Weekend Wrap: Jaegar Is Headed To Augusta And Korda Wins Again
Weekend Wrap: Jaegar Is Headed To Augusta And Korda Wins Again
Veteran holds off Scheffler. Plus, Tour's Bahama agenda is revealed, an equipment meeting is called for Masters week, magazines to unveil Top 100 influencer lists and Monahan lands book deal.
Stephen Jaeger’s been trending and now he’s headed to The Masters.
The German-born veteran held off Scottie Scheffler and a host of other contenders to record a one-stroke victory in the Texas Children’s Houston Open. Besides Scheffler, Alejandro Tosti, Taylor Moore and Thomas Detry all had shots at winning before ending in the four-way second place tie.
The fiery Tosti gained a share of the lead with some stunning displays of power but bogeyed the 18th after a poor drive. However, it was Jaeger’s steadiness that carried the Memorial Park day.
The 34-year-old Jaeger moved to the United States as a teenager, was a six-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour and now has his first PGA Tour win in his 135th start. He contended in Mexico (T3) and San Diego (T3) earlier this season and now will make his first Masters appearance.
Jaegar started Sunday as part of a five-way tie for the lead with Scheffler, David Skinns, Tosti and Detry. And he probably could not have imagined a back nine of only pars would triumphantly hold off the World No. 1 and Masters favorite.
“I couldn't have thought, dreamed up a better week to do it,” Jaeger said after his final round 67 that included four front nine birdies. “Obviously playing with Scottie the last couple days, he's been on a tear, so to kind of slay the dragon a little bit this week was amazing. He's such a good dude, such a good player; I was just happy to play with him a couple days.”
The win makes Jaeger the 87th player in the Masters field. According to Nosferatu on Twitter, Jaeger moves to No. 43 in the world with no other players likely to be added via Monday’s World top 50 cutoff.
For Scheffler, a missed five footer at the 18th to force a playoff ended his quest to be the first player to win three straight starts since Dustin Johnson seven years ago. A missed Friday putt from only 1 foot, 10 inches ended an incredible streak of 28 rounds under par. Statistically, Scheffler’s putting numbers were excellent until the 31-putt final day where he lost a stroke-and-a-half on the greens, finishing 72nd in strokes gained for the round. Two of the Houston Open rounds saw Scheffler inside the top 10 in strokes gained putting and his tee-to-green game remains in fine shape headed to Augusta National.
Also…
The Houston Open appeared to be a wild success for Memorial Park in its initial springtime playing after Tom Doak and Brooks Koepka’s renovation. Besides fantastic conditioning and crowd energy—well, until Scheffler missed on 18 and sad Texans raced for the exits in silence—Memorial Park appeared to be an ideal pre-Masters design. But Valero, sponsors of next week’s Texas Open and instigators of the initial mess that briefly sent Houston off the schedule and then into the fall, might disagree.
Jaeger withdrew from this week’s Valero Texas Open to prepare for the Masters.
Other play of note: American Express winner Nick Dunlap carded a third-round 7-under 63 for his third bogey-free round of his (now) rookie campaign; Tony Finau posted a second round 62; Peter Malnatti made an incredible final round ace.
The 155-yard one-shotter played to a 3.181 average, ranking third in difficulty for the week with 53 birdies, 19 double bogeys and more “others” (3) than any other hole at Memorial Park. It also produced a scatter chart that looks more like something you’d see under a microscope.
Elsewhere…
With a final round 65 Nelly Korda captured her third straight win and 11th LPGA title in the Ford Championship Presented by KCC. Not since Yani Tseng’s dominating 2012 start has a player recorded three wins before April 1 in an LPGA Tour season. New Zealand’s Hira Naveed finished second two strokes back. Mi Hyang Lee, Frida Kinhult, Maja Stark, Carlota Ciganda and a resurgent Lexi Thompson finished third, three back.
Korda earned $337,500 for the win, bringing her total earnings to $924,216 this season.
“I think it was definitely one of my least stressful wins today,” Korda said. “I just played really solid golf. Didn't make really too many mistakes, and if I did I just had a chip, kind of straightforward chip. Overall capitalized on the majority of my really good shots out there today and made some good putts as well.” Round four highlights:
Keita Nakajima won his maiden DP World Tour title at the Hero Indian Open. The former top-ranked world amateur finished four strokes clear of India’s Veer Ahlawat, Sebastian Söderberg of Sweden and American Johannes Veerman. The victory is Nakajima’s fourth in the the last ten months. He recorded three wins on the Japan Golf Tour last year. However, the former Asia Pacific Amateur champion did not receive a Masters special invitation. He is likely to be in the PGA Championship thanks to his year-end Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit lead and current spot on the International Federation list.
A report from Hugo Costa says Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton, Louis Oosthuizen, Thomas Pieters, Marcel Siem and Adam Scott have all requested to be left out of 2024 Olympic golf consideration. This gets them out of blood sample testing starting in May. Koepka was a longshot to represent the United States given his fall to No. 31 in the world while Scott has opted out of the first two Games in his ongoing opposition of golf in the Olympics. (McEwan/Bunkered)
Bryson DeChambeau posted a YouTube video to show how an old Nike ball that would conform under 2028’s revised testing would be awful. He inadvertently helped make the case for how the current ball goes farther and straighter on a mishit compared to solid strike with the old ball.
The whole thing seemed more about plugging a nutritional supplement he’s relying on now that his 19 pieces-of-bacon-a-day diet has been retired. Those wacky scientists! (Knights/FriedEgg.com)
Bahamas Agenda For PGA Tour-PIF Meeting Revealed
Very few details have been shared since Tiger Woods welcomed PGA Tour player directors and select Strategic Sports Group investors to the Bahamas for a meet-and-greet with LIV Golf’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Since the meeting, only board members Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati have offered a few generalities regarding the day. Until now.
A source who attended the meeting at Woods’ Albany condo but who is not authorized to speak on the record was inspired to share an agenda after reading continued criticism over stalled negotiations. All agenda copies were returned, shredded and burned by members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s security detail, but the source photographed a folded-up copy during a bathroom break and shared it with The Quadrilateral.
As you’ll see, the player portion of the PGA Tour “Enterprises” Board considered a number of topics for discussion with the leader of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund with hope of reunifying the splintered professional tours.
The Commissioner’s office declined to comment on the validity of the agenda but did not deny its existence.
“Emergency” Equipment Standards Meeting Called For Masters Week
Multiple sources confirm a last-minute Masters week meeting has been scheduled by the USGA and R&A Equipment Standards Committee. So urgent is the subject matter that Masters Chairman Fred Ridley is expected to attend along with representatives of the PGA Tour and PGA of America.