A highly anticipated Kentucky Open at the end of July highlighted month number seven for Kentucky golf with the latest historical achievement in the sport. J.B. Williams, who came into Persimmon Ridge Golf Club as the two-time defending champion, left as the three-time reigning victor and became the first person to ever win the championship three consecutive times. He did it by one stroke with Clay Amlung finishing in second place after a thrilling final round full of twists and turns.

Williams, Amlung and Brendon Doyle were locked in a battle throughout the back nine that culminated with Williams and Amlung tied for the lead while Doyle was two shots back. After each player found the fairway off the tee, all three went for the par-five 18^th green in two where Williams hit what he later said was his shot of the week with a hybrid that found the putting surface with just a couple yards to spare before finding the neighboring pond right of the green. After lagging his eagle putt within a foot of the hole, it boiled down to Amlung needing to make a birdie putt from fifteen feet to force a playoff. Alas, the putt lipped out in brutal fashion which allowed Williams to tap in for a one-shot victory and etching himself into history.

“It feels great and pretty surreal,” he said afterwards. “I went to the 18^th thinking I haven’t had sole possession of the lead once this week, so let’s get it right here. That was a big motivator for me and inspired me to hit two quality shots into that green. It just gives me a lot of confidence knowing each time I won this trophy, I did it a different way and on three unique courses with their own set of different traits. In 2019 I had a neck-and-neck battle with Evan Davis during the last few holes, in 2020 I led wire-to-wire, this time I had to come from behind trailing almost the entire way.”

Preceding the Men’s Open was the Kentucky Women’s Open which Danville Country Club hosted on July 12-13. Caroline Smith went into that final round trailing by two shots to Sarah Shipley and Michaela Williams, but the Illinois native who now attends Wake Forest was up to the challenge in erasing that deficit and creating her own two-shot edge.

Smith posted a final round 69 (-3) which included five birdies as she ascended the leaderboard and took control of the event entering the final several holes. She played “boring golf” in her words which turned out to be more than enough to score perhaps the biggest victory of her career to date.

Kentucky golf in July is of course now highlighted by the playing of the PGA TOUR’s Barbasol Championship which took place at Keene Trace – Champions Trace on July 15-18. The tournament and its two qualifiers were back in 2021 after being canceled by the pandemic in 2020. Great memories followed suit with Seamus Power winning in a six-hole playoff over J.T. Poston. He did it in front of record crowds which has helped get the Barbasol Championship off the week of The Open Championship for 2022.

But the 2021 Barbasol also featured memorable moments in the qualifiers, including Kentuckian Trey Shirley getting one of the four exemptions at the Monday Qualifier from Boone’s Trace National Golf Club plus internet senasation Mike Visacki medaling at the Pre-Qualifier from Cherry Blossom Golf Club. More of those moments will be on the way next summer with more of the world’s spotlight fixated on Nicholasville.

Many players who hope to play in the Barbasol Championship one day were at Nevel Meade Golf Club for the Kentucky Boys Junior Amateur. Fewer tournaments got hit with worse weather than this one as the first round spilled into day two which resulted in many players playing 18+ holes on a marathon final day. In the end, Luke Muller was the man atop the leaderboard in what turned out to be his first individual win in golf. He picked a good tournament to do it at, but Muller had perhaps been better known as a basketball player rather than a golfer entering that week. After all, he had won the KHSAA Boys Basketball Championship with Highlands earlier in the year. Nevertheless, Muller posted 135 (-9) which earned him a two-stroke victory over Matthew Troutman.

Major season for the Kentucky PGA Junior Tour concluded a couple of weeks later at Hunting Creek Country Club with the Lou Perry Tour Championship. Jacob Settles and Emma Lindemoen led the way for boys and girls, respectively. Settles, who very much came into his own as a great player throughout the year, lapped the field for a twelve-shot victory with rounds of 68-69 for 137 (-7). Lindemoen went one shot better from a margin perspective, as she topped the field by thirteen strokes to get her first major victory on Tour.

Players who will be winning majors on the Kentucky PGA Junior Tour one day further developed their skills during the PGA Jr. League Section Championship at Quail Chase Golf Club. In an exciting weekend, teams across Kentucky gathered in hopes of being crowned the best team in the state in addition to qualifying for the Regional Championship in September. Derby City won the 13&U competition while Team Louisville won the 17&U competition. While everyone in attendance wanted to win, it was striking how strong the sportsmanship was during this event and how many junior golfers fell more in love with golf this weekend. Kentucky’s PGA Professionals did a fantastic job all year forging this passion for the sport and bringing a record number of boys and girls together to enjoy golf. This weekend was the epicenter of that work.

One player who has loved golf for a long time and loves winning just as much is Andy Roberts. And in July, Roberts “completed the cycle” with a victory in the Kentucky Match Play Championship. In this case, completing the cycle refers to Roberts now having won all major individual competitions in Kentucky amateur golf. Entering that week, at least one time prior he had won the Kentucky Open, Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Amateur and Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Kentucky Mid-Am, but never the Match Play. That changed at his home facility at Country Club of Owensboro where he steamrolled his way through the competition; not once needing to play holes 17 or 18. With a 5&4 victory over Josh Rhodes in the title match where Roberts was -8 and bogey-free at match’s end, Roberts had won that last key trophy in style.

While that could have been a round of the year candidate from Roberts had it been stroke play, an official round of the year nomination was submitted in the state’s U.S. Amateur qualifier at Bowling Green Country Club. Thanks in part to Canon Claycomb being on his home stomping grounds, he shot 61 (-11) in the first of two rounds that day which led to medalist honors and a trip to the championship in Pittsburgh. Claycomb followed that round up with a 70 (-2) in the afternoon round to polish off his torrid day, but he very much had folks on 59-watch during his first round. While he came just short of that, it would go on to be the lowest round in individual stroke play across Golf House Kentucky events for the 2021 season.

A few other results from July to hit on before closing were these winners from the following events:

• Seth Hall/Maggie Hoffman/Kim Lincoln/Rachael McMillen – Pro-Lady presented by Mobile Pro Shop at Greenbrier Golf & Country Club on July 6
• Hunter York (gross) – Western Kentucky Am Series #3 at Calvert City Country Club on July 11
• Tracy Poston, Kevin Auton, Scott Pottinger, and Mike Lenox (gross) – KGA Am Series #4 at Winchester Country Club on July 12
• Bobby Newberry/Finn Johnson/Emma Lindemoen/Winn Scherer – Adidas Pro-Junior at Juniper Hill Golf Course on July 19