With the calendar flipping to June, the PGA Tour counts eight first-time winners this season, including the duo of Davis Riley and Nick Hardy, who teamed up for their first wins at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
It was almost nine on Sunday as Denny McCarthy had a putt to win the Memorial only to be denied his maiden victory by Viktor Hovland.
McCarthy isn’t alone. So far this season, 14 different players have finished runner-up or tied for second 15 times while bidding for their first Tour title. If the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” taught us anything it is that winning is hard. (Don’t drink every time a player says just that or you may not make it through a single episode.)
“The only one who will remember you if you come in second place is your wife and your dog,” World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player once said, “and that is only if you have a good wife and a good dog.”
NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt didn’t mince words either, saying, “Second place is just the first-place loser. There is no room for second place.”
Nevertheless, let’s take a closer look at this year’s runner-ups, who were so close to tasting victory and climbing another rung on the professional golf ladder with their first Tour wins.
Denny McCarthy, Memorial
The 30-year-old former Virginia Cavalier had a 23-foot putt for par to win the Memorial but after making virtually every putt he looked out, he missed and his first bogey of the day dropped him into a playoff with Viktor Hovland. McCarthy bogeyed 18 again and had to settle for his best finish on Tour in 157 career starts.
“I’m heartbroken right now,” McCarthy said after losing in a one-hole playoff. “I thought this was going to be the week.”
Austin Eckroat, AT&T Byron Nelson
Eckroat is yet another Oklahoma State grad making good on the pro scene. The 24-year-old, who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour, got off to a sluggish start this season, which included six consecutive missed cuts on the West Coast and Florida Swings. But he’s started to heat up like the weather. He finished fifth at the Corales Puntacana Championship in late March and followed up his T-2 in Dallas, where he shot 22 under, with a T-16 at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Sam Stevens, Valero Texas Open
The 26-year-old rookie product out of Oklahoma State had back-to-back hot weeks this spring, finishing T-3 in the Dominican Republic and then second at the Valero Texas Open. He cooled off with two straight missed cuts but has rebounded to make his last four cuts. His weekend performance could use some work but he’s having a solid rookie campaign after a steady rise to the big leagues.
Cameron Young, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play
The Wake Forest product was the 2022 Rookie of the Year, and he’s barely slowed down as a sophomore. But he’s yet to get into the winner’s circle. He reached the final of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play before getting schooled by Sam Burns in the final. It was Young’s sixth runner-up finish, which has observers predicting it’s just a matter of time before Young gets into the winner’s circle.
Nicolai Hojgaard, Corales Puntacana Championship
The 22-year-old Dane won for the second time on the DP World Tour last year and could be a future Ryder Cup stud for the Euros. Playing in the Dominican Republic, an opposite-field event in March, he finished second to Matt Wallace, who claimed his first PGA Tour title. Keep an eye out for Hojgaard, who could make some noise once he starts playing the PGA Tour on a more regular basis.
Adam Schenk, Valspar Championship and Charles Schwab Championship
Schenk is the only one on this list who is twice a runner-up this season, finishing second to first-time winner Taylor Moore near Tampa at the Valspar and losing a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge. The 31-year-old Purdue grad had two putts to win the title in Ft. Worth. Close but no cigar. But he’s been knocking on the door and he must keep believing that sooner or later he will be the one hoisting a trophy on Sunday. After the Valspar, he missed four of his next five cuts before recording his second runner-up finish in late May.
Akshay Bhatia, Puerto Rico Open
The 21-year-old, who skipped college golf, fired a final-round 7-under 65 in Puerto Rico but lost by two to first-time winner Nico Echavarria. Bhatia took a road less traveled in professional golf but he earned special temporary membership this season and finished fourth at the Mexico Open. He’s trending in the right direction in his search for his first PGA Tour win and full-time status.
Eric Cole, Honda Classic
The 34-year-old rookie missed the cut at his first four starts this season, but in addition to his playoff defeat to Chris Kirk at the Honda Classic, he finished T-5 at the Mexico Open and a very respectable T-15 at the PGA Championship.
Brandon Wu, AT&T Pebble Beach
Since Justin Rose got the better of him at Pebble Beach in February, the 26-year-old out of Stanford had four top-25 finishes, including a third at the Mexico Open and has surpassed $2 million in earnings.
Davis Thompson, American Express
The 23-year-old rookie out of Georgia showed he belonged quickly but the air has been out of the balloon ever since. Here are his finishes in stroke-play events since only Jon Rahm bettered his score in the desert in January: T-69, T-53, 68, T-63, T-70
Hayden Buckley, Sony Open
The 27-year-old Missouri grad missed five of his next six cuts after finishing second to Si Woo Kim. He had back-to-back top-10 finishes in April at the Valero Texas Open (T-10) and RBC Heritage (T-5) but hasn’t experienced the trophy hunt since holding the 54-hole lead at Waialae.
Callum Tarren, RSM Classic
The 32-year-old Englishman has just won top-10 finish this season – his T-2 at Sea Island – where he went low on Sunday and it looked like he might steal the trophy before Adam Svensson vaulted by and became a first-time winner instead.
Tarren hit a rough patch not long after, missing eight straight cuts between the WM Phoenix Open in February and the Mexico Open in late April. His best finish since his T-2 is a T-25 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Tyson Alexander, Cadence Houston Open
Alexander, 34, took the long road to the PGA Tour. The former Florida Gator, who turned pro in 2010, won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022 to earn his PGA Tour card for the first time. In just his fifth event of his rookie season, he shot three rounds of 66 and finished second in Houston to Tony Finau. That, however, has been his only good showing of the season. His next-best finish? T-26 at the Corales Puntacana Championship.
Thomas Detry, Butterfield Bermuda Championship
The 30-year-old Belgian, who played his college golf in the U.S. at Illinois, has a win on the Euro Challenge Tour and teamed with Thomas Pieters to win the 2018 ISPS World Cup in Australia. In 2020, Detry twice finished solo runner-up at tournaments on the DP World Tour. He nearly captured his first PGA Tour title in November, but Seamus Power hung on for a one-stroke victory. Detry has climbed into the top 100 in the world (No. 86) and ranked 39th in the 2022-23 FedEx Cup standings.
