“He’s the horse and the saddle. That’s all there is to it,” Daly, the two-time major champion, said of John Daly II, the Southern Amateur champion and a senior at Arkansas.
Cameron Kuchar, who will attend TCU next year, drilled a driver and hit a wedge to a foot on the first hole for birdie. Kuchar followed with a drive, wedge and a putt for birdie on the next. Then Cameron got the idea to keep track of the “solo birdies” they made on their own shots.
“He scored a surge. It was much higher than my number of solo birdies,” Kuchar said of his son. “He got the best out of me today.”
The game within a game – Cameron won – took them to the low score at the Ritz-Carlton Club and a chance to win the Willie Park Trophy, a red band that goes to the winning team.
The only problem was the par-5 14th hole, where water flowed down the left side. Both were on the fairway. Both ended up in the water. They had to battle for par, which felt like a bogey in this format.
“You feel a little deflated walking away from a par, especially after the drive he had,” Kuchar said. “The best thing you can do is just get back to it, and Cam did that the next time.”
The tournament is popular among players who have won the majors of The Players Championship and bring one of their children or a parent. Former US Open champion Gary Woodland was the only newcomer among the twenty teams. He is recovering from brain surgery in September 2023 and his father, Dan, is a cancer survivor. They shot 61 of them.
The final round on Sunday will also be the scramble format, with each team hitting with the best ball, so it will be a sprint to the finish with several more teams in the mix, including two women.
Steve Stricker and daughter Izzi, a sophomore at Wisconsin, were 12 under 60, along with two-time LPGA major champion Nelly Korda and her father, former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda.
Also at 60 were Davis Love III and Davis Love IV – his name is Dru – who won it twice in 2012 and 2018. Dru Love had an Asian Tour card that kept him from playing in the PNC, but he no longer has a card on any tour and the Loves were late entries when a number of players – Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and Gary Player – were unable to play due to injuries or health issues.
Daly and Little John are also past champions, beating Woods and his son Charlie in 2021. The son delivered the goods on the par-5 closing hole with an 8-iron from 190 yards to 10 feet.
Annika Sorenstam and her son, Will McGee, were in the group of 11 under 61, which included Woodlands and Justin Leonard and his college son Luke (Villanova). David Duval and his son were also 61, along with two-time defending champion Bernhard Langer and Wall Street son Jason.
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