Matt McCarty earned his first PGA Tour win at the Black Desert Championship.
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After Scottie Scheffler, no one has won more in professional golf than Matt McCarty in 2024 and now his wins aren’t just on the Korn Ferry Tour.
McCarty, the Korn Ferry Tour points leader for his year, became the first player since 2016 to win three times in one calendar year, earning an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. This week’s Black Desert Championship was his second Tour event as a member and third of his career.
But while winning is successful, winning on the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour are two completely different things. So it’s understandable that when McCarty, two shots back on the back nine in the final round of the Black Desert Championship, birdied the 12th hole to cut his own lead to one, he may have felt a little worried.
Two holes later, you wouldn’t know it.
On the par-4 14th, McCarty delivered the championship shot, converting a 3-wood from 297 yards off the tee to just three feet, 7 inches. It was the closest tee all week on the par-4 and a subsequent eagle extended his lead to three, en route to a final-round 67 to win the Black Desert Championship for his first PGA Tour win.
The win on the “Big Tour” puts a bow on an incredible three-and-a-half-month run for McCarty, who earned his first Korn Ferry Tour victory in mid-July at the Price Cutter Charity Championship. He also won the first three events after that and took the third in Boise at the inaugural Korn Ferry Tour Finals, sealing his PGA Tour card and earning an immediate promotion before the end of August.
With the FedEx Cup Playoffs underway, McCarty ended the KFT season before making his PGA Tour debut last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he finished T63. He is now the second player ever to win, joining Jason Gore in 2005, to win in the same season after receiving a promotion to the battlefield.
Apparently, one start was enough to make amends because he came out firing at Black Desert Resort this week, making seven birdies and an eagle in a round 1 of 62. Then he was on fire again on Saturday – a marathon day after he had to get to the course early to play the last few holes of his second round – with a birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie run on his front nine as part of a 64 to give him his first career lead. -54.
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He opened with a birdie Sunday and then added another at the 7th to take a double lead over Lucas Glover, who had already finished his final round at 19 under after a 62. that lead, putting McCarty in an emotional position as he waited on the 14th tee.
Stephan Jaeger and Kevin Streelman were also pushing as Jaeger reached 19 under and Streelman had a putt to join him at 14.
But McCarty then proved his iron with a tee shot on the 310-yard par-4, so close to the hole that Streelman had to mark McCarty’s ball just to hit his birdie putt.
An eagle brought him to 22 under for the week, which no one could match after two birdies and a bogey on 17 to finish, that number reached 23 under. Jaeger finished in solo second place at 20 under.
By becoming the top player on the Korn Ferry Tour, McCarty was already in next year’s Players and US Open Championship, but this victory will also mean he starts next season on the Sentry and earns the Masters Invitational. It also extends his touring membership until the end of the 2026 season.
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