“Sorry for the tears, but I’m pretty happy”, the dew-eyed Herman said on the 18th green after his par on the final hole.
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Instead of watching the Masters on television this week, Herman will be among the world’s best golfers, competing in the game’s most prestigious tournament. “He’s as good as anybody, ‘” Trump said. “He works hard and he has talent”.
“It’s going to be a total 180 [degrees] from anything I was able to experience on the outside or even in that one round”, he said.
“Dana looked at me that day and told me, ‘This guy can play”.
At the Houston Open, Herman chipped in for birdie on the par-3 16th and finished with two solid pars for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Swede Henrik Stenson.
AUGUSTA | How much action would one get on bets before a magical Sunday afternoon in Houston on what would come first – Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination for President or his former employee, Jim Herman, winning on the PGA Tour? I played really well. “I’ve dreamt of this for a long time and now it’s here”. And now it’s happened. You can play your best round and still get beat on a Sunday. With its narrow fairways, finger design bunkers, rolling greens and Texas winds, it’s a course that can make you dig deep into your bag for a variety of shots. The 18-year-old New Zealander has 12 LPGA Tour victories, five last year when she was the tour’s Player of the Year. “I’ve got to keep doing what I’ve been doing. This is my fifth year on the PGA Tour, but I only kept my card once, and that was last year”.
He played a round at Augusta National as the guest of Jay Haas – an investment banker Herman is friends with, not the PGA Tour pro – and he shot a 1-under 71 after a bogey on the 18th.
Heading into today’s final round in a share of the lead with Jamie Lovemark, Herman hardly put a foot wrong and surprised many with the manner in which he acquitted himself especially given the magnitude of the task he faced and what was at stake. “But I don’t think that’s happening”. I said we could do that later.
” … He got a late start because he had no money and he had to teach”. He birdied the fourth, eighth and 13th holes and negotiated the rest of the holes at the Golf Club of Houston without a bogey for a 3-under 69, putting him among the upper half of the leaderboard. “It helps all of us when he’s out, so I’m ready for him to come back”.
The possibility took a turn toward reality 10 years ago when Herman was working as an assistant pro at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey.
“You want to dream”.
“That was vital”, Herman said of his short-game improvement. I got two texts from him when he was on tour recently for three weeks.
Leaders from the governing bodies that run golf’s four major championships announced Monday the men’s gold medalist from the 2016 Summer Olympics golf competition in Rio de Janeiro will receive automatic exemptions into the 2017 Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.
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The weather for Masters week is expected to be good except for Thursday’s opening round, during which a 60 percent chance of morning showers is forecast with a high of 74 and winds of 10-20 miles per hour.
