The world of sports is incredibly busy here in the final days of April. Consider that the NBA and NHL are both in the middle of their playoffs, the NFL Draft just took place, MLB has been in play for a month now, the LPGA Tour had its first major of the season in the Chevron Championship… it is almost a full-time job keeping up with it all.
As far as men’s professional golf is concerned the LIV Tour was in Mexico City while the PGA Tour had its own team event in the annual Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin emerged victorious with a 28-under par score. It is the first professional win for both Novak and Griffin.
As far as Novak is concerned he almost broke though in that capacity a week earlier at Harbour Town. Novak went to a playoff at the RBC Heritage with Justin Thomas and lost on the first hole. Getting so close to his first career win and letting it get away had to hurt which surely makes the win in New Orleans rather sweet for him.
Something particularly interesting about Novak’s win alongside Griffin in New Orleans though is that it repeated a level of history that the Tour had not seen in three years. Andrew Novak became the first player to win an event the week after losing a playoff since Patrick Cantlay did it in 2022 (we threw this possibility out over the weekend).
What was particularly amazing about that, though? Just like Novak, Cantlay lost the RBC Heritage in a playoff before winning the Zurich Classic. Those are some insane coincidences!
For what it’s worth if we are following the script that 2022 laid out for us then remember the major winners from across the rest of that season (recall that Scottie Scheffler won his first Masters earlier that year):
Of the three in question the most likely to repeat is arguably Thomas given his recent form (the aforementioned win at Hilton Head) and that this year’s PGA Championship is taking place at Qual Hollow where Thomas won his first PGA Championship title.
We will see what else this year has in store for us all.
