Rose Zhang enjoyed a dream start to her professional career with victory in her first event in the Mizuho Americas Open.

Zhang, who only joined the paid ranks nine days ago, defeated Jennifer Kupcho on the second hole of a play-off after the pair had finished tied on nine under par at Liberty National Golf Club.

Kupcho set the clubhouse target after a closing 69 and Zhang needed to par the 18th to win in regulation, but found a bunker off the tee and was unable to get up and down from short of the green.

The 20-year-old American is the first player to win on the LPGA Tour in their professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951.

“What is happening? I just can’t believe it,” said Zhang after two putts for par on the second play-off hole were enough to beat Kupcho.

“It was just last week when I won NCAAs with my teammates. To turn pro and come out here, it’s just been amazing.”

Zhang confirmed she will be taking membership on the LPGA Tour which comes with the victory – after finishing her finals at Stanford and moving next week.

“I understand there is going to be a lot of bumps in the road and I’m expecting a lot of obstacles,” she said. “But I think this is just the start. This is just a stepping stone.

“It’s crazy that this is my first win, first professional win already, but no doubt there is going to be a lot more things happening down the road.

“I’m just going to be continuing to learn inside the ropes.”

Zhang spent a record 141 weeks at the top of the women’s amateur rankings, surpassing the previous best of 135 set by Ireland’s Leona Maguire.

She became the first women’s player to win two NCAA individual titles following her successful title defence at the end of May, a victory which saw her exceed the number of wins Tiger Woods achieved at Stanford.

Zhang also won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April and the US Women’s Amateur two years ago, as well as helping the United States to Curtis Cup wins over Great Britain and Ireland in 2021 and 2022.

Viktor Hovland defeated Denny McCarthy in a play-off to win the Memorial Tournament as Rory McIlroy suffered a disappointing final round in Ohio.

Hovland parred the first extra hole at Muirfield Village to win his fourth PGA Tour title after he and McCarthy had finished tied on seven under par.

The 25-year-old Norwegian had birdied the 15th and 17th to set the clubhouse target following a closing 70 and then saw McCarthy drop his first shot of the day on the 18th.

McCarthy then bogeyed the same hole in the play-off to miss out on a maiden PGA Tour win.

Hovland, who finished runner-up to Brooks Koepka in the US PGA Championship after a costly double bogey on the 16th hole of the final round, told CBS: “It feels even better after a few close calls the last few months.

“I didn’t really feel like I hit it my best the whole week, I just played really smart, played conservatively, really relied on my short game and I putted awesome this week.

“It’s fun to win one of these things without just ball-striking it to death. Now I can kind of rely on some other strengths as well.”

Hovland and McCarthy finished a shot ahead of world number one Scottie Scheffler, who surged through the field with a closing 67, despite ranking dead last in putting of those players who made the cut.

McIlroy began the day in a tie for the lead and was out in front when he chipped in for birdie on the fourth, but bogeyed three of the next four holes on his way to a 75 and a tie for seventh on three under par.

“I did what I wanted to do,” McIlroy said. “I thought if I could stay patient and put my ball in play off the tee, which I did pretty much all day, I only hit it in the long rough once…

“I was in the first cut three times and then the rest of the time I was in the fairway. So I did what I wanted to do, I just missed a few shots and those two bogeys on the par fives on the front nine were unforced errors.

“Once I was one over through nine holes and Denny was at eight under for the tournament, it’s hard to chase on that golf course the way it’s playing.

“I hit a couple of loose shots on the back nine that at least I know where they’re coming from, which is good, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“I feel a little better about everything compared to where I was a couple weeks ago at Oak Hill. So it’s obviously not the result that I wanted today, but I feel like there was a few more positives than there was a couple weeks ago.”

Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa, who was two off the lead heading into the final round, withdrew shortly before his tee time after suffering back spasms.

“We were doing some reflex stuff, trying to reach down and try to pick something up like quick and low,” Morikawa explained.

“I’ve hurt may back briefly before, but nothing has been this bad. I think it’s the first tournament I’ve ever withdrawn from in my entire life. It sucks because this is a tournament that I love.

“I’ve played well and put myself in contention. But I have to look out for myself and got to be smart.”

Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin produced a stunning approach to the final hole to seal his maiden DP World Tour title in style in the Porsche European Open.

McKibbin carded a final round of 70 in Hamburg to finish nine under par, two shots ahead of home favourites Marcel Siem and Max Kieffer and France’s Julien Guerrier.

The 20-year-old, who learned the game at the same club as four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, began the day in a six-way tie for the lead but birdied the fourth, seventh and ninth to move two shots clear.

Bogeys on the 11th and 13th, coupled with Kieffer’s birdie on the 16th, saw the pair tied at the top of the leaderboard, but McKibbin edged back in front with a birdie on the 15th and set up another on the par-five 18th with a nerveless second shot from 203 yards.

McKibbin, who graduated from the Challenge Tour last year and was making just his 26th start on the DP World Tour, told Sky Sports: “It’s pretty amazing.

“It was just nice to go out there and put a really, really nice round together. I always thought I was good enough to win but to prove it today was pretty special.

“I’ve learned a lot from failures, missing cuts by a shot, missing things very slightly so to take all those things I’ve learned and put them into play today was really nice.

“It probably won’t sink in until tomorrow but to have my dad here – he comes most weeks – is pretty special. To win in front of him is amazing.”

Asked about his second shot to the 18th, McKibbin added: “It’s probably one of the best shots I’ve hit.

“It was sort of tricky and it wasn’t. I was trying to hit just at the right edge of the green and if it turned over I knew the water wasn’t in play because if I turned it over it would have went further.

“It looked really good on camera I’m sure, but it was an easier shot than laying up and hitting over the water I thought.”

Rory McIlroy has moved to the lead in the Memorial despite going five holes without hitting a green, finishing the third day tied in first place with Si Woo Kim and David Lipsky at Muirfield Village on Saturday.

McIlroy did what he had to do while players around him struggled, finishing the day with two under par with four birdies and two bogeys.

“That’s what happens when conditions are like this,” McIlroy said after the day’s play. “You just have to hang on.

“I was really happy with how I scored out there, and how I just sort of hung in there for most of the day.”

The birdies came in good time for McIlroy, picking up three on the last seven holes, and finishing the day with a par, unlike he did on day one, when he hit a triple bogey on the 18th hole.

“It would mean a ton to me to win this tournament, I’ve played pretty well here over the years without really having a realistic chance to win,” McIlroy said.

“So to be able to walk up that hill from 18 and get that handshake from Jack (Nicklaus) would be pretty nice.”

McIlroy, now on six under par, will need to maintain his form into the last day with a log-jam of talent at the top of the leaderboard, with thirteen players separated by just two shots and nine others within three shots.

Friday’s leader and former Memorial winner, Hideki Matsuyama dropped dramatically in consistency, putting him in tied ninth place.

Matsuyama had five bogeys during the day and a triple bogey on the 12th hole.

Englishmen Danny Willet and Matt Fitzpatrick both had solid days with 69 and 70 respectively, finishing tied in 23rd place on two under par.

Sixteen-year-old Ryan Lue and Jodi Munn-Barrow are the early leaders at the National Senior Trials which teed off on Friday at the Half Moon Golf Course in St. James. The trials will be used to select Jamaica’s team for the 66th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship.

Lue posted two under-par 70 to be the only golfer to post an under-par score at the end of the first round.

His scorecard showed three birdies on the front nine on holes two, eight and nine for a three under- par 33.

He then started the back nine positively with a birdie on hole number ten and was four under par at that point but was pegged back by two bogeys on holes fifteen and seventeen, to close the round with a three-stroke lead over Zandre Roye. 

Roye scored one over par 73 for his second place at the end of the round. 

Former national golf champion, Sean Morris, was a close third on two over-par 74 but four strokes off the lead. 

The 2022 national golf champion, Oshae Haye, was not far off on 75. 

The current national golf champion, William Knibbs, and Dr. Mark Newnham were holding down the fifth spot on four over par 76 each. 

The top two ladies on the course were closely bunched together and are within one shot of each other. The Jamaica Golf Association president Jodi Munn-Barrow was on nine over par 81 while Mattea Issa was in second place on ten over par 82. 

"Conditions were very difficult today. A lot of rain has fallen in Montego Bay so the course was extremely wet. While we were playing there was rain so it was very, very hard condition to play under but overall happy with the outcome. Did leave some on the course but look forward to tomorrow" said Munn-Barrow. 

The other female in the field was Anoushka Khatri who posted 93 for third place. 

The golfers are set to tee off at 9:30 am Saturday for the second round.

Scotland’s David Law produced a “pretty unbelievable” second round to lie a shot off the halfway lead in the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.

Law tamed a 7,455-yard course known as the Green Monster as he fired an eagle and eight birdies in a seven-under-par 66, a nine-shot improvement on his opening 75.

That drew high praise from the man at the top of the leaderboard, Germany’s Max Kieffer adding a 71 to his opening 69 to reach six under par, a shot ahead of Law, England’s Jordan Smith and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin.

“First of all, seven under is pretty unbelievable,” Kieffer said when told of Law’s score. “That’s a crazy round of golf.

“It’s playing quite long, even though it’s a bit shorter this year than the last few years. There’s lots of water, the greens are quite undulated.

“If you hit a loose shot here and there, usually on every hole there’s a bit of trouble. It’s a very tough course.”

Law could easily have gone even lower than 66 after starting on the back nine and following six birdies in his first eight holes with an eagle on the par-five 18th to be out in 30.

A bogey on the second halted his momentum and although he birdied the fourth and seventh, Law bogeyed his last two holes of the day.

“I went out there just trying to play golf and make birdies and score as low as I can,” the 32-year-old said. “The brakes came on a bit on the back nine, but it’s a difficult course, it’s tough.

“The goal is to keep doing what we were doing. I tried hard on the back nine to keep in the present and make birdies like we were, but it didn’t happen. Barring the last two holes we played really nice on that second nine.”

Arguably the shot of the day belonged to Law’s compatriot Ewen Ferguson, who putted out of a bunker on the 14th and holed from 25 feet for birdie.

“The sand is very firm and compact,” Ferguson said after a 72 left him three off the lead.

“It was a narrow green and I thought if I didn’t get the strike right (with a sand wedge) it could have trickled into the water or I had to go left of the pin.

“I thought I’d putt it and it rolled nicely didn’t it? I’ve never had that before. You just have to go for it and see what happens. Just smash it out and get lucky.”

Rory McIlroy bounced back from the nightmare finish to his opening round on day two of the prestigious Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.

Just two days after tournament host Jack Nicklaus had lamented McIlroy’s occasional lapses in concentration, the four-time major winner carded a triple bogey on the 18th to card a level-par 72.

“I don’t know whether his is a constant lack of being able to keep that concentration for the whole thing or not, because sometimes he (goes) par, par, par, double, eight,” Nicklaus said in his pre-event press conference.

“He does that sometimes.”

It was not an eight on Thursday but a nevertheless destructive seven on the par-four 18th, where his drive finished in deep rough on a steep side slope.

McIlroy could only hack his ball almost sideways into more rough and he caught a flier with his third before taking four shots to get down from the back of the green.

“I felt good about everything that I did yesterday,” McIlroy said after carding six birdies and two bogeys in a second round of 68.

“I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker. So I really feel like I’m one shot out of leading this golf tournament.

“(If) that rolls down into the bunker, hopefully I’m able to hit it on the green and make a four and instead of standing here at four under I would be at seven under and feeling really good about everything.

“I felt like I did a lot of really good things yesterday and I did a lot of good things right, so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”

At four under par McIlroy was three shots off the early clubhouse lead held by Hideki Matsuyama, the former Masters champion carding a superb bogey-free 65 to lead by one from Patrick Cantlay and David Lipsky.

Englishman Matt Wallace is one stroke behind leader Davis Riley after the first day of the PGA Memorial Tournament on Thursday, on a hot day in Dublin, Ohio.

Wallace, who has one PGA tour win, had a strong start to the tournament, hitting six birdies and two bogeys to finish the day with 68 and four under.

Fellow countryman Danny Willett was a stroke behind Wallace, finishing tied in  third with seven others.

Willett, 35, who also has one PGA tour victory to his name, hit four birdies, an eagle and three bogeys to finish on three under par at Muirfield Village Golf Course.

Irishman Shane Lowry finished the day tied with Willett, after he had five consecutive birdies, alongside Jordan Spieth and David Lipsky.

Leader Davis Riley played the conditions well and is hoping to win his second PGA tour title, hitting just one bogey and six birdies to finish on five under.

Rory McIlroy finished even for the day with a triple bogey on the last hole undoing his good work during the day.

He finished tied in 33rd place after hitting four birdies before the last hole.

World number one Scottie Scheffler had his highest opening round since October 2021, finishing on two over par and seven strokes behind the lead.

Rory McIlroy has reiterated his opposition to LIV Golf players being allowed to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup.

World number two Jon Rahm believes the likes of Sergio Garcia, with whom he formed a successful partnership in 2021, should be able to compete in Rome and said he was sad that “politics have gotten in the way” of the biennial event.

Garcia is the leading points scorer in Ryder Cup history, but made himself ineligible by resigning from the DP World Tour in the wake of increased sanctions being imposed for playing LIV Golf events without permission.

American players remain eligible despite being banned or resigning from the PGA Tour in the wake of joining the Saudi-funded circuit, with Brooks Koepka set to qualify automatically following his victory in the US PGA Championship.

“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team,” McIlroy said in his pre-tournament presser ahead of the Memorial Tournament.

“I think with how he’s played, I mean, he’s second in the US standings, (having) only played two counting events.

“I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit and how they’re playing. But Brooks is definitely a guy that I think deserves to be on the US team.

“But I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired and, yeah, I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”

McIlroy finished in a tie for seventh behind Koepka at Oak Hill, despite struggling with his long game, but the lack of faith in his “biggest weapon” may not prove as much of an issue at Muirfield Village.

“I can’t remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” McIlroy said.

“The golf course allowed me to manage it. There was only two holes I felt at Oak Hill that really penalised big misses, which was six and seven. So you take those two holes out of it and it was what I would describe as a bogey golf course.

“It was very hard to make anything worse than a bogey. So you hit it in the rough off the tee, you got these openings into greens, you can run it up into the openings, make your par and move on.

“I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much. Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling.

“I think the one thing here, if you look at the recent winners, maybe apart from Jon (Rahm), they have all been sort of like medium-length hitters.

“I only hit four or five drivers on this golf course so it takes the driver out of my hands a lot. A lot of fairways bottleneck at like 330, 340 (yards) so the biggest weapon in my bag isn’t quite the weapon that it is at some other golf courses.

“I have played okay here and had some decent finishes, but I guess it sort of surprises me with the four par fives and the way the golf course sets up that I haven’t at least had a real chance to win here.”

G4D Open champions Brendan Lawlor and Kim Moore will compete in the inaugural Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed event next week.

The tournament at Ullna Golf and Country Club from June 5-6 will see five male players and five female players competing for the same trophy on the same course for the first time.

Lawlor, who edged out Kipp Popert to win the inaugural G4D Open at Woburn earlier this month, will be joined in Sweden by Popert – the current number one on the World Rankings for Golfers with a Disability (WR4GD) – Juan Postigo Arce, Kurtis Barkley and home favourite Rasmus Lia.

“I’m very excited for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed,” Lawlor said. “The fact that there’s a whole diverse range of disabilities and it’s a mixed field between five men and five women, it’s absolutely game-changing.

“We’ve gained some massive strides in the men’s side of the game and in disability golf, and I think we’re going to gain some massive strides in the women’s side of the game.”

Moore, who won the female category of the G4D Open by four shots, is joined by Aimi Bullock, Julia Bowen, Fiona Gray and Jennifer Sraga.

“I feel with the growing number of new golfers being women, it’s extremely important for the G4D Tour to be opening up the event to both male and female golfers,” Moore said.

“The exposure that this event gets will be huge in motivating and inspiring others with disabilities to give golf a chance.”

Emiliano Grillo won his second PGA tour title after he edged out Adam Schenk in a double playoff hole while English golfer Harry Hall finished tied third in Texas on Sunday.

The Argentinian was two strokes clear and looked primed to take out the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Golf Course in Fort Worth.

But the 30-year-old hit a double-bogey on the last hole, providing an opening for Schenk to come back into contention, seeking to win his first PGA Tour title.

Grillo hit his drive into a small stream on the final hole which took the ball back 150 yards before stopping against a rock.

He decided to take a penalty stroke and landed a two-putt from 20 yards to tie with Schenk.

Schenk made par on the final hole while English PGA Tour rookie Harry Hall needed a par on the final hole to compete in the playoff.

Hall hit a bogey on the last hole after landing his drive into the water and finished tied in third with world number one American Scott Scheffler on 7-under.

Grillo struck a five-foot birdie putt to claim the title on the second playoff hole to get his first tour win in more than seven years, finishing the tournament on eight-under with 68 on his final day.

Grillo’s last win was in Napa in 2015 and has had four top 10 finishes this season.

American Adam Schenk finished second place for the second time this season and is still pushing for his first tour win.

Hall, 25, was leading after the first and second day but failed to hang on to the lead with two birdies and five bogeys on Sunday.

Englishmen Aaron Rei and Justin Rose finished tied 12th on three-under.

Pablo Larrazabal hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez after winning the KLM Open by two shots just two weeks into his forties.

Larrazabal celebrated the milestone by winning his ninth DP World Tour title and second in just four weeks after producing a big finish at Bernardus Golf on Sunday.

Having seen his overnight lead evaporate in the early stages of the fourth round, Larrazabal recovered with a series of birdies to sit in a five-way tie at the top after 12 holes.

And he finished with a flourish, birdieing the 15th, 17th and 18th to sign for a closing 69 and finish the tournament on 13 under par.

Larrazabal, who came into the week fresh from playing four rounds at last week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, now has two victories in 2023, having won the Korea Championship Presented by Genesis in April.

Fellow Spaniard Adrian Otaegui finished alone in second on 11 under after closing his final-round 70 with a birdie.

Rasmus Hojgaard and Deon Germishuys were then in a tie for third, one stroke further back.

Scotland’s Grant Forrest and Ewen Ferguson finished in a share of eighth on seven under.

Winning so soon after his recent birthday, Larrazabal set his sights on replicating Jimenez, who clinched 13 DP World Tour titles in his forties – although he joked he would settle for a fraction of his success.

He said: “Hopefully I do 20 per cent of what Miguel did in his forties. This is the first win of 40.”

Reflecting on the final round, Larrazabal added: “It doesn’t matter how fast you run at the beginning, you have to run fast at the end to win the race.

“And that’s what I did. What a putt on the last. I tried to make two putts from 20 feet and suddenly I made it.

“I’m so proud of myself and so proud of my team. We struggled big time through Covid but here we are – four wins in the last 15 months. It means too much to me.”

Harry Hall survived back-to-back double bogeys to head into the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge tied for the lead in pursuit of his first PGA Tour victory.

The 25-year-old Cornish rookie heads into the final round alongside American Adam Schenk with Harris English a shot further back.

With the scoring average at Colonial Country Club rising to more than one over par in the third round as the greens toughened up, Hall opened with a three-stroke lead and five straight pars before he hit trouble – an errant approach at the sixth and an iron into a muddy creek at the seventh leading to a pair of sixes.

Two birdies on the way home gave him a round of 72 and a place in the final pairing with Schenk – also chasing his first win after six years on tour – who shot a bogey-free 67 to tie at 10 under par.

“I’m never going to stop fighting,” Hall said. “I’m always going to keep trying.

“This game brings you new challenges every day and I’m equipped to deal with them. I think I showed that today, I kept a lot of patience and I kept to my game plan.”

“I’m ready. Just get on the green and make some putts.”

English was on course for a share of the lead before bogeying the last to lie a shot behind.

American Justin Suh and Emiliano Grillo of Argentina are three strokes further back with Viktor Hovland among a group on five under par.

England’s Aaron Rai shot a third round 67 to be tied for 10th in a group on four under par which includes world number one Scottie Scheffler after his 72, a score matched by Justin Rose who is a shot further back.

Cornish rookie Harry Hall fired four consecutive birdies around the turn as he took a three-shot halfway lead in the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Hall followed his opening round 62 with a 66 as he moved to 12 under par, three clear of American Harris English who lit up his round of 66 with a hole in one at the eighth hole at the Colonial Country Club at Fort Worth, Texas.

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo is a shot further back after a best of the day round of 65.

Former Walker Cup star Hall is chasing his first PGA Tour win after chalking up two top 10 finishes in his rookie season to date.

Starting at the 10th, he bogeyed the 13th before getting that shot back two holes later and grabbing four straight birdies around the turn to strengthen his position at the top of the leaderboard.

That run was ended with a bogey at the third, but he birded the seventh and holed his second attempt to escape a greenside bunker at the eighth after plugging into the side.

English fared much better at the 170-yard eighth where he produced the first ace at the hole since Jim Furyk in 2011.

Adam Schenk, Byeong Hun An and Robby Shelton were tied for fourth, a stroke behind Grillo and one ahead of Andrew Novak and world number one Scottie Scheffler, who lost in a play-off 12 months ago and had his second consecutive round of 67.

Justin Rose, who won at Colonial five years ago, was tied for ninth at 5 under after a bogey-free 66.

Michael Block, the 46-year-old club pro from California who earned an invitation after tying for 15th at the US PGA Championship, finished last in the 120-strong field at 15 over par but improved on his opening round of 81 by seven strokes.

A career-best round of 62 propelled England’s Harry Hall to the top of the leaderboard after the opening day of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.

Hall took only 22 putts to card a score of eight under and a decisive three-shot lead in Fort Worth, Texas.

He picked up eight birdies without dropping a shot and managed to save par from 15 and 30 feet.

Harris English is Hall’s closest competitor on five under, after the American split a bogey with six birdies, including two on his final two holes.

Tom Hoge, Adam Schenk, Robby Shelton and Andrew Putnam are all tied for third on four under par.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed day for Scotland’s Russel Knox and English duo Callum Tarren and Justin Rose, who all head into Friday’s second round on one under.

Club professional Michael Block, who dazzled the golfing world with his heroics at the US PGA Championship heroics, had a rough outing as he finished his opening round 11 over par.