The world of sports is very busy on the last day of April. Both the NBA and the NHL are in the middle of the playoffs, with the NFL draft just in time, and MLB has been playing for a month. The LPGA Tour won the first major of the season at the Chevron Championship…it’s almost a full-time job.
As far as men’s professional golf is concerned, the LIV tour took place in Mexico City, and the PGA Tour held its own team event at the annual Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin won with a 28 underpercall. This is the first professional victory for both Novak and Griffin.
As far as Novak is concerned, he was almost broken in that ability a week ago in Harbortown. Novak went to the playoffs with Justin Thomas and RBC legacy, losing on the first hole. A victory in New Orleans became quite sweet for him as he had to get very close to a victory in his first career and hurt him leaving it away.
What’s particularly interesting about Novak’s victory alongside Griffin in New Orleans is that the tour repeats a level of history that it has never seen in three years. Andrew Novak became the first player to win the event in the week after losing to the playoffs after Patrick Cantray did it in 2022 (threw this possibility over the weekend).
But what was particularly surprising about it? Like Novak, Cantrey lost his RBC legacy in the playoffs before winning the Zurich Classic. They are some insane coincidences!
If you follow the scripts that 2022 laid out for us, remember the remaining major winners of that season (remember that Scotty Schaeffler won his first master at the beginning of that year):
Of the three in question, the most likely repeating is that Thomas is likely taking into account his recent form (the aforementioned victory at Hilton Head), and this year’s PGA Championship is being held at Qual Hollow, where Thomas won his first PGA Championship title.
We will see what else is available for all of us this year.
