I didn't want to link this to the "Congratulations Seamus Power" thread, and the last thread Meronk was mentioned in was in 2016, so I'm reluctantly starting this one. Adrian Meronk just won the Australian Open, after winning a couple of times in the European Tour this past summer - including the Irish Open.

He shot an incredible 63 yesterday, and *eagled* the very last hole to win by 5 today:

Meronk wins in Oz

Meronk's win, ETSU version of story

Meronk and Power

article and pics of Meronk and Power

And no, I can't read the whole article, but can see the 9 pics (which have not been corrected of their old dates).

What *is* visible:

"Two former East Tennessee State golfers have turned into stars on the international stage and it seems the sky is the limit for Seamus Power and Adrian Meronk.

Power is ranked No. 1 in the early FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour while Meronk is No. 2 in the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) rankings."



And this standings list on the left border:


RANKINGS

PGA Tour Fed Ex Cup

1. Seamus Power

2. Keegan Bradley

3. Mackenzie Hughes

4. Tom Kim

5. Brian Harman

6. Adam Svensson

7. Max Homa

8. Russell Henley

9. Rory McIroy

(tie) Tony Finau


DP World Tour

1. Thriston Lawrence

2. Adrian Meronk

3. Dan Bradbury

4. Adam Scott

5. Sami Valimaki

6. Clement Sordet

7. Min Woo Lee

8. Jason Scrivner

9. Ryo Hisatune

10. Jens Fahrbring

Meronk wins Italian Open:

https://www.tennisworldusa.org/other_new...lian-open/

https://www.etsubucs.com/mgolf/news/2022...lian-open/

Meronk made the cut at the PGA, but is only tied for 58th. Seamus didn't make the cut.

edit: He finished tied for 40th after a nice 68 Sunday:

https://www.elizabethton.com/2023/05/22/...mpionship/

Three ex-Bucs in "The Open":

https://www.etsubucs.com/mgolf/news/2023...mpionship/

Today....................Power shot an even par 71; Meronk a 1-over 72; and Michael Stewart is tied for 6th with a nice round of 68.

2nd round.........

Seamus blew up to a 4-over 75 (two doubles), and will (almost certainly) be cut.

Adrian shot par, so is 1-over still for the tournament - and thus will probably be about tied for 30th, based on how other players on the course end up.

Patrick Stewart, after a pretty good start, doubled the par 5 15th, to end with a 2-over 73, thus is at -1 total. Good enough to place him in the general vicinity of 10th.

So Meronk and Stewart are both obviously well above the cut line heading into the weekend.

[Brian Harman went low yet again, and leads everybody, at the moment, by a full 5 shots.]

(07-21-2023 02:26 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  2nd round.........

Seamus blew up to a 4-over 75 (two doubles), and will (almost certainly) be cut.

Adrian shot par, so is 1-over still for the tournament - and thus will probably be about tied for 30th, based on how other players on the course end up.

Patrick Stewart, after a pretty good start, doubled the par 5 15th, to end with a 2-over 73, thus is at -1 total. Good enough to place him in the general vicinity of 10th.

So Meronk and Stewart are both obviously well above the cut line heading into the weekend.

[Brian Harman went low yet again, and leads everybody, at the moment, by a full 5 shots.]

Thanks for the update. Good to see two Bucs still in it.

Early returns from today..............

Yes, as we knew, Power didn't make the cut.

Meronk went +3 today with an early tee time, to drop quite a lot down the list.

Stewart is hanging around, sort of, at +1 on the day after 15 holes [update before posting: birdied 16, so now even on the day], but because a lot of guys are going low, he's really dropped down, too (something like tied for 35th).
Jon Rahm went silly low with a 63.

[update: Stewart finished even for the day, now tied for 21st/22nd, depending on how others finish, of course.]

Final round................

Well, the big news is Brian Harman won by 6 strokes - pretty darn impressive. He missed a 7-ft. putt on #13 today. At first glance, that's not all that remarkable - unless one puts it in the context of it being his first miss inside of 10 ft. for the whole tournament. *That's* a winning 'strategy'.

The two remaining Bucs went in different directions.

Michael Stewart struggled in with a 76 (*8* bogies - yikes), to tie for 52nd.

Going the other way on the leaderboard...........Adrian Meronk scorched it with a 67, I *believe* tied for best round of the day with Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim - and tying him for 23rd. Don't know who saw *that* coming. 5 birdies and 1 bogey. Got to give him some confidence going forward.

Meronk has stayed around the top 50 in the world rankings all year. His tie for 23rd place this week will bring him up a spot from 49th to 48th. Based on the European Tour points list, he has a very real shot at being selected for the Ryder Cup later this year. I expect Meronk to earn his PGA card this year and join the tour in the Fall.

Power has struggled lately, and is reportedly battling a bit of a lingering hip injury. He finished 2022 at 29 in the world rankings but this week's result will likely drop him out of the top 50. His drop is more dramatic given that the LIV golfers are still dropping each week in the world rankings. Still, his win earlier in the season gives him another 2 year exemption in the PGA tour and he is still 28th in the FedEx cup rankings which would put him in the playoff championship round.