Nearly half of remaining Memorial Tournament field from outside United States |Rob Oller
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The two Japanese golf fans, Taka and Masa, walking the second fairway at Muirfield Village Golf Club happily secured their weekend tournament badges last month with plans to watch countryman Hideki Matsuyama play the Memorial.
Oops.
Matsuyama, the 2014 Memorial winner, was disqualified Thursday after nine holes because he used a non-conforming 3-wood. The clubface had been marked with a white substance for alignment purposes, and it was applied so thickly, it violated USGA rules.
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With no Matsuyama to pull for, Taka and Masa were forced to alter their allegiance, both choosing another player born outside the United States.
Who was it? You get 30 guesses, one for every international player who made the cut at the Memorial. That’s right, 30 of the 70 players who competed over the weekend are from foreign lands. Thirty-one if you count tournament leader Billy Horschel, who hails from Florida. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Golf truly is a worldwide game, rich in cultural diversity and incredible talent inside the ropes. A quick rundown of countries represented (weekend participants only) shows the United States (40), Australia (six), Canada (five), South Korea (three), Mexico and Chile (two) and one each from Taiwan, England, Northern Ireland, Norway, Columbia, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Venezuela, Argentina, Scotland and South Africa.
Japan did not make the cut, so who did Taka and Masa choose?
“Rory,” they said in unison.
OK, so Rory McIlroy lives in the United States, or at least in Florida (there I go again), but he still counts as a native of Northern Ireland. The point is, if you’re tired of cheering for the same old, same old — and by that I mean for Americans; not that there’s anything wrong with that — you have plenty of other options.
Like Abraham Ancer, for instance. Mind you, I am not campaigning for Ancer to be your guy. Is the 31-year-old from Tamaulipas, Mexico easy to root for? Yes. Polite and personable, he represents his country well. But don’t take my word for it.
“We follow (Ancer) because he’s young, we love his game, and he represents (Mexico), which is awesome,” said Jorge Flores, who is from Mexico and lives in Lewis Center. “We also cheer for Carlos Ortiz, who is also from Mexico. This guy (Ancer) is very approachable. He fist-bumped with us.”
Javier Loyola, walking the course with Flores, said his fandom extends beyond players from Mexico.
“We’ve been tracking players from Spain, (Jon) Rahm, and anyone from Latin America, we cheer for them,” said Loyola, also from Lewis Center.
Golf south of the U.S. border increasingly is producing top-level players such as Ancer (No. 21 in the world) and Chileans Joaquin Niemann (18) and Mito Pereira (45).
Not to be outdone, South Korea has Sungjae Im (22), K.H. Lee (43) and Si Woo Kim (60).
Six Australians made the Memorial cut, led by Cameron Smith, who is No. 3 in the world and entered Sunday’s round tied for second. Closer to home, four Canadians stuck around for the weekend. I remember when Mike Weir was the only lefty of note from north of the border.
The biggest change, however, is the uptick in Latin American talent.
“My alma mater (Arkansas) in the last five years has recruited a lot of players from South America, so I see a lot of difference there,” said Swede David Lingmerth, who won the 2015 Memorial. “There have been some guys on the pro tour who have found success, and I guess that sparks interest down there.”
That interest is not limited to elite golfers. Lingmerth notices Swedes in the galleries popping up to support him at nearly every tour stop.
“A few times per event,” he said, of fans cheering him in Swedish. “It’s great because you know they’re watching you.”
The PGA Tour can be a lonely place, especially for international players, so every little bit of “hometown” backing helps.
Jhonattan Vegas, the only Venezuelan on tour, notices the yellow, blue and red flag of his country being waved in galleries at every event. The tour also feels more “familiar” now that Vegas has been able to hang out with other players from Latin America.
Then there is Shane Lowry, a product of Ireland who has come to believe that three out of every four golf fans in the United States are Irish.
“When I play the PGA Tour, I think a lot of American people think they’re Irish,” Lowry said. “So I get great support in America, and we have so many Irish people abroad that when I travel, I meet a lot of people who know people from home. I could be in the back end of the worst place in the world and there would be Irish people there.”
America is great. American golfers are great. But birdies come from Europe, Asia and Australia, too.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Rory McIlroy the most famous foreign-born Memorial Tournament player
