Syed Zaki is not a name you’d instantly recognise but he’s quickly making a name for himself on the PGA Tour qualifying circuit after wracking up more huge three-figure scores in events around the USA.
The mystery golfer, who apparently hails from Florida according to some of the scorecards that have been posted on social media, has been piling up the big numbers in recent weeks while playing in qualifying events.
He first came to our attention late last year when playing in Orlando in pre-qualifying for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship when he shot 69…for the font nine!
A score of 33 over par for his front nine promptly saw Zaki withdraw from the competition much to the amazement, and quite frankly relief, of his playing partners – but he’s been back for more.
Zaki rather hopefully entered a Senior US Open qualifying event at Oak Ridge Country Club in Tennessee – where he ended up shooting a round of 120.
Amazingly, that represents something of an improvement as he also tried his luck at pre-qualifying for the Mexico Open in Houston in April, where he ran up an eye-watering 135.
An eventful round there saw Zaki score two 10s, one 12 and a 13 – carding more double-digit scores than pars as he made just two of those.
And he strikes AGAIN. Syed has played in multiple pre-Qs. Today in a Senior US Open Q. I’ll start a national database for these players so we can avoid this. (Solid back 9 for him actually). pic.twitter.com/mWgcSblvGZMay 11, 2023
One bogey, four doubles and 11 ‘others’ made up a truly remarkable round, not for the right reasons of course, and his exploits have not gone down too well in some circles with critics feeling he could be off putting to players with genuine hopes of qualifying.
It seems Zaki may have watched the film ‘The Phantom of the Open’ about Maurice Flitcroft’s famous attempt to qualify for the 1976 Open Championship despite never playing a round of golf before – and taking it to a new level.
