Behind Theegala, Pepperdine rides the Wave to victory in Southwestern Invitational

   I’ll probably spend most of the spring reporting on events in the eastern half of the country, so when the Southwestern Invitational popped up this week with a number of Pac-12 teams, including reigning national champion Stanford, in the field, I sat up and took notice.

   But it wasn’t any of those Pac-12 powers that came out on top. No, it was the host team, Pepperdine, that earned an impressive 17-shot victory over Southern California and Arizona State behind individual champion Sahith Theegala, a redshirt senior from Chino Hills, Calif. and No. 11 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), in the Southwestern, which wrapped up Tuesday at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif.

   And this wasn’t a big shocker, either. The Waves came into their event as the highest-ranked team in the field, No. 6 in the latest Golfstat rankings.

   They were solid last spring, too, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Austin Regional and finishing fourth to advance to the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. Joe Highsmith, a sophomore from Lakewood, Wash., finished fourth in the individual chase at Austin as a freshman.

   Pepperdine never got in the mix to be among the final eight teams that qualified for match play at The Blessings. But this spring might be different. In addition to the starting five at North Ranch, three players competing as individuals, two freshmen and a sophomore, were among the top 15 finishers in the individual chase.

   The goal for the Waves might be a little higher than just getting to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. this spring.

   Pepperdine’s second five would have finished second in the team standings in the Southwestern. The competition to make the first five at Pepperdine is going to be as intense as the tournaments themselves.

   Daylight is still in short supply in late January, no matter where you’re playing and Monday’s double-round didn’t quite get completed.

   With rounds of 4-under-par 284 and 1-under 287 over the 6,992-yard, par-72 North Ranch layout, the Waves were the only team under par through two rounds. With Theegala leading the way with a sparkling final round of 6-under 66, Pepperdine closed with a 9-under 279 for a 14-under 850 total.

   Arizona State, ranked 10^th, and No. 43 Southern Cal shared second place, 17 shots behind Pepperdine at 3-over 867.

   The Sun Devils, who also reached The Blessings as a team last spring, were Pepperdine’s closest pursuer after posting rounds of 5-over 293 and 3-over 291 before closing with a solid 5-under 283. The Trojans, an NCAA Championship qualifier last spring as well, matched Pepperdine’s 9-under 279 in the final round to move into the tie for second with Arizona State.

   Three of the next four chasers in the team standings were also out of the Pac-12.

   No. 34 California, yet another NCAA Championship qualifier last spring, finished fourth at 8-over 872, five shots behind Arizona State and Southern Cal. The Cal Bears struggled in the opening round with a 302 before matching par in the second round at 288 and finishing up with a 6-under 282.

   Next, was reigning national champion Stanford, which brings a No.-27 ranking into the spring portion of the 2019-’20 season and finished fifth at 12-over 876, four shots behind its neighboring rival Cal. After rounds of 8-over 296 and 7-over 295, the Cardinal closed with a 3-under 285.

   Southeastern Conference power LSU, ranked 29^th, took a trip west and finished in sixth place at 17-over 881, five shots behind Stanford. The Tigers bounced back from a 304 in the second round by finishing up with a 3-under 285.

   It was another six shots back to yet another Pac-12 entry as No. 18 UCLA finished seventh in the 12-team field at 23-over 887. The Bruins closed with a 5-over 293.

   Theegala was at 6-under 138 when Monday’s double-round was finally completed Tuesday morning, which gave him a share of the lead with Southern Cal’s Leon D’Souza, a junior from Hong Kong. Both players toured North Ranch in rounds of 2-under 70 and 4-under 68.

   Theegala’s final-round 66 gave him the individual title with a 12-under 204 total, although he had to be good because D’Souza chased him home with a pretty strong 5-under 67 of his own to finish just a shot back of Theegala in second place at 11-under 205.

   Theegala had won the Southwestern in 2017 and he became just the third two-time winner of the event, joining UCLA’s Corey Pavin (1979, 1981) and UTEP’s Dave Bishop (1988, 1991).

   Backing up Theegala for the Waves was Joey Vrzila, a junior from El Cajon, Calif. who finished in a tie for sixth place at 1-under 215. Vrzila led his teammate Theegala by a shot after an opening round of 3-under 69 before struggling to a 3-over 75 in the second round. But he closed with a 1-under 71 to get it back in red figures for the tournament.

   Clay Feagler, a senior form Laguna Niguel, Calif., was a shot behind Vrzila in a large group tied for eighth place at even-par 216. Fiegler contributed a strong 3-under 69 to Pepperdine’s blazing final-round finish.

   Highsmith helped Pepperdine get off to a fast start with a 3-under 69 before struggling to rounds of 77 and 74 as he finished among the group tied for 23^rd place at 4-over 220.

   Rounding out the starting five for the Waves was Joshua McCarthy, a senior from Danville, Calif. who finished among the group tied for 29^th place at 6-over 222, although his pair of 1-over 73s in the second and third rounds were both counters, picking up Highsmith.

   And, as I mentioned earlier, that starting five is getting pressured from inside its own golf room.

   A couple of freshmen, Dylan Menante of Carlsbad, Calif. and William Mouw of Chino, Calif. and No. 20 in the WAGR, joined Feagler in the group tied for eighth place at even-par 216. 

   After struggling to an opening-round 78, Menante fired a 1-under 71 and a closing 3-under 69. Mouw, a qualifying co-medalist in last summer’s U.S. Junior Amateur at The Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, was solid throughout, opening with a 2-over 74 and adding an even-par 72 before closing with a 2-under 70.

   Derek Hitchner, a sophomore from Minneapolis, finished among the group tied for 14^th place at 1-over 217 as he closed strong with a 5-under 67 after posing a pair of 3-over 75s in the first two rounds.

   Nobody really threatened the top two in the individual chase, Theegala and D’Souza, but Arizona State’s Chun An Yu, a senior from Taiwan and No. 3 in the WAGR, finished alone in third place at 5-under 211, six shots behind D’Souza.

   Yu, who finished third in the individual chase in the NCAA Championship at The Blessings last spring, struggled a little in the opening round with a 2-over 74, but came on strong with a 4-under 68 in the second round before closing with a 3-under 69.

   California accounted for the next two spots in the individual standings as Finigan Tilly, a junior from San Carlos, Calif., finished fourth at 3-under 213 and Kento Yamawaki, a freshman from Encinitas, Calif., was another shot behind Tilly in fifth place at 2-under 214.

   Tilly climbed the leaderboard with a sizzling 5-under 67 in the final round while Yamawaki made a big move in the second round with a 6-under 66 before closing with a 2-over 74.

   Joining Pepperdine’s Vrzila in the tie for sixth place at 1-under 215 was Stanford’s Ethan Ng, a sophomore from New York City. Ng struggled to an opening-round 77 before posting a pair of 3-under 69s to get it to 1-under.

   Stanford’s run to the NCAA title last spring at The Blessings was fueled by a couple of seniors, Brandon Wu and Isaiah Salinda, both of whom represented the United States in its victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match last summer at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.

   Stanford was struggling around this time last year, but got on a roll that included a Pac-12 team crown that didn’t stop until the Cardinal was hoisting an NCAA championship trophy at The Blessings. Sleep on Stanford at your peril.

Those 2009 Walker Cuppers still bringing it on the pro level

   I mostly leave the commentary on the touring-pro level to those at a higher pay grade than me, but I do like to check in on captain Buddy Marucci’s crew that claimed a resounding 16.5-9.5 victory over Great Britain & Ireland as the United States retained the Walker Cup in 2009 at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.

   International match play will return to the East Course in a little more than two years when the Curtis Cup pits top women’s amateur players from the U.S. of A. against GB&I on the Hugh Wilson classic (with some finishing touches provided by greenkeeper William Flynn).

   It will be interesting to see how the East Course looks following its reworking under the watchful eye of Gil Hanse. Hearing that the green on the par-5 second hole has been moved back 50 yards or so on land the club didn’t use to own. Of course, if you push it right off the tee onto Ardmore Avenue, you’re still OB.

   This one-time Merion looper was fortunate enough to have a press pass for the 2009 Walker Cup Match in my previous life as a golf writer at the Delaware County Daily Times.

   Oddly, only one alum of that 2009 U.S. team, former Georgia Tech standout Cameron Tringale, made the cut at last weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. The 32-year-old Tringale struggled to a final-round 74 to finish in a tie for 49^th place at 2-under 286.

   Tringale has been a solid if unspectacular pro. He failed to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs two years ago, but battled his way through the Korn Ferry Tour Playoffs (the tour formerly known as the Web.com, among other corporate sponsors that have come and gone) to retain his playing privileges in the big leagues, the PGA Tour.

   Tringale maintained his status by finishing 105^th on the money list in the wraparound 2018-’19 season with just more than $1 million in earnings. And he certainly seems to be building toward an even better 2019-’20 season. Playing the weekend has become a regular thing for Tringale as the Farmers was his eighth made cut in eight starts this season.

   The star, then and now, of that 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, Rickie Fowler, keeps on keeping on. Fowler turned 31 late last year and married Allison Stokke, a fitness model who was an NCAA qualifier in the pole vault at California.

   Fowler missed the cut by a shot at the Farmers, adding a 3-under 69 to his opening-round 75 for an even-par 144 total. He will defend his title at this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open.

   His win at Phoenix a year ago was the fifth career PGA Tour victory for Fowler who has piled up more than $38 million in career earnings. Fowler came in at just less than $4 million in the 2018-’19 season, good for 15^th on the money list.

   Fowler finished in a tie for ninth in the Masters and tied for sixth in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2019, which, I’m pretty sure, gives him 10 top-10 finishes in major championships in his career.

   I still think the guy has a couple of majors in him and he’s always a welcome addition to the U.S. Ryder or Presidents Cup teams. He was only 20 a decade ago at Merion, but he was so clearly the leader of that team and by the end of that weekend, they really were a team and a winning one at that.

   By the way, two places behind Fowler on the 2018-’19 money list was the GB&I player from 2009 who has turned out be the best player, one Tommy Fleetwood, who earned $3.85 million and change. Fleetwood just might turn out to be the first major champion to emerge from that 2009 Walker Cup Match.

   Bud Cauley, a former Alabama standout, also missed the cut at the Farmers, adding a 75 to his opening-round 71 for a 2-over 146 total. Cauley has made four cuts in seven starts in the 2018-’19 season, including a strong showing in The American Express (wish they would just let us call it the Bob Hope Desert Classic) in the desert in Palm Springs, where he finished tied for fourth place with a closing 65.

   The 29-year-old Cauley was a focus of my annual look back at the 2009 Walker Cuppers around this time last year because of his remarkable comeback from a car accident he was involved in in May of 2018 that left him with numerous broken bones and needing a ventilator to help him breathe in a hospital bed in Columbus, Ohio.

   Cauley had missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament when he was a passenger in the car that was involved in that terrible accident. But he was back playing by the time the 2018-’19 season got under way. And he didn’t miss the cut at the Memorial Tournament in 2019, finishing in a tie for ninth with a 9-under 279 total.

   That top-10 finish helped him earn just more than $1 million for the season, good for 97^th on the money list and enabling him to qualify for the FedEx Playoffs.

   Another alum of the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, Peter Uihlein, missed the cut at the Farmers, adding a 72 to his opening-round 76 for a 4-over 148 total.

   I keep waiting for the 30-year-old Uihlein to have a bustout week or season. I thought he flashed the most pure talent of any of his teammates that week in 2009, a feeling Uihlein seemed to confirm when he won the 2010 U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay.

   After some solid years on the European Tour, 2018-’19 was only Uihlein’s second full year on the PGA Tour and he finished just outside the top 125 on the money list at 130^th with $842,991 in earnings.

   Uihlein isn’t completely exempt for the PGA Tour, but he has enough status to get into a lot of events. He is off to a slow start, making four cuts in seven starts, but he is completely capable of winning any time he tees it up.

   Fowler and Uihlein were two of three Oklahoma State Cowboys who made that 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team. The third was Morgan Hoffmann, who like Cauley, was a focus of my look back at the team at this time last year because he, like Cauley, had stared some big-time adversity in the eye in the previous couple of years.

   Hoffmann had revealed late in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy a year earlier. He played through his issues -- the condition had manifested itself in a degenerating pectoral muscle that had left doctors mystified for some time – well enough to make the FedEx Playoffs in the 2016-’17 season.

   Hoffmann made the cut and played the weekend in the Farmers a year ago, but he was only able to earn $97,212 in the 2018-’19 season. He was not in the field at Torrey Pines last week.

   Playing on a Major Medical Exemption, Hoffmann made the cut in the first event of the 2019-’20 season, A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, but it is the only cut he made in four starts before the calendar flipped to 2020.

   The 30-year-old Hoffmann had staged a fundraiser to benefit muscular dystrophy research in 2018 at Arcola Country Club in Paramus, N.J. in the central New Jersey area where he grew up. I couldn’t find any followup on that first year, but Hoffmann had made it quite clear that finding a way to battle the malady that was affecting him was his highest priority.

   The second most successful pro from that 2009 U.S. team behind Fowler has been Brian Harman, the little left-hander from Georgia. He was not in the field at the Farmers, but Harman has made seven cuts in eight starts in 2019-’20, including a tie for third in the opener at The Greenbrier.

   The 33-year-old Harman finished 85^th on last season’s money list with $1.34 million and change in earnings and has won $16-and-a-half million in his solid 10-year career on the PGA Tour. He makes cuts and he makes money, year after year.

   One of my favorite stories on that 2009 U.S. team was Drew Weaver, the Virginia Tech kid who, just weeks after the horrific shooting on the Blacksburg campus, had ventured across the pond and won The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s in 2007.

   The professional journey for the 32-year-old Weaver has been a tough one, but he has not quit. He made it through the Korn Ferry Qualifying School late in 2018 and retained his Korn Ferry status by finishing 75^th on the points list in 2019, highlighted by a runnerup finish in the Country Club de Bogota Championship early last year.

   Weaver had a share of the opening-round lead earlier this month in The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at Baha Mar after firing a 66 and finished in a tie for 23^rd place at 5-under 283. I’m guessing Weaver’s dream is to make it to the PGA Tour and the dream is still very much alive.

   It’s been a bumpy ride in professional golf for Harman’s Georgia teammate on that 2009 U.S. team, Adam Mitchell, and Wake Forest product Brendan Gielow. I couldn’t find any recent results for them, but I’m sure they’ll show up somewhere down the line, possibly even as reinstated amateurs.

   I’m also sure Mitchell and Gielow, like their more successful – at least golf-wise – teammates at Merion, treasure that week when they beat GB&I on one of the classic American golf courses.

   The final member of that team, Pittsburgh’s Nathan Smith, the 1992 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, never turned pro. Smith played on two more U.S. Walker Cup teams and added three more U.S. Mid-Amateur titles to the one he had won in 2003 before Marucci selected him as his mid-am addition to the 2009 team.

   Smith failed to win the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship for a seventh time last summer at Llanerch Country Club, but at 41, he’s still not the guy you want to have to take out in a match-play event.

   In checking over the results from the Farmers, I did come across a name of local interest that a guy like Weaver can look to for inspiration.

   Vince Covello, a product of the junior program at Llanerch who played high school golf at Episcopal Academy, missed the cut at Torrey Pines with rounds of 70 and 75 for a 1-over 145 total.

   After years of laboring on the Korn Ferry Tour, the 37-year-old Covello, who played college golf at the perpetually underrated North Florida, parlayed a win in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open last March to a top-25 finish on the developmental tour for the year and a spot in the big leagues, the PGA Tour.

   Covello has made a habit of showing up for one of the Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered local qualifiers for the U.S. Open and advancing to the sectionals, often earning the qualifying medal, although he has never made it to the Open itself.

   Covello came out of the gate by making the cut at The Greenbrier, the 2019-’20 season opener, finishing in a tie for 47^th at 5-under 275. But it’s been a rough ride since then as the Farmers was Covello’s eighth straight missed cut. He’s not missing by a lot, but that’s life on the PGA Tour.

   It’s tough out there, but if Covello has proven nothing else in his long, slow march to the PGA Tour, it is that he absolutely refuses to back down from a challenge.

   Another name of local interest popped up while I was checking up on Weaver on the Korn Ferry Tour. At age 37, four-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair had a pair of strong showings in the two Korn Ferry stops in the Bahamas earlier this month.

   O’Hair became an adopted son of Delaware County when he married Jackie Lucas, an Aston native who was a pretty good scholastic golfer at Sun Valley. Jackie Lucas is raising her own golf team these days as it looks like the O’Hair brood is up to six youngsters.

   O’Hair’s 2018-’19 PGA Tour campaign came to an end when he pulled out of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with an oblique injury. When I ran into one of O’Hair’s go-to swing gurus, John Dunigan -- who was following his daughter Mary and two other girls he works with in the final foursome in last fall’s PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County – he indicated that O’Hair would be ready to go again in 2020.

   O’Hair finished in a tie for fourth place in the Korn Ferry Tour opener, The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay with a 6-under 282 total and in a tie for 13^th place in The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at Baha Mar, including a sparkling 8-under 64 in the second round.

   Playing on a Major Medical Exemption, O’Hair has a starting time in Thursday’s opening round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, back on the PGA Tour where he belongs.

Delvallade, Herr help Penn State get things started for the spring campaign

   It was sort of a passing of the torch for the Penn State women’s golf team last summer when former Pennsbury standout Jackie Rogowicz, having just completed an outstanding four-year career in Happy Valley, edged Nittany Lion junior Olivia Zambruno, the 2016 PIAA Class AA champion at Greensburg Central Catholic, 1-up in the final of the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course.

   Rogowicz, Cara Basso, the 2012 PIAA Class AA champion as a sophomore at Villa Maria Academy, and Lauren Waller, the 2014 PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Canon-McMillan, had been mainstays in Denise St. Pierre’s lineup for four years.

   It was an ultimately unsatisfying four years in that Penn State never received a bid to an NCCA regional, although Basso did get an individual ticket to the Madison Regional in 2018 after finishing in a tie for fourth in the Big Ten Championship at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio. But the trio always represented Penn State with class and, in many ways large and small, advanced St. Pierre’s program.

   The senior season for Rogowicz, Basso and Waller got off to a promising start and the Nittany Lions were No. 39 in the Golfstat rankings when the spring portion of the 2018-’19 season got under way.

   But Penn State couldn’t maintain that momentum and even the weather wasn’t on its side as rain washed away a round of the Big Ten Championship at TPC River’s Bend and the Nittany Lions couldn’t recover from a bad opening round. Their 11^th-place finish probably doomed their chances of earning a regional bid.

   I’m sure Zambruno and her Penn State teammates never considered this a rebuilding season. That would infer that this team would be unable to replace the departed talent, the experience maybe, but good golfers have a certain confidence that their games don’t take a backseat to anybody.

   With the addition of a talented freshman from France, Mathilde Delavallade, Penn State had a solid fall, finishing second to Penn in its Nittany Lion Invitational and adding a third-place finish in the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the University Club of Kentucky’s Big Blue Course in Lexington, Ky.

   But the Nittany Lions have some work to do as they stood at No. 79 in the Golfstat rankings at the midseason break to the 2019-’20 season.

   St. Pierre’s team had a training session in Florida two weekends ago and got a little bit of a jump on most of the Division I programs with two days of matches against Big Ten rival Minnesota, ranked 109^th, at a couple of courses in Naples, Fla. this weekend.

   Sarah Willis, a sophomore from Eaton, Ohio who had a strong freshman season that included a record-breaking individual title in the Nittany Lion Invitational, also teed it up in the South Atlantic Amateur Championship, better known as The Sally, a stop on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla., the second weekend of the New Year.

   There were a couple of returning seniors in the Penn State lineup in the fall. Madelein Herr, the 2015 District One Class AAA champion as a senior at Council Rock North, and Megan McLean, a Voorhees High product, both saw significant time last season.

   St. Pierre brought Herr along to several fall tournaments to compete as an individual while trying to develop some of her youngsters by putting them in the starting five.

   It was Delavallade, the freshman, and Herr, the senior, who got the spring off to a nice start this weekend as each won a match Saturday at Quail Run Golf Club and Sunday at Bay Colony Golf Club. St. Pierre’s team was tested by a shortish 5,304-yard, par-70 Quail Run layout Saturday and a 6,303-yard, par-72 Bay Colony setup Sunday.

   The wins by Delavallade, by a 2-up margin over Joanne Free, a junior from Scotland, and by Herr, in a 3 and 2 decision over Emma Carpenter, a freshman from Dekalb, Ill., were Penn State’s only victories Saturday as the Nittany Lions took a 4-2 deficit into Sunday’s matches.

   Delavallade claimed a 3 and 1 victory over Annabelle Ackroyd, a freshman from Canada, and Herr earned a 2-up victory over Grace Kellar, a junior from Edina, Minn., to fuel a 4-1 rally for Penn State at Bay Colony Sunday that gave it a 6-5 edge for the weekend.

   McLean defaulted her Saturday match to Minnesota’s Kate Lillie, a junior from St. Charles, Ill., and didn’t tee it up Sunday, so McLean must have come up injured or ill.

   Ackroyd pulled out a 2-up decision over Willis, Kellar claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Zambruno, and Grace Curran, a freshman from New Lenox, Ill., edged Isha Dhruva, a Penn State freshman from Katy, Texas who missed the fall campaign with injury, 1-up. The three match wins, combined with McLean’s default loss, gave the young Gophers – they didn’t have a senior in the lineup in Naples – the 4-2 lead going into Sunday.

   Carpenter battled Zambruno to the final hole before pulling out a 1-up victory at Bay Colony, but that was the only win of the second day for Minnesota.

   It looks like the coaches agreed to just play five matches Sunday rather than give McLean another default loss. Getting ready for the tournament grind to come was the priority for the weekend, not necessarily wins and losses.

   In addition to the match wins by Delavallade and Herr at Bay Colony, Penn State also got victories from Dhruva, who avenged her Saturday loss to Curran with a 2-up decision in the lone rematch of the weekend, and Willis, who rebounded from her Saturday loss with a convincing 7 and 5 triumph over Free. Dhruva’s older sister Ashni is a senior on the Penn State roster.

   Penn State will be right back in the Sunshine State Sunday when the Nittany Lions tee it up in the UCF Challenge, hosted by Central Florida in Orlando. It will be interesting to see how this Penn State team negotiates the spring portion of its schedule.