Kieron van Wyk, 23, first amateur to win APGA Tour event at Farmers Invitational
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A 23-year-old South African has made history as the first amateur to win an Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour event at the season-opening Farmers Insurance Invitational in San Diego.
In his first tournament on the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour, 23-year-old Kieron van Wyk — a College of Charleston senior and native of South Africa — became the first amateur golfer to win an APGA event since the tour started in 2010.
Harris English holds off Sam Stevens by a shot in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines
Van Wyk made par on the 18th hole in regulation, then birded the same hole twice in a three-man, sudden-death playoff that went two holes, at APGA Tour's season opening Farmers Insurance Invitational on Sunday at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla.
The Farmer's Insurance Invitational, presented by the APGA Tour, showcases the next generation of professional golfers, with a focus on supporting minority players who dream of joining the PGA Tour.
25-year-old San Diego native pursuing pro golf dreams at Farmers Invitational
'I'm proud of myself and how I did,' van Wyk said. 'I played well yesterday, and I just struggled a little bit mentally on the greens. I knew I had the game to compete and win out here coming off a good season I had last semester. Yeah, I'm proud of myself. Only good things can come from this.'
APGA says van Wyk shot 3-over-par 75 Saturday on the North Course and then carded a 1-under-par 71 Sunday on the more difficult South Course during his first visit to the West Coast.
Despite a bogey on the 17th after he pulled his driver off the tee, he rebounded with a par on the 18th, according to APGA, and then watched as Luis Gagne and Chase Johnson both birdied the 18th to enter into the playoff.
Mahomes and the Chiefs will face Hurts, Barkley and the Eagles as they seek a Super Bowl three-peat
Johnson was eliminated after the first playoff hole. Van Wyk flushed his driver down the middle on the second playoff hole, then went straight at the flag with a 7-iron from 187 yards, and chipped from the fringe off the back of the green to within two feet for a tap-in birdie that sealed his victory.
However, APGA says van Wyk will not take home the $30,000 winner's check from the Farmers Insurance Invitational's $100,000 purse because he is an amateur player. Gagne and Johnson will split the first and second place payouts, each earning $22,500.
Australian Open: Keys upsets 2-time champion Sabalenka in women's final for 1st Grand Slam title
'He seems very mature for his age,' said Gagne, a 27-year-old Costa Rica native who played collegiately at LSU and played in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 U.S. Opens, the latter which took place at Torrey Pines' South Course. 'He's got a lot of (club) speed. He's very calm, cool and composed. I think he'll do great things if he keeps progressing. Kids now they can hit it so far. Playing on No. 18, definitely I felt like it was a disadvantage because I really have to hit a good drive off the tee to get there in two, and he's hitting an iron in, which is pretty nuts. He's very talented. I'm happy that he won. He played great.'
Van Wyk earned his spot in the APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational as the top player in the 2024-2025 Bridgestone APGA Collegiate Ranking as of October 30, 2024, and secured an exemption into the PGA Tour's Puerto Rico Open this March after winning the White Sands Bahamas Men's NCAA Golf Invitational last fall.
L.A.'s Genesis Invitational will be held at Torrey Pines due to fires
Last season was the third consecutive year that van Wyk was named First Team All-Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). He was the individual conference champion in 2022, making him the first Black golfer in CAA history to win medalist honors at the league tournament.
'I think the APGA is doing really good stuff,' van Wyk said. 'I think as a young professional or soon-to-be professional, you need as many opportunities as you can. It's tough out here to play as a pro. You need those opportunities to get yourself going and familiarize yourself with the environments and everything that it has to offer. I'm truly grateful for all that they do and the opportunity that they've given me this week.'
The Farmers Insurance Invitational takes place in conjunction with the PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. For the past several years, Farmers has also provided an APGA Tour player with an exemption into the Farmers Insurance Open, with Willie Mack III receiving a spot in the 2025 field.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
8 hours ago
- USA Today
Lynch: Rory McIlroy vs. the media is one battle in a bigger war, and no one is winning
Lynch: Rory McIlroy vs. the media is one battle in a bigger war, and no one is winning OAKMONT, Pa. — For people whose concerns extend beyond existential issues — the quality of food in media centers, the proximity of restrooms to media centers, and WiFi functionality in media centers — the simmering war between Rory McIlroy and golf's press corps must seem a peculiar and petty squabble. The Masters champion stiff-armed reporters after all four rounds at last month's PGA Championship and for the first two rounds of this U.S. Open. The reasons at Quail Hollow were varied —Thursday he was pissed after a poor finish to his round; Friday he wanted to see his daughter before she went to bed; at the weekend he was irked by coverage of his driver having been deemed nonconforming during routine testing, a fact that is supposed to be confidential. McIlroy's was the only name reported, despite Scottie Scheffler's driver also having been among those failed. A mundane occurrence that happens every week was treated as breaking news and duly weaponized by bad faith bullshitters determined to present it all as extraordinary and suspicious. Whether McIlroy cares to distinguish between the bullshitters and those he sees regularly on Tour is a question no media member seems eager to pose, perhaps knowing there is at least some overlap in that pen diagram. But it's not as though McIlroy has been in the witness protection program. He had pre-tournament press conferences at last week's RBC Canadian Open and earlier this week at Oakmont, and will do so again at the Travelers Championship next week. He's doing what he feels is appropriate, but not what the media thinks is appropriate. That chasm is unlikely to be bridged anytime soon. The media has few advocates these days, a combination of the cancerous malevolents eager to undermine any source of information that contradicts their conspiracy theories, and the verifiably lousy performance and dumbing-down of so much in the industry. But golf media isn't oversubscribed with wannabe Woodwards and Bernsteins, and players have no justification for acting like they're dealing with pit bulls when the reality is closer to golden retrievers eager to please their masters. This standoff is practical in one sense (reporters want answers to inform their work) and philosophical in another (weighing privileges or rights on one side, obligations versus responsibilities on the other). There are media members who believe they have a right to hear from golfers post-round and some who consider it a privilege earned by their conduct or coverage. It's neither. It's a grace and favor routine established over generations, and certainly not a privilege since those can be withdrawn at will or extended only to the sycophantic. It's really an opportunity to be grasped when available and worked around when it isn't. McIlroy is entitled to dismiss requests for his time, and the generous accessibility he has granted over the years makes for predictable griping when the door is inexplicably slammed shut. Whether he should limit media is a separate argument, and a reckoning looms for the PGA Tour between players' mandated obligations and their optional responsibilities. McIlroy took questions after his third round Saturday and was asked if he feels he's earned the right to step back from the microphone after several years as a de facto spokesman for the Tour in the LIV war. His answer was much broader than the question: 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah.' Actually, he's always had that right. Tour players aren't required to accommodate media requests and plenty have rejected reporters more frequently and disdainfully than he, as anyone who covered Vijay Singh can testify. When Collin Morikawa was criticized for skipping press after a tough loss at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March — 'I don't owe anyone anything' — McIlroy defended him, noting that press availability isn't mandated by Ponte Vedra. Today he was asked if he's daring the Tour to make it compulsory, which is about as likely as a member of the press hoisting the trophy at Oakmont on Sunday night. 'I'm not daring them to do anything,' he said. 'I hope they don't change it because it would, you know -- this is, it's a nice luxury to have. But I'm just pointing out the fact that we have the ability to do it.' So there is no obligation for McIlroy to speak, but is there a responsibility? And to whom? Because this isn't really a row about whether players owe media anything — they don't — but whether they owe something to the consumers of their product. The Tour and its investors believe that players became co-owners of the business after they were granted equity last year. Sponsors pay handsomely because fans are willing to invest time and attention, and that audience is entitled to the final chapter of the weekly serial, and not to be left hanging because someone is pissed at choking away a lead or rushing to catch a flight. The media is the conduit to those consumers, whether players connect the dots or not. Sure, they can post to their own social channels, but the vast majority of fans don't engage with those platforms because they know most of it is sanitized spon-con thanking whatever corporate 'family' has bunged them a few bucks. Professional golfers are not paid for their wit or charm, and only partially for their performance. The compensation of athletes correlates with their value to the league and impact on the business. Marketing is a key component of that. In January, Justin Thomas sent a memo to his fellow players encouraging greater media co-operation to better sell their shared product. For all but the last few weeks of his lengthy career, McIlroy has been a leader in that effort, admirably so since requests for his time far outnumber those for his peers. So this is not simply a Rory McIlroy issue. But at some juncture, those who administer men's professional golf need to decide whether they're in the 'we' business or the 'me' business, because right now the expectations of their consumers and the compliance of their players are not at all aligned.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Rory McIlroy on not talking after U.S. Open rounds: 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do'
OAKMONT, Pa. — For a guy who achieved his life's dream about eight weeks ago, Rory McIlroy doesn't seem very happy these days. McIlroy has spent the last decade or so as a media North Star, a go-to quote for everything from the history of the game to the state of LIV/PGA Tour negotiations to his own internal emotional spectrum. Always open, always willing to delve deeper than the usual 'felt good out there' oatmeal that most players serve up, McIlroy was by far the most thoughtful player on Tour. Advertisement But that started to work against him in the heart of the LIV-PGA Tour conflict; in addition to the usual LIV stans ripping him at every turn and gloating over his misfortune, the Tour basically thanked him for his support … and then negotiated a legal settlement with LIV without even notifying him. He admitted to feeling used, and ratcheted back his state-of-golf commentary considerably. Then came the Masters, and that glorious exorcism of a victory. McIlroy exulted in the win, thankful at last to shake off 10 years of 'is it ever going to happen again?' questions. The easy assumption then was that McIlroy, freed of the burdens of expectation, would go on a mad tear through the golf world. Forget career grand slam! Could he win an actual grand slam this year? Are seven majors on the table? Eight? Ten? Advertisement Yeah, no. McIlroy face-planted in his first major since Augusta, finishing T47 at the PGA Championship. He missed the cut at the RBC Canadian last week. And he's carded three consecutive over-par rounds — 74, 72, 74 — for the first time at a major since the 2012 Open Championship. Maybe because of that run of tough play, he's speaking less and less to media these days. He didn't speak at all at the PGA Championship, and darted away from requests on Thursday and Friday of the U.S. Open. (He did speak prior to the tournament at both events.) Saturday, after a round that ended before the leaders even teed off, McIlroy spent about five minutes speaking to the media. After a couple brief summations of his game — 'Pretty average,' 'I was hoping to play better but I didn't' — he addressed the reason why he hasn't been speaking as much. 'It's more a frustration with you guys,' he said to the assembled media, before amending that — 'I've been totally available for the last few years, and I'm not saying — maybe not you guys, but maybe more just the whole thing,' meaning the public availability. Advertisement When asked if he feels like he's earned the right not to talk to media, McIlroy responded, "I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah." Here's his full press conference, for context: PGA Tour players aren't required to speak to the media, a fact that McIlroy has made certain to mention several times in the last few weeks. He allowed that the nothingburger of a controversy which flared up over his driver being out of compliance just before the PGA Championship has contributed to his silence: 'Yeah, that was a part of it.' McIlroy has indicated he was upset his name came out when Scottie Scheffler's didn't, even though both of their drivers failed the USGA's testing … and even though drivers failing is largely an indication they're being used frequently, not that the player is attempting to skirt rules. Advertisement McIlroy's decision to blame the media, which reported the story, rather than the USGA or PGA Tour source who leaked it, is a curious one — and the easy way out. The media's an easy target, since blaming the messenger is a whole lot easier than addressing the underlying message. But the media doesn't need to be, shouldn't be, the story here. The key issue is how McIlroy charts the next stage of his career. When asked on Tuesday what his five-year plan was going forward, he admitted, 'I don't have one. I have no idea. I'm sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point.' Later in that interview, he noted that he's still very much in the exhale phase of his Masters victory. 'You have to enjoy what you've just accomplished,' he said. 'I certainly feel like I'm still doing that and I will continue to do that.' That's a great philosophy … except that he doesn't seem to be enjoying anything very much, at least not in the public eye. He could probably use a few months off, but the relentless nature of the golf season — majors every month, the PGA Tour's playoffs right after all that, the Ryder Cup right after that — means it will be late September, at the earliest, before McIlroy can take his foot off the gas. Advertisement McIlroy has always seemed more contemplative, more big-picture than most players. And by his own admission, he hasn't given himself — or taken — the opportunity to consider that big picture. Maybe that — more than the media, more than the uncharacteristically rocky performance — is at the heart of all this. Or maybe that's all psychobabble, and he's just being kind of a jerk now that he's got that green jacket. Either one could work. When you've achieved your life's dream, what do you do with the rest of your life? Rory McIlroy is finding out just how tough that question can be.
11 hours ago
Madison Keys loses to 37-year-old qualifier in Queen's Club semifinals
LONDON -- Madison Keys was stunned in straight sets by 37-year-old qualifier Tatjana Maria in the Queen's Club semifinals on Saturday. Maria, a German mother of two, beat Keys 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first career victory in four meetings with the reigning Australian Open champion. She is the oldest singles finalist on the WTA Tour since 2020, when Serena Williams won the Auckland Classic at age 38. 'You always have to keep going. You never can stop; it doesn't matter how it goes,' she said. 'I love to play tennis, I love this sport, and we live for these special moments." No. 86 Maria, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, toppled No. 8 Keys, who hit 10 aces but failed to get a break. Keys, the No. 2 seed, exited with the No. 1, Zheng Qinwen, who lost to No. 8 Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Anisimova and Maria last met seven years ago. 'It's incredible to see what she's doing and her family is so cute, seeing her kids coming everywhere,' Aninimova said. 'It's really special for her, and it's going to be a great final.'
