Two Worlds of Golf Collide: Fun in naples, pressure in Ponte Vedra

With apologies to Bobby Jones, there is hit-adn-giggle golf and there is career-on-the-line golf, and they are not at all the same.

Sunday showcased the difference between them.

For the light-hearted former, fans had the pleasure of the Grant Thornton Invitational in Naples, Fla., a joint PGA and LPGA Tour production pitting 16 two-player teams in a mixed-format competition imbued with all the tension of a birthday party at a putt-putt course. in the third and final round of that feel-good affair at Tiburón Golf Club, Lauren Coughlin and Andrew novak pulled away from the pack with a nine-under 63 in modified four-ball (each hitting their own drives, then playing the otherS ball and recording the better score on every hole), giving them a tournament total of 28 under and a three-shot win over three teams that included a trio of the LPGA Tour’s biggest names (Nelly Korda, Charley Hull and Jennifer Kupcho).

That was the fluffy, wallet-padding stuff.

For nail-biting action with no purse on the line, you had to turn elsewhere in the Sunshine State – Ponte Vedra Beach, to be precise – where the annual dogfight known as Q-school Finals was unfolding. At Q-School, the math is always unforgiving.This year, though, it was crueler than ever, as, owing to an offseason format change, only the top five finishers made it through. Previously, the top five finishers and ties earned their cards.

The stage was set for heartache and heroics on the Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, and, per custom, Sunday’s final round delivered both. one especially agonizing moment involved the popular Tour veteran Camilo Villegas, who flubbed a short birdie putt on 18 that he knew he likely needed. Sure enough, the miss left him at 10 under, a torturous single stroke out of a playoff. (Villegas stuck around, though, to join a celebration that we’ll get to shortly.)

For Spencer Levin, a 41-year-old who has been grinding in the pro game for two decades with varying degrees of status, the pain came in slower drips throughout the day. After a 63 on Saturday, Levin was in position to regain the PGA Tour card he lost in 2017. But he…