With names like Collin Morikawa as Champion Golfer Of The Year, Jordan Spieth as the hard-charging runner-up, Jon Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen tied for third, there was one HUGE outlier near the top of the scoreboard on Sunday at Royal St. George’s and that would be one Dylan Fritelli.
It’s a stretch that Fritelli was on anyone’s fantasy golf team for the season’s final major as the South African who plays the PGA Tour, barely got into the 2021 Open Championship.
Fritelli found out last Monday that he was in the field thanks to fellow South African Louis de Jager’s positive COVID test. Last man in.
It was even a stretch for Fritelli to make the 36-hole cut. After all, he missed the cut in seven of his last eight events on the PGA Tour, including the John Deere Classic two weeks ago.
Fritelli found some magic at Royal St. George’s. He opened with 66 last Thursday and followed it with 67 on Friday, putting him at seven-under and in serious contention. His Saturday 70 earned him a spot in the fourth-to-last pairing with Mackenzie Hughes, another outlier in the season’s final major.
A final round 68 got Fritelli to nine-under par and solo fifth. That finish earned him his biggest check this season — $480,000.
Fritelli will get a big jump in the Official World Golf Rankings. He was ranked 106th coming into the Open. He’ll also collect some valuable FedEx Cup points and he’ll make a jump there as he was dangling below the 130 cutline for the playoffs at No. 135 prior to this week.
Jutanugarn Sisters Win LPGA Team Event:
Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn shot a pair of 59s during best-ball rounds at the Great Lakes Bay Invitational and won the title at the LPGA Tour’s team event in Michigan.
They were 11-under on Thursday and Saturday and shot 24-under par with rounds of 67-59-71-59. They finished three shots better than the defending champions — Cydney Clanton and Jasmine Suwannapura, who took solo second.
