Scott

Vincent

Looking to see if his play can stack up with the PGA Tour, the former Virginia Tech Hokie can draw on his performance in the 2020 Olympic Games. Representing his country of Zimbabwe, Vincent finished in a tie for 16th at Kasumigaseki Country Club. After opening with a round of 2-over 73, Vincent battled back with rounds of 67-66-67 to climb into the top-20 by week’s end. With victories at the ANA Open and the Sansan KBC Augusta since then, the 29-year-old has catapulted to world No. 115. For context, this places him ahead of players such as C.T. Pan, Tom Hoge, and Adam Long who are all in the field at the ZOZO Championship.

A 29th start on this circuit for the Zimbabwean, his second top five and one he earned with some match play dynamics having first needed to emerge from the pack of nine tied at the end of strokeplay when there were only eight spots available. Sunday morning he birdied the first four holes of his opener to defeat Wade Ormsby 3-and-2, one birdie and five pars saw off Yuta Ikeda 2-up, and a level-par six holes saw him tie Benjamin Campbell. They both made birdie on the first shootout hole, par was good enough on the second. He was hit by Adrian Otaegui’s three birdies in four holes in the semi (lost 3-and-2), but two late birdies and a Paul Dunne sixth hole error saw the third/fourth match go to the shootout. Alas Vincent found the grandstand, Dunne nearly the holes; it was game over.

Vincent teamed up with Benjamin Follett-Smith at the World Cup and finished 27th out of 28 with 7-over. Follett-Smith was the third lowest-ranked player in the 56-man player and that seemed to show up in the foursomes when the pair shot 84 and 73. Vincent also played the World Super 6 Perth last year, finishing T26 and had some impressive results on the Asian Tour in 2018, posting two second places. He’s made just one worldwide start in 2019 and showed some good signs to finish T24 at the Singapore Open so is capable of making an impression in a weak field like this.

The Virginia Tech grad has been taking the eye on the South African Sunshine Tour this season with a string of good results. In his last three starts he’s posted top fives at the Eye of Africa PGA Championship and his home Zimbabwe Open and also finished T15 in the Zambia Sugar Open. In addition, he made the top 10 in February’s Bangladesh Open and it’s in Asia where we’re most likely to see him for now after he tied for second at the Asian Tour Qualifying School final stage at the Springfield Royal Country Club in Bangok. Vincent turned pro last year after peaking at No. 7 in the world amateur rankings.

The Zimbabwean missed the cut on his last European Tour outing, the Indian Open in February. But it was a case of buyer beware because he had form on the Japan Tour just last week: T4 in the Panasonic Open. He closed that out with a 66 and repeated the trick on Thursday. Yet his first move was backwards: a bogey at the second. He compensated quickly and in style: birdie-birdie at 3 and 4. Moreover he ticked the seventh and then made eagle-3 at the 558-yard par-5 eighth. The back nine was not so spectacular, but there were no errors and he circled 13 and 15. The 66 equals his previous ET low round score (second round of the 2018 SA Open when T4).

The Zimbabwean was runner-up at the Indonesia Open in mid-July and also took second place in the TAKE Solutions Masters in India two weeks ago. Obviously, there isn’t the same depth in Asia but there’s no reason why he can’t do well against a modest field in Prague this week. Vincent has pegged it up in 14 events on the European Tour this season, his best results coming in South Africa (T4, T13) and China (T11) so he’s yet to find his feet on the European mainland. Interestingly, he’s 24th in Driving Distance and 2nd in SG: Putting so the potential is there to make a big impression.

The Zimbabwean reached 8-under 136 at the midpoint after seven birdies, a bogey and 10 pars on his morning tour of Glendower GC. His first red number came at the par-5 2nd hole and he closed his front nine with a trio of birdies at 7, 8 and 9. The former Virginia Tech grad mixed a birdie at 11 with his sole bogey of the day at 12 but picked up further shots at 14 and 16 to put himself bang in contention and alongside Branden Grace in a tie for second. Vincent missed the cut on his only previous start at Glendower 12 months ago but signed off 2017 with a top three finish in the Asian Tour’s Indonesian Masters. He was also T30 in last month’s co-sanctioned Joburg Open.

The 25-year-old Zimbabwean is well-traveled. He played college golf for Virginia Tech and in his year of graduation 2015 finished T64 on his, to date, only PGA Tour appearance at The Heritage. Since then he played a bit on the Sunshine Tour, a little bit on the Canadian Tour, and a little bit on the Asian Tour in 2016, then repeated that this year, with a Japan Tour effort tossed in. He’s proved himself able to make the top ten regularly in Asia and Canada and cracked that for the first time in a European Tour co-sanctioned event at this year’s Fiji International - but buyer beware (it was a poor field). T22 last week in the Mauritius Open and T68 in this tournament in February.

The Zimbabwean made quiet progress on the front nine, ticking 2 and 8, but giving a shot back on the third before everything happened in a rush midway through the back nine. He started by making birdies at 12 and 13, dropped a shot at 14, bounced back with eagle-3 at the 15th and completed his progress for the week with a final red number at 16. Two pars confirmed the top five finish, the first of his 13 start European Tour career. A worldwide golfer he has top tens in Taiwan, Canada, Fiji, Korea, Indonesia and now South Africa in the last eight months alone.

The Zimbabwean’s form continues to bubble as he seeks to make a genuine career breakthrough moment. In this European Tour season co-sanctioned events have allowed him to notch five starts: four Opens (MC in Hong Kong, T22 in Mauritius, T30 in Joburg, T4 in South African) and then T71 in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (a start earned through the S.A. top ten). In amongst that run he was T3 in the Indonesian Masters and T10 in last week’s Myanmar Open. A first start at this level in Malaysia, but was T3 in the Asian Development Tour’s UMW Championship at Templar Park, which included a round three 63.