The post ‘Your heart sinks:’ Self-reported rangefinder penalty almost sent PGA Tour winner home appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Your heart sinks:’ Self-reported rangefinder penalty almost sent PGA Tour winner home appeared first on Golf.

During the second round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Davis Riley found himself toeing the line between heartbreak and happiness because of a misstep with a rangefinder.

While finishing up the second round Saturday morning at TPC Craig Ranch due to Friday’s weather delay, Riley sat at 5-under-par, which was firmly inside the projected cut line. But all of that changed when he stepped onto the 152-yard par-3 17th. 

“Stepping onto that tee on 17, I was assuming that the rangefinder was in the proper mode and shot it, and two numbers came up,” Riley said afterward. “I’ve used it enough to know that that’s the slope number. Unfortunately, it was just kind of one of those moments where your heart sinks a little bit, like you’re just throwing away two shots.”

The PGA Tour is allowing distance-measuring devices during the stretch between the Masters and the PGA Championship as a trial balloon to try and curb slow play. But the rangefinders can only be used to measure distance. All other functions, including slope, must be disabled. The ruling is clear — if slope is enabled, the player receives two penalty strokes. 

“If you have the slope adjuster on that, no matter what knowledge is on there, it’s a two-stroke penalty, and another one after that is disqualification,” Riley says.

So, Riley did what any player of integrity would do: he self-reported.

“It’s a game — it’s a gentleman’s game,” he said. “That’s just something, when you start out with that, that’s the integrity of the game knowing guys are going to keep that there. You kind of have to have that same trust as if guys, what happened to me today, have the security to say, hey, I shot this, and it was accidentally on slope.”

Suddenly, Riley found himself on the wrong side of the cut line, with seven holes left and the pressure mounting.

“I looked at my caddie, and I told him, I was like, man, I’m struggling. I’m kind of angry. My head’s spinning because I’m right around the cut and I’m playing good and I want to make a move, but then you kind of take a punch on 17,” he said.

Punch landed. But it wasn’t a knockout.

Riley responded like the seasoned pro he is and drained an eagle putt on his final hole to muscle his way back inside the cut line. 

“I saw on seven green, I saw the leaderboard, I saw it was 4-under at the time, but I know finishing on two par-5s on both sides, I knew it would probably go to 5,” he said. “So when I stepped up on nine tee, I told myself I needed to eagle. I hit a good drive just barely in the rough and then judged a 5-iron perfectly and had to putt those about two to three inches out left and hit it center cup. So I was real excited about that.”

A rules infraction, a two-shot penalty, and then an eagle to stay alive? A dramatic round, to say the least.

Riley tees off No. 10 today at 3:55 p.m. CT. If you want to catch his comeback story as it unfolds, here’s how to watch the third round of the CJ Cup.

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The post Davis Riley rolls by Scottie Scheffler to win at Colonial appeared first on Golf.

The post Davis Riley rolls by Scottie Scheffler to win at Colonial appeared first on Golf.

Davis Riley had his work cut out for him Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Never mind who he played his final round with on Sunday, but a newly revamped Colonial Country Club was biting back hard. After playing under par Saturday, The fabled Fort Worth, Texas track was rock hard and fast Sunday, complicated by gusty winds that wreaked havoc on the field. Sunday’s scoring average was more than two-and-a-quarter strokes over par.

Add the obvious fact that Riley was playing with Scottie Scheffler, a player in the midst of one the most dominant runs in men’s professional golf since Tiger Woods. The Scheffler of the past few months could have easily closed the four-shot lead Riley had to begin the day.

But he didn’t and Riley rose to the occasion.

After briefly allowing Scheffler within three after a bogey on the 2nd hole, Riley rebounded with a birdie on No. 4 to extend his lead to five. No one got within four shots of him again all day. In the end, Riley’s even-par 70 to win the Charles Schwab Challenge by five over Scheffler and Keegan Bradley.

“Obviously you see the name winners here are incredible guys, people that I’ve looked up to my whole life and watched them winning this tournament when I was growing up,” Riley said. “Yeah, you see that plaque out there right beside 1 tee, seeing all the unreal golfers, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Spieth, unreal golfers and just to etch my name along with those people is pretty special and it will be pretty cool to see my name there.”

It’s Riley’s second PGA Tour title, but first individually after he won the Zurich Classic team event last year with partner Nick Hardy. But individually, the past two seasons have been more of a struggle for the 27-year-old.

After an impressive rookie season in 2022 when he had six top-10s and was one of eight first-year Tour members to advance to the BMW Championship, Riley would not have kept his card in 2023 had it not been for the win at the team event. He had just one other top-10 and missed 14 cuts in 35 events.

This season, he was playing even worse, missing half his cuts so far and entering this week at Colonial in 150th in the FedEx Cup standings with just one top-25 finish.

But all you need is one good week.

Riley recently reunited with longtime friend and former swing coach Jeff Smith and the two have been working on getting more “simplicity” in his golf swing.

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It clicked this week as he raced out to a four-shot lead after 54 holes Sunday and despite a shaky par-bogey start on Colonial’s getable 1st and 2nd holes, Riley had control of the tournament all day. Even as he starred down the same player who beat him in the finals of the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur.

He said Saturday night he wanted to flip the script against Scheffler.

“You got the No. 1 player in the world breathing down your neck, not really any shot lead is too comfortable,” Riley said Sunday. “I knew at some point today he was going to make a push and I expected that and, honestly, I tried to treat today as if we both started tied and I just tried to win the day.”

The World No. 1 too parred the par-5 opener, the easiest hole all week and started fading away quickly. He drove into a penalty area at the 5th, leading to a bogey and struggled with his driver for much of the afternoon. He didn’t find the fairway until the 6th hole and hit only two in the first 11 holes on a day when firm conditions demanded approaches from the short grass.

Meanwhile, Riley continued plodding along as none of his challengers could mount a serious challenge, at one point, opening a seven-shot lead. He gave a few back with bogeys on 12 and 15, but he got one back with a tight approach on 17 out of a divot to walk up 18 with a five-stroke lead.

Scheffler came back with back nine birdies on 13 and 17 to salvage a T2 finish with Keegan Bradley, who posted a 67 for the second-lowest round of the day.

Riley’s win caps a tumultuous weekend on the PGA Tour. Saturday afternoon, Commissioner Jay Monahan announced PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray had passed away that morning at the age of 30. Players wore black and red pins on Sunday in his honor.

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The post Davis Riley and Nick Hardy each capture maiden PGA Tour win at Zurich Classic appeared first on Golf.

The post Davis Riley and Nick Hardy each capture maiden PGA Tour win at Zurich Classic appeared first on Golf.

At last year’s Zurich Classic, Nick Hardy’s rookie PGA Tour season was derailed.

He suffered a left wrist injury, forcing him to miss two months and eventually have to re-earn his PGA Tour card at the Korn Ferry Finals.

In contrast, his partner this week, Davis Riley, had a tremendous rookie season in 2022, nearly making the Tour Championship at No. 36 in the FedEx Cup standings. But he didn’t get a win.

This week though, Riley and Hardy each collected their first PGA Tour title after the pair shot 65 Sunday in alternate shot to finish at 30 under and win the Zurich Classic by two strokes. Riley and Hardy are the second and third players to win their first Tour title at the Zurich since it became a team event in 2017 when Cameron Smith did in the format’s debut.

“I feel like we both handled it very well coming down the stretch,” Hardy said. “First timers, obviously. So to be able to do that together, kind of rub off each other’s confidence and sort of attitude. It was definitely special to have a partner for the first one.”

And while the second-year players had to team up for their first wins, they still get all the benefits of an individual PGA Tour win, namely exempt status on the Tour through 2025. They’ll also both get 400 FedEx Cup points, moving them into the top 40 in the season standings, and split the $2,485,400 winner’s share.

While both players will gladly take the benefits, it likely means even more to Hardy, who also was playing this season under a major medical exemption because of the time he missed due to the wrist injury. He returned last June and even factored in the U.S. Open at Brookline, finishing T14 after going into the weekend just two back of the lead.

“I got hurt on this day last year here. I hurt my wrist here on this day. I was actually in the hospital probably at this point last year. So it’s a lot better place to be at here,” Hardy said. “to bounce back from that, those things, is definitely huge for me. Yeah, I just look back to last year now, and we’ve kind of come pretty far.”

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The win was also unlikely because the pairing only came about three weeks ago. Hardy was slated to play with fellow Illinois alumnus Thomas Detry, but the Belgian was asked by European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald to play with Victor Perez. Hardy then texted his friend since the age of 14, Riley, to set up the pairing.

They entered the final round three back of leader Wyndham Clark and Beau Hossler at 23 under.

The Canadian duo of Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin were the story early in the afternoon, however. They made seven straight birdies to take the lead at 28-under on 13, but they parred the last five holes to finish at that number and tie the tournament alternate shot record of 63.

Clark and Hossler stalled midway through the round, allowing Riley and Hardy to pounce with five birdies on the back nine, including Riley’s clutch birdie putt from off the green on 17 to extend their lead to two.

The pair laid up on the par-5 18th and made an easy five to post a tournament record 30 under and hold on for the win. Clark and Hossler settled for a 71 and solo third behind the Canadians.

“It was nerve-racking honestly,” Riley said. “Any time you’re trying to win a golf tournament, more or less to get your first win is always tough. You’re going to have to kind of step up there and hit some shots. Fortunately, we were able to kind of execute some really good shots coming down the stretch, and it was really fun.”

The post Davis Riley and Nick Hardy each capture maiden PGA Tour win at Zurich Classic appeared first on Golf.