Lucas Glover defeated Patrick Cantlay in sudden death Sunday to win the St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
The tournament also resulted in cutting the FedEx field from 70 to 50. Former Blue Devil Alex Smalley shot 70-74-70-69 and finished outside the top 50. A disappointing finish for Smalley, who was 48th before going into last week’s Wyndham Classic, on his home course (Sedgefield) in Greensboro.
But Smalley is only 26 and his best golf figures to be ahead of him.
On the LPGA side of the ledger Celine Boutier cooled off a bit after consecutive wins and finished tied for 16th in the AIG Women’s Open, held in Surrey, England. This was the fifth and final LPGA major. Boutier still is one of the leaders for LPGA player of the year honors.
On to the national pastime.
Bryce Jarvis was called up by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Jarvis is the guy who pitched a perfect game for Duke against Cornell back in 2020, right before COVID-19 shut down the season on what I strongly think is Chris Pollard’s best team at Duke. Hopefully, I can add a “so-far” to that.
Arizona selected Jarvis 18th in the 2020 MLB draft and he’s worked his way up the chain, going 9-5 combined in AA and AAA this season, starting and relieving.
Jarvis is the second former Blue Devil to be called up the majors this season. First baseman Matt Mervis struggled with the Cubs and was sent back down to AAA Iowa. But Mervis has bounced back big-time with a .940 OPS since being sent down and still appears to be the Cubs’ first baseman of the future.
Now to another national pastime.
You probably remember Marques Bolden, a highly-touted big man from Texas signed by Duke in the same class as Jayson Tatum. Bolden had some injury problems and backed up Amile Jefferson in 2017 and Wendell Carter, Jr. in 2018. But given a chance to start he averaged a pedestrian 5.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 2019, sharing the center spot with classmate Javin DeLaurier.
Bolden declared for the NBA draft after his junior season, went undrafted, played seven games for the Cavaliers over two seasons and otherwise toiled in the G-League,
But Bolden also became a naturalized Indonesian citizen. Last week he helped Indonesia beat Kazakhstan 91-82 in the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament in Syria.
By “helped,” I mean Bolden had 40 points. 10 rebounds and four blocks. Marques Bolden, Olympian? Could happen.
Another former Blue Devil is taking positive steps towards an NBA career. Combo guard D.J. Steward signed with the Boston Celtics this weekend. Steward got some second looks after a 36-point performance in the Summer League, playing for a 76ers team. No guarantees and Steward still has to jump through some hoops to keep his hoops career going. But it’s a step in the right direction for the Chicago native who played at Duke only in the COVID-nightmare season of 2021 before declaring for the draft and also going undrafted.