Dubliner David Carey has brilliantly booked himself a tee-time in this week’s Valero Texas Open starting out in the last group and finishing first in a Monday qualifier for the $US 8.9m event in San Antonio.
Carey, 23, teed-off at 12.35pm local time in the closing match and grabbed eight birdies in a stunning victory round of a seven-under 65 at the Fair Oaks G&CC course at Fair Oaks Ranch, about a 30-minute drive north-east of San Antonio.
Four spots were on offer into the Valero Texas Open and with Carey now set to make his PGA Tour debut, where the winner not only earns a $US1m cheque but the final invitation into next week’s Masters.
Sixty players teed-up including PGA Tour winners including Aaron Baddeley, Jonas Blitx and Omar Uresti, and all three withdrawing before completing their round.
Monday qualifiers for @ValeroTXOpen:
David Carey (65)
Peter Kuest (66)
Austen Truslow (67)
Peter Lansburgh (68) @DavidCareyGolf also won the Pre-Qualifier to get in to the Monday Qualifier and will make his first stateside TOUR start, all with his girlfriend on the bag ❤️ pic.twitter.com/wnVQRkNVs2— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 28, 2023
Carey had won through to the Monday qualifier a few days earlier but now faced a sterner test.
However, with girlfriend Catilin acting as caddy, he got off to a good start moving to the turn in three-under with birdies at his third, sixth and ninth holes that had him then sharing fourth place behind four players, each American in the clubhouse with California’s Peter Kuest the leader with a six-under 66.
The Irishman then muscled his way to the front thanks to birdies at 10, 11, 13, 15, and while dropping a shot at 16, he ended in superb manner with a closing hole birdie.
Carey tweeted his excitement with the following:
First tournament in Texas, first win in the USA! On to the final qualifier!@pirettigolf @dundonaldlinks @darwinescapes #winnerwinner #titleist #prov1 #pga #professionalgolf #golf #ireland #texas https://t.co/FPv884YC2r
— David Carey (@davidcareygolf) March 23, 2023
And Carey was not about to leave out the effort of his now full-time caddying girlfriend and her effort.
“Catilin was great. She carried the bag for all 18 holes, and she’ll also be on the bag this week”, he said.
“It’s been going well, so far. She’s been travelling with me for about the last year or so. We only starting cutting it this year. I really think it helps as she knows me. I kind of do all my golf stuff, and she tries to kind of keep my calm, and keep me focussed on what I should be focussing on.
John Carey and his caddying girlfriend, Catilin.
“As you know, just hitting the fairways and stuff like that”,
It’s a brilliant effort for Carey, who has spent most of his pro career on the ALPS Tour.
The current World No. 965th ranked player has contested no OWGR ranking events this year, and none since his last ranking event in missing the cut in the October 2022 DP Tour World’s Spanish Open won by Jon Rahm.
Some 20 months ago, in early July 2022 Carey secured a 150th Open Championship tee-time by qualifying at the close-by Fairmont Resort course on the outskirts of St. Andrews.
Carey went onto to make the cut on the Old Course thanks to a second round 67, and go onto to share 52nd place to earn a career-high pay cheque of Euro 33,549.00.
Now he’s staring at a first prize cheque for $US 1.3m
SCORES – https://stpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/stpga23/event/stpga237/contest/1/leaderboard.htm
