Jaden Soong, a rising junior golfer at St. Francis High, charged from behind on the leaderboard to win the prestigious Junior PGA Championships in Frisco, Texas, on Friday.
He entered the final round with a two-stroke lead but was down by four strokes with nine holes to play. He regained the lead with a birdie putt at No. 17 and finished the four rounds at seven-under par.
Soong won the CIF state individual championship as a freshman. He did not compete in the CIF event this past season, focusing on traveling around the country to compete in junior tournaments.
JADEN SOONG TAKES THE LEAD HEADING INTO EIGHTEEN. 🤯
A birdie putt on hole seventeen at Fields Ranch East gives Jaden Soong the outright lead. Follow along for the exciting finish using the link below or on the PGA of America YouTube page. #JuniorPGApic.twitter.com/0ZYB6880vN
By winning the Junior PGA, he earns an exemption to compete at the 2027 Tulum Championship on the PGA Korn Ferry Tour. The same course Soong won on will be used next year for the PGA Championship.
American rookie Jackson Koivun held his nerve to beat Scottie Scheffler by three strokes and claim his first PGA Tour win at the 3M Open on Sunday.
Playing in just his third tournament since turning professional, Koivun surged into a three-shot lead on Saturday during a round of 10-under 61.
The 21-year-old then stretched his lead to five in the final round at TPC Twin Cities in Minnesota, before world number one Scheffler applied pressure.
The four-time major winner began the back nine with three straight birdies, then claimed two more in the final three holes to finish with an eight-under 63 and trail compatriot Koivun by two strokes.
Former world amateur number one Koivun could have wobbled at that point, with holes left to play, but instead he made his fifth birdie of the day at 16 before wrapping up a five-under 66 to finish on 25 under par overall.
“I had some nerves coming down 18,” said Koivun. “All throughout the crowd I kept hearing ‘Scottie’s coming, Scottie’s coming’.
“I just tried to tune that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could and was able to find some good putts coming down the stretch.”
American trio Denny McCarthy, Brian Harman and Chandler Phillips finished five strokes behind Koivun, in a tie for third with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.
-13 H Ryu (Kor); -11 I Yoon (Kor); -10 B Henderson (Can), D Weber (Ned); -7 A Corpuz (US), A Kim (US), A Lee (US); -6 SY Kim (Kor), J Thitikul (Tha), N Korda (US), AL Kim (Kor)
Selected others: +5 L Maguire (Ire); +6 G Dryburgh (Sco)
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu landed a maiden major with a two-shot victory at the Women’s PGA Championship.
The 25-year-old went into the day with a one-shot lead and relinquished her place at the top of the leaderboard in a fluctuating final round, with three bogeys in the first five holes.
But she got back on track with five birdies in a two-under-par round to finish on -13 and take the $1.95m (£1.48m) winner’s cheque.
The tournament purse of $13m (£9.8m) is the largest in women’s golf history.
“It feels like a dream has come true because I tried a couple times to be a major champion and I didn’t get it,” Ryu said.
“Today I did it and I’m so happy right now.”
It was an incredible comeback for a player who was tied for 70th and 10 shots off the lead after the opening round at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
Canada’s Brooke Henderson and Dewi Weber of the Netherlands each held the lead following a weather-delayed start to the round but both finished on -10, tied for third – a career-best finish in a major for Weber.
Ryu’s compatriot Ina Yoon had fallen away on the third day after leading by five, but fought back to finish second on -11.
America’s Nelly Korda – chasing a historic third straight major championship win – was four shots off the lead at the start of play but could not kick on, ending tied for eighth on six under.
Scottie Scheffler fired a 10-under-par 60 to hold the lead after the second round of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship.
The world number one made 11 birdies and a lone bogey on Friday to move to 16 under at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
That put him two shots clear of Norway’s Viktor Hovland, who also threatened a rare round of 59 as he fired a bogey-free 61 which included seven birdies and an eagle.
Jim Furyk holds the tour-record lowest round at 58, but Scheffler is one of 14 players to have made a 59, which for him came during the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston.
The 30-year-old American had the chance to repeat the feat with a birdie at the 18th hole but missed from just outside 26 feet.
“It was a little tricky,” Scheffler said. “It actually went right to start, and there was a tonne of break right to left at the end.
“It was a tough read, but overall it was a really solid day. I was pretty happy with my execution.”
On his plans for the weekend, the four-time major winner added: “Hard to keep up that pace, but continue to execute, continue to give myself looks.”
Compatriot Akshay Bhatia sat four shots off the lead in a share of third place having matched his career-low round with a bogey-free 62, with fellow American Eric Cole alongside him after a 65.
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick lurked two strokes back on 10 under, having had to settle for a four-under 66 after two bogeys on his final three holes, with Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood a single shot further behind and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at eight under.
Rory McIlroy shouted an expletive at a heckler who distracted him at a crucial moment in the final round of the US PGA Championship.
The world number two swore as he told the fan to “shut up” and seemingly urged security to remove the spectator from the grounds at the Aronimink venue.
Sunday’s incident was reminiscent of McIlroy’s heated Ryder Cup campaign last year, when he was the subject of frequent abuse by United States supporters during Europe’s victory at Bethpage Black.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, who won his second consecutive Masters and sixth major overall last month, closed with a one-under-par 69 at the US PGA to finish four under overall and tied for seventh in Pennsylvania.
He was five strokes adrift of victor Aaron Rai, who became the first Englishman to win the event’s Wanamaker Trophy in over a century.
The incident with the spectator occurred on the par-five 16th, with McIlroy chipping out of the rough into a greenside bunker after heckling during his backswing.
He moved within five feet of the pin with his next shot and sank his par putt, but would have seen the hole as an opportunity for a birdie.
McIlroy said after the round that he will not compete again until the PGA Tour’s Memorial tournament in three weeks, with June’s US Open at Shinnecock following a fortnight later.
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Aaron Rai shifted into high gear Sunday and pulled away from a world-class field with one amazing shot after another until he became the first English-born player in more than a century to capture the PGA Championship.
Rai, who dreamed of being a Formula 1 driver until he turned to golf as a boy, was three shots behind and approaching the turn at Aronimink Golf Club when he delivered a performance worthy of a major champion.
He made a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth during a stretch when he one-putted seven straight greens to take the lead.
And on the closing holes when the contenders needed him to stumble, Rai holed a birdie putt of some 70 feet across the 17th green for the clincher.
The 31-year-old Rai, the first player of Indian heritage to win a major, closed with a 5-under 65.
Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, they all had their chances and until they were undone by untimely mistakes or failure to get good looks at birdie. McIlroy, who closed with a 69, played the par fives in even for the week and he chopped up the reachable par-4 13th for a bogey.
Rai, who finished at nine-under 271, is the first player from England with his name on the Wanamaker Trophy since Jim Barnes in 1919, the second edition of this major and the first after World War I.
He wound up winning by three shots over 54-hole leader Alex Smalley and Rahm, who had his best finish in a major since defecting to LIV Golf at the end of 2023. Rahm was slowed by a pair of bogeys on the front nine, and managed only one birdie on the back nine for a 68.
Aaron Rai and wife Gaurika Bishnoi hold the Wanamaker Trophy.
(Frank Franklin II / AP)
Smalley lost the lead with a messy double bogey on the sixth hole, and his best golf was too late. Rai already had his eye on the Wanamaker Trophy.
Justin Thomas made a 16-foot par putt on the final hole for a 65 and pulled him within one shot of the lead as the final group was in the second fairway. For the longest time, as Aronimink got tougher and the pressure got tighter, it looked like Thomas might have a chance.
Like everything else on this final day, Rai ended those hopes, too.
So ended a most remarkable week in the Philadelphia suburbs, where no one could separate themselves on Aronimink. The 22 players within four shots of the lead going into the final round was a PGA Championship record.
From that pack emerged the 31-year-old Rai, with one PGA Tour title, three on the European tour, and no finishes inside the top 15 at any of the majors.
He might not be well known among casual observers, but he is a star in the eyes of his peers for his humility and gracious personality.
“You won’t find one person on property who’s not happy for him,” McIlroy said.
“Super pumped for him and his team,” Schauffele said. “All-world gentleman, no doubt.”
Rory McIlroy hits from the bunker on the 16th green.
(Carolyn Kaster / AP)
He wears two gloves, a habit he started as a kid in England to battle the cold winters when he was practicing — and he was always practicing. Even more unusual for Rai is the plastic covers on each iron, a reminder of his roots.
He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil after his son was done playing. Rai has left the iron covers on since then “to remember where I cam from and to respect what I have.”
Now he has his name on the Wanamaker Trophy and his place in history.
