Thomas holds off Koepka in Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Justin Thomas won the FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Sunday to take the No. 1 spot in the world for the first time since June 2018.
Thomas dueled defending champion Brooks Koepka down the final holes, sealing the World Golf Championship victory on the par-5 16th. Thomas took the lead for good with his second straight birdie, while Koepka bogeyed the hole.
Koepka pulled within a stroke with a 39-footer for birdie on No. 17. But Koepka put his tee shot into the water along the 18th fairway on his way to double bogey, allowing Thomas to finish up an easy par putt for what wound up a threestroke victory.
Thomas closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at 13-under 267 and take the $10.5 million winner’s check for his 13th PGA Tour title. At 27, he became the thirdyoungest player since 1960 to reach 13 PGA Tour wins, trailing only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.
This was the fifth time Thomas rallied to win, and he matched his biggest comeback after starting the day four strokes back of third-round leader Brendon Todd. Thomas has three wins this season, two since the start of the year.
The last time Thomas was No. 1, he spent four weeks at the top of the ranking. He will supplant Jon Rahm, who became No. 1 after winning at Memorial two weeks ago.
Barracuda Championship
TRUCKEE, Calif. – Richy Werenski holed a flop shot from the 16th fairway for a five-point eagle and birdied the last for a one-point victory over Troy Merritt on Sunday in the Barracuda Championship.
Werenski won for the first time on the PGA Tour, scoring 13 points in the final round on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course – the first-time venue after 21 years at Montreux Golf and Country Club. The 28-year-old former Georgia Tech player won the event three years after losing to Chris Stroud on the second hole of a playoff.
The fifth straight first-time winner in the tour’s lone modified Stableford scoring event, Werenski earned a spot next week in the PGA Championship in San Francisco.
LPGA Tour
TOLEDO, Ohio – Danielle Kang played the brand of steady golf that wins on tough golf courses, closing with a 2-under 70 on Sunday at Inverness Club and winning the LPGA Drive On
Championship in the first LPGA Tour event in more than five months.
Kang and Celine Boutier of France turned the final hour into a terrific duel, and they were tied when Kang made her lone bogey on the par-5 13th with a poor chip from the thick collar.
PGA Tour Champions
GRAND BLANC, Mich. – Jim Furyk turned 50 when golf was shut down and made the most of it when the PGA Tour Champions returned, closing with a 4-under 68 to win the Ally Challenge on Sunday when Brett Quigley bogeyed his last two holes.
Furyk became the first player since Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2014 to win in his start on the 50-and-older circuit.
European Tour
BIRMINGHAM, England – Sam Horsfield shot a final round 4-under 68 to win the Hero Open by one stroke Sunday in the European Tour’s latest stop in England.
The 23-year-old Englishman clinched his first European Tour title with an 18-under 270 total, holding off second-place Thomas Detry, whose 6under 66 had briefly given him a share of the lead.