Maiden victory, it happened nine times in 2024

The recently concluded John Deere Classic was the thirtieth tournament of the PGA Tour season. Removing the three Majors played so far and the six (!) seasonal victories of the current world number one, Scottie Scheffler, twenty-one tournaments remain.

Well, in 2024 nine of these tournaments represented the maiden victory for as many kids.

Maiden victory, results

Let’s start backwards, out of respect for the fresh victory of Davis Thompson, who won the John Deere Classic with a modest -28, a score that sparked reactions, not exactly satisfied, from the fans.

What is certain is that it was no coincidence, given that Thompson was number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking between 2020 and 2021. Let’s move on to Bob McIntyre, one of Rome’s heroes, who won the RBC Canadian Open with his father Dougie on the bag (I don’t have the statistics at hand, but I don’t think it happened often).

As a good Scot, he gave up taking part in the Memorial Tournament to go home to celebrate with friends. In the week before the PGA Championship, Chris Gotterup won the Myrtle Beach Classic, reporting his first victory in the first edition of the tournament, another important statistical case.

We arrive at Taylor Pendrith, who won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in a daring head-to-head final with Ben Kholes. The Canadian, thanks to his inaugural victory, made a leap forward in the Presidents Cup ranking. Now I’m going back to March, to get to the Texas Children’s Houston Open, the first victory for Stephan Jaeger, who with a heart-pounding final round beat five players (including Scheffler) by one shot.

At the beginning of March it was the turn of Austin Eckroat, who made it the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, ahead of Erik Van Rooyen and Min Woo Lee. The Mexico Open at Vidanta saw the first victory of the first rookie of the year, Jake Knapp.

In his fifth appearance on the major Tour, after a long stint on the Korn Ferry Tour (58 tournaments), Knapp resisted the…