his word that he might have caused the ball to move. This seems like an opportune time to remind everyone of Bobby Jones’ admonition that you might as well praise him for not robbing a bank after calling a penalty on himself for a similar infraction.
Coming off a T36 at the Masters, Thomas continued his unbelievable knack for going low. With a first round 61, Thomas posted his ninth course record-setting or tying round on the PGA Tour. To win at Quail Hollow he’ll need to clean up his driving since he won this one on approach and short game work. Thomas finished the week 49th in strokes gained off the tee, while gaining 5.512 strokes with his sometimes-balky putter.
The Heritage also proved notable thanks to the performance of runner-up Andrew Novak who made the final pairing on Sunday for the third time this year. As Monday Q’s Ryan French noted, Novak was not a decorated junior and went to the golf (not) powerhouse of Wofford. He turned pro in 2017 and has quietly built a career through tours in Canada and multiple trips to Q School. He overcame what he thought were driver yips when it turned out he was playing with a cracked club for a year. Novak has quietly survived multiple tough breaks only to receive a grand gift when players lept to LIV, opening up a conditional status card he’s since put to good use.*
*Such a story will be less likely next year when the PGA Tour reduces the number of spots in most tournaments to help speed up play.
Speaking of the Tour’s inability to dish out a few penalty strokes to make the brats play faster, the final pairing Sunday finished in three hours and 57 minutes. This remarkable feat of speed will undoubtedly be attributed to the rangefinders that helped the entitled lads get around a dead flat, intimate, and easy-to-walk course in under four hours. One that used to never take more than 3:30 to play in twosomes. Ah, technology!
Also…
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler posted a final round 70 to finish T8 following his 4th place finish in The Masters. Scheffler continues to strike the ball well, ranking 10th in strokes gained tee to green nd third in approaching the green. However, he finished the week losing three strokes around the green to rank 64th in scrambling and 34th in putting.
Garrick Higgo (-14) won his second PGA Tour event at the Corales Puntacana Championship. The 25-year-old lefthander from South Africa held off five others by one stroke, including Alejandro Tosti, Keith Mitchell, Jeremy Paul, Michael Thorbjornsen and Joel Dahmen.
Lindblad Wins The JM Eagle
Ingrid Lindblad captured the 2025 JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro in just her third start as an LPGA Tour member.
The 25-year-old native of Halmstad, Sweden attended LSU and enjoyed a decorated amateur career before spending last year on the Epson Tour. Now armed with a full Tour card, Lindblad set multiple LPGA scoring records at El Caballero Country Club to take home the winner’s prize of $562,500.
Lindblad held off 22-year-old Akie Iwai and veteran Lauren Coughlin to become the 16th woman from Sweden to win at least once on the LPGA Tour. The former No. 1 ranked amateur won the McCormack Medal for the top amateur in the world (presented by the USGA and R&A).
Scores were surprisingly low at “El Cab,” considered one of the tougher tests in the area. The club kindly filled in for regular JM Eagle host Wilshire CC, which is undergoing renovation work and is expected to return to hosting in 2026.
The tournament was the first hosted in the L.A. area since January’s devastating wildfires. Tournament hosts Walter and Shirley Wang, recognized by players for their efforts to create a quality event with one of the best purses on the LPGA Tour, will make a remarkable $6.5 million overall donation to LA Fire Relief and Recovery.
Two-time defending champion Hannah Green (T9) supported the recovery efforts by donating $10,500 based on $500 per birdie and $1000 for eagles made.
The LPGA Tour plays its first major of 2025 this week in Houston (see preview below.)
Jay Sigel, 1943-2025
Jay Sigel, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion and nine-time Walker Cup participant who served as a (winning) playing captain twice, passed away Saturday due to pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
Sigel remains the only golfer to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur in the same year. His two U.S. Amateur victories came consecutively in 1982 and 1983. In addition to three U.S. Mid-Amateurs, Sigel also captured the 1979 British Amateur, ten Pennsylvania Amateurs, four Pennsylvania Opens, and one each of most prestigious amateur titles of his era: the Porter Cup, Sunnehanna Amateur and Northeast Amateur.
“He was a dear friend and somebody that we will remember forever and take a lot of inspiration from,” said USGA’s president-elect Kevin Hammer. “Best amateur since Bobby Jones, hands down.
Sigel’s Walker Cup record is unmatched, compiling an overall record of 18-10-5 in singles and foursomes. His 18 points and 33 matches played are the most in Walker Cup history. Sigel also competed in 11 consecutive Masters tournaments from 1978-88, making four cuts and highlighted by a T26 in 1980.
He earned low amateur honors in the Masters three times.
“I got to know Jay when he beat me in the 1987 Mid Am,” said David Eger, who played on two Walker Cup teams with Sigel. “I was never able to win a match against him. I was honored, in 1992 or 1993 when working at the USGA, he called me when contemplating playing Senior Tour golf. I told him it was the perfect place for him to keep his competitive juices flowing.”
Sigel turned 50 in 1993 and would go on to win eight times on the PGA Tour Champions.
Mike McCoy, another amateur great and former Walker Cup Captain recently saw Sigel at a dinner last month. The Bear’s Club gathering was for Nathan Smith, this year’s captain. McCoy noted how Sigel, despite dealing with cancer, made the journey from Delray Dunes.
“Jay was the consummate gentleman,” McCoy says. “I will miss him.”
McCoy remembers a practice round at Oak Tree for the 1984 U.S. Amateur when Sigel was defending champion.
“Jay topped a couple of drives and was less than impressive that day,” McCoy said. “When the tournament started he shot the low round and set the course record. I learned then that practice rounds were no indication of how the week would go.”
A Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania native, Sigel grew up playing Aronimink and became the first recipient of Wake Forest’s Arnold Palmer Scholarship. He eventually earned All-American honors at Wake Forest before graduating in 1967.
A freak accident to his wrist required 70 stitches and convinced Sigel to go into the insurance business instead of turning pro.
“I always thought things happen for a reason,” Sigel told the USGA’s David Shefter last year. “The hand injury was the best thing to happen to me.”
McCoy also remembers the advice Sigel gave him regarding the insurance business.
“He suggested I select the firm that offered me the best training program. I took his advice and the rest is history. I now give that same advice to young men and women considering the industry.”
Sigel went on to endow a scholarship at Wake Forest and host the annual Jay Sigel Invitational at his home club, Aronimink, for 32 years. The annual event is again scheduled for September 15th and has raised $5.1 million for prostate cancer research since it’s inception in 1992.
Sigel also sat on the Corporate Advisory Board for the American Cancer Society, and was the president of the Greater Philadelphia Scholastic Golf Association and the First Tee of Philadelphia chapter. He is survived by wife Betty and three daughters.
Jay Sigel is somehow—and in some truly bizarre way —not a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The oversight is in no way a reflection of one of golf’s most accomplished, respected, and incredible philanthropic careers.