February 2, 2020, a palindrome day, produced a pair of playoff golf victories for members of The Country Club of North Carolina.
Long-time CCNC member Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, notched his sixth PGA Tour win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open by birdieing the last two holes in the final round to force a playoff with Tony Finau, which he captured with a birdie on TPC Scottsdale’s 18th hole.
“We had 150 members here for a Super Bowl party with the huge TVs throughout the club,” said CCNC General Manager/COO Don Hunter. “You should have heard the crowd when the (playoff) putt went in the hole.”
Jackson Van Paris, 16, who attends Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines, came from behind to win the Sea Pines Junior Heritage, also on the first playoff hole, at Harbor Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C.
The pair represented the U.S. on victorious Presidents Cup teams in Australia in December.
Currently No. 2 in the FedEx Cup ranking, Simpson is a three-time USA Ryder Cup team member (2012, 2014, 2018) and Presidents Cup team member (2011, 2013, 2019) since his PGA Tour career began in 2008. Simpson was a three-time All-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2008. He played collegiately at Wake Forest University and during his college days, he was a member of the victorious USA Walker Cup (2007) and U.S. Palmer Cup (2007) teams.
He is the honorary chairman of the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship to be played at CCNC’s Dogwood and Cardinal courses.
Van Paris was the youngest member of the victorious U.S. Junior Presidents Cup team and is a three-time American Junior Golf Association All-American (2017, 2018, 2019) and is 125th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.® He advanced to the Round of 32 of the U.S. Amateur as a 14-year-old at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links in 2018. He was the second youngest to win a match surpassed only by arguably the greatest amateur golfer Bob Jones, who won a match at 14 years old in 1916. Van Paris won the 2019 AJGA Simply Boys Championship in February.
Feature photo of Jackson Van Paris by South Carolina Junior Golf Association.
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