"Story Of The Year" Billy Hurley Wins At Congressional

What seemed like a ho-hum week on the PGA Tour turned into an epic, emotional and intriguing mix of youth, age and sentimentality merging into the best tournament of the season.

Photo by JD CubanIt wasn't just that former Navy man Billy Hurley III won in his native D.C.-area almost a year after his father went missing and eventually, took his life, and did so with his career at a low point where he had limited status. He did it with a sponsor's invite by Mike Antolini of the Woods Foundation, in front of understandably emotional family and friends, all while holding off HOF's Els and Singh, and new young-gun Jon Rahm.

John Strege with some great backstory info on Hurley.

Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post on the win. And this quote from Hurley says so much about the emotions he had to battle en route to victory.

On Saturday, as he held the lead at Congressional, Hurley noticed that there were policemen following him, protecting him, so to speak. “Obviously I think about my dad a lot,” Hurley said after his round. “I was walking from 9 to 10, and I’ve never really had a whole lot of police officers following my group. You know, I’m not like that cool. But playing in the lead, they have a couple police officers following you around. It dawned on me, ‘Hey, this is what my dad did.’ He walked inside the ropes and did this at Presidents Cups [and other Washington-area events].”

The chip-in, which is enough to make anyone believe in the Golf Gods.

The full round highlights:

The day was big for those hoping to play in the next major. Hurley, Rahm, Singh and Harold Varner (!) made it to Troon thanks to their great play at Congressional.

For Immediate Release:

HURLEY III, RAHM, SINGH AND VARNER III QUALIFY FOR THE OPEN AT QUICKEN LOANS NATIONAL

26 June 2016, Bethseda, Maryland, United States: Billy Hurley III, Jon Rahm, Vijay Singh and Harold Varner III have qualified for The 145th Open at Royal Troon after today’s final round of the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Quicken Loans National was the seventh event in The Open Qualifying Series, which gives players the opportunity to qualify for golf’s most international major championship at leading Tour events around the world.

The four players will now compete against the world’s best golfers to become Champion Golfer of the Year when The Open returns to the famous Ayrshire links for the ninth time from 14-17 July, 2016.

Meanwhile, six players also qualified for The Open through the European Tour Race to Dubai and the PGA TOUR FedExCup rankings. In the Race to Dubai, England’s Andrew Johnston, Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg, South Korea’s Soomin Lee, and Joost Luiten from the Netherlands all earned a place at Royal Troon, while Americans William McGirt and Smylie Kaufman booked their place through the FedExCup.

At the Quicken Loans National, American Billy Hurley III earned his first PGA TOUR title and a place in The 145th Open after a tremendous performance in front of a raucous hometown crowd. The former US Naval officer thrilled spectators by chipping in at the 15th and following that up with a 27-foot birdie putt on the 16th green to close out the tournament with a two-under-par 69.

The 34-year-old finished on 17-under-par and will now challenge for the Claret Jug for the second time after making his Open debut in 2014 at Royal Liverpool where he finished tied 64th.

Vijay Singh, who made his first appearance in The Open at Royal Troon in 1989, will play in his 25th Championship and 89th major after finishing runner-up behind Hurley. The 53-year-old Fijian’s best finish was tied for 2nd place with Thomas Bjorn in 2003 at Royal St George’s. At Congressional, Singh closed out his round of 65 with a birdie at the 18th to finish on 14-under-par for the tournament.

Former no. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ Jon Rahm booked his spot at The Open after tying for third place alongside Bill Haas, who has already qualified for the Championship. The 21-year-old Spaniard, who was making his professional debut this week after finishing as low amateur at last week’s US Open, posted a final round  70 to finish on 13-under-par.

American Harold Varner III also qualified for The Open after nudging out European Ryder Cup player Francesco Molinari, who was in position to scoop the fourth qualifying spot after finishing 8-under-par. But a final day score of 70 saw him finish in seventh place at 9-under-par behind Ernie Els and Webb Simpson who were both already exempt for the Championship. He will now make his Open debut at Royal Troon.