Golf Player News

The 23-year-old world No. 432, who will make his first start at the Hero Open this week, made his presence known in Northern Ireland thanks to a stunning 8-under 62 in the second round that gave him a one-shot lead after 36 holes. He carded back-to-back rounds of 70 over the weekend, making two bogeys over his final three holes on Sunday to slide into the tie for third. “I’ve been playing well the last couple of months, just haven’t really put four rounds together yet,” said Hillier following his second round. “In a pretty good position at the moment, so just going to keep riding the wave and stick to the game plan and see how we go.” Hillier, who ranked first in the field last week in driving distance at 315.5, enjoyed a notable amateur career, twice winning the New Zealand Amateur and representing his country at the Eisenhower Trophy. Last year, he played on the Charles Tour in New Zealand, which held just six events before the pandemic hit, but Hilliard won two of them. On the season, he’s 8-for-10 in cuts made on the Challenge Tour and 1-for-2 in ET action.

The young Swede has been a model of consistency since joining the pro ranks in June. He arrived with top-15 finishes in seven straight starts including a win on the DP World Tour during that stretch. Making his second start at Sea Island (missed the cut last year), he steadied rounds of 67-64 before blitzing the Seaside Course over the weekend. He traded 17 birdies and an eagle with just one bogey over the weekend. That was his only bogey of the entire week. His weekend rounds of 61-61 (122) set the PGA Tour record for lowest closing 36. He already had his card for 2024 but this win jumps him into The Next 10 to give him entry into the first two Signature Events of 2024 while also allowing him an earlier start with access to the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The big-hitting Dane eased into his round with a trio of birdies before the turn then fireworks happened with circles on five of his last six holes. “I played some really good golf. I have to say this is the best golf I’ve played in a tournament and the strongest field in my three wins.” This will go in the books as his third DP World Tour title but first in a Rolex Series event. Hojgaard ended the year ranked second on the DP World Tour standings, sandwiched between superstars Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm. Fantasy gamers will see a lot of Hojgaard next year on the PGA Tour.

Woods has been out of action since a third-round WD at the Masters in April. He underwent ankle surgery to address some injuries suffered during his 2021 car crash. Woods has been spotted ramping up his practice time and walking time, in recent months. The Hero World Challenge is a limited field of just 20 golfers and it’s run by TGR Ventures so it’s an easy stress-free environment for him to return to competition. The PNC Challenge is also coming up on December 14th so it’s very possible that we’ll see Tiger and Charlie Woods competing there as well.

The South African opened his day with a bogey but quickly erased the blemish with a birdie at the following hole. It was the back nine that provided all of the fireworks though. He birdied six of his last eight holes before dropping home an eagle at the closing par 5. The eagle was set up by a stellar hybrid approach but much of his lead-up work was accomplished with a hot putter. This was his second career PGA Tour title (2021 Barracuda Championship). While this win will advance his career and renew his playing status, his thoughts were elsewhere for most of the week. He got news on Tuesday that his best friend, Jon Trasamar only has six to 10 weeks to live. Saying this was an emotional win for EVR would be an understatement.

At 76th in the FedExCup race, Dahmen is in no danger of losing his playing status. He was set to arrive with top 15s in two of his last three starts but won’t make the trip to Mexico. His lone PGA Tour win came at the Corales which is another coastal course with paspalum turf, which would have made him a popular fantasy option in weekly formats. Gamers should remove him from all lineups.

The lengthy Pole showcased the fine line between missing the cut and winning an event this week. He stumbled out of the gate with an even-par 72 on day one and was just 1-under thru 23 holes when he caught the break of a lifetime on the par-5 sixth time, catching a fortunate bounce to convert an eagle on a hole that could have very easily been a bogey or worse had the break not gone his way. Meronk added three more eagles before his week was over. The 30-year-old got a lot of attention for being overlooked by European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald this year. Meronk said this after the win, “I’m just glad the Ryder Cup and all the talks about it are over. I can just focus on my game and keep going forward, and whoever doubted me, I hope I can prove them wrong.” Meronk now has four DP Wold Tour titles with three coming this season. He’s third in the Race to Dubai standings.

Morikawa had a shaky second round in the wind and also had a double bogey early in his third round but fought back, playing the final 24 holes at 12-under. The California kid has family roots in Japan so this win meant even more to him. He also admitted that his winless slump was starting to circle around in his head so this should calm those thoughts for a while. “I had to really look back and ask myself what’s wrong. What’s the reasoning behind finishing second — that versus a win. This win means the world. Being in Japan and being half Japanese. A lot has come through over the past week.” Wiht this win, Morikawa jumps from 20th to 13th in the OWGR.

The young Korean was making the 44th start of his career and attempting to defend his first PGA Tour title as he had to skip the Wyndham Championship in August, due to injury. He tossed together four sub-69 rounds this week at TPC Summerlin to get the job done, edging out Adam Hadwin by one shot on the final leaderboard. There are plenty of ways this will go into the record books but one of the most notable accolades is that he’s now the youngest player since Tiger Woods (1997) to win three times on the PGA Tour. With this win, Kim jumps to No. 11 in the OWGR.

List ended his week with a 2-under 70 which put him at 18-under for the week and that was good enough to play his way into a five-man playoff alongside Ben Griffin, Ludvig Aberg, Scott Stallings, and Henrik Norlander. They didn’t have a lot of daylight to work with but List made quick work of the playoff when he poured home a 45-foot birdie bomb on the first playoff hole. A hot putter was the theme of the week for List who gained 6 strokes putting at week’s end (not even including the playoff putt) which was his best week-long putting performance since the 2019 PGA Championship and one of the five best putting weeks of his PGA Tour career. This will go in the books as his second career Tour title (2022 Farmers Insurance Open) and earns him spots at the 2024 Tournament of Champions as well as the 2024 Masters.

Hisatsune started a bit off the pace, entering the day in fifth place. When leader Jordan Smith opened with back-to-back birdies it looked like a done deal but Smith went on to swallow a trio of bogeys without circling any more birds. For Hisatsune, he traded seven birdies with a pair of bogeys on the day. “For me, I didn’t think I would win, but I just won! I’m feeling delighted, it’s my first win, I’m so happy. I fly back to Japan tomorrow. Maybe in business class, I don’t know!” With this win, the 21-year-old DP World Tour rookie climbs from 37th to 11th in the Race to Dubai standings.