Gray Albright shared the lead after each of the first two rounds at the Jones Cup Invitational played this weekend at Ocean Forest Golf Club on Sea Island in coastal Georgia.
And the Florida State University standout golfer was still tied for the lead after regulation Sunday in the third and final round.
It wasn’t until he won a sudden-death playoff that Albright saw his name alone atop the leaderboard at this prestigious tournament that has kicked off a new season in the amateur golf ranks the last few years.
Had he not sealed the deal when he did, Albright would have had to wait until Monday to see if he could get his hands on the winner’s trophy, one of the biggest prizes in the men’s amateur game.
Albright is now ranked No. 71 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings.
He was obviously happy to come away the winner, no matter when the tournament finished.
“I feel really good,” he said about being crowned the newest Jones Cup champion. “I’m just kind of reminded about all the different names that have won this before, and it’s so cool to think about all the guys who have played in this and won it.
“Yeah, it leaves you a little bit speechless. I might have to think about it for a little bit to see how I really feel. But yeah, I’m really happy right now.”
Past Jones Cup champions have gone on to win a combined 35 tournaments on the PGA Tour. The tournament’s champions list includes Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed, both major championship winners, and Ludvig Aberg, who won the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club just a few months after turning pro in November 2023.
The playoff between Albright and Jack Bigham, his teammate at Florida State, was played with complete darkness closing in on the course that runs along the Atlantic seashore.
In fact, a bright orange sun was falling below a row of towering pine trees in the distance as they played the par-3 17th hole, where the ocean serves as a picturesque backdrop. By the time the final group approached the 18th green, the moon could be seen rising over the Atlantic Ocean, which borders the finishing hole. And when the two Seminoles standouts were the fairway after hitting their second shots, they were literally finishing under the moonlight.
The final round was originally scheduled to start a half hour earlier than the first two rounds, but with tournament officials anticipating a morning frost, the Sunday tee times had already been pushed back an hour before the end of play late Saturday afternoon. With the overnight temperature dipping just below freezing, a heavy frost was visible on many courses in the coastal region, including Ocean Forest.
Sunday’s play had to be pushed back a little more, meaning the final group didn’t go off until 12:40 in the afternoon. The round was moving slowly, too. The last pairing, which featured the two FSU players and also fellow third-round co-leader Miles Russell, didn’t finish their opening nine until about 3:30 and still had at least 2 1/2 hours to go to finish their final nine.
With the leaderboard tight at the top and several players in contention for the championship, tournament officials were preparing for a possible Monday finish, especially if multiple players were tied at the top at the end of the regulation 54 holes and a playoff was needed to get a winner.
It looked like they were going to avoid that Monday finish and also a playoff with Bigham holding a one-shot lead over Albright coming to the par-4 finishing hole and the players having hit their approach shots to the green.
Albright did have a birdie putt to tie, but it was a slick one that was slightly downhill to a new hole location on the back left of the green. His putt ran a few feet past the hole, and Albright finished out for his par.
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Bigham also was behind the hole, but had a shorter putt and only needed to two-putt for par and a victory in the season-opening major tournament. He nestled his birdie putt around the hole and had about three feet left to finish out his par and close out the victory.
He did take time to mark the putt, but it didn’t stop his worst nightmare from happening. Bigham missed the putt that would have been a gimme in a lot of casual games. While the gallery was stunned, you could see that Albright was as well.
You could tell that Bigham was visibly shaken by what just took place as both he and Albright walked to the edge of the green to talk to tournament officials about the playoff. They were given the choice to give one sudden-death playoff hole a try or wait until Monday to decide the winner. The teammates agreed to give a extra hole a go.
Both players found the fairway with their tee shots. Bigham was the first to hit his approach, which hit the back of the putting surface but rolled through the green into a swell behind the hole.
Albright landed a 7-iron about 30 feet right of the flag, giving him the advantage coming to the green.
Bigham was the first to play again and went with his putter to roll the ball over a hump on the green and toward the hole, with the putt settling inside 10 feet. Albright then putted and his ball would curl just away from the hole, but he had a tap-in for his par.
That left Bigham needing to make his par-saving putt to stay alive and force what would have been a Monday finish. His par-attempt missed well left of the hole and that made Albright the winner.
He was quick to praise Bigham for his play in the final round after accepting the trophy.
“You don’t want to see that happen to anyone, especially Jack,” Albright said. “I hated to see it. He played great all day, and he has a lot to hang his hat on.”
Bigham began the day 3-under for the tournament and a stroke back of both Albright and Russell. All three players in the final group had their blunders on their outward nine, but Bigham played some golf fitting of a champion on the closing nine.
The fellow Seminole went to the 10th hole at 1-under for the tourney. He would string together three straight birdies on holes 12 through 14 to climb to 4-under and grab a share of the lead.
And after watching a 60-foot putt by Albright on the 17th hole drop for birdie to get him to 4-under as well, Bigham, who flirted with knocking down the flagstick, answered with a birdie from inside 15 feet to instantly regain a one-shot cushion going to the final hole.
The teammates exchanged fist pumps after the birdie exchange on the green and proceeded to make the long walk along the banks of the Atlantic enjoying each other’s company.
“We were having a blast out there,” Albright said. “I have never battled it out like that with a teammate before in a tournament like this. That was really fun. It was cool to play against him, and like I said, he played incredible all day long and deserves a lot of props.”
Albright’s birdie putt that went down at 17 turned out to be the shot that won him the tournament. Had that putt not gone in for his two, he would have headed to the 18th trailing by two strokes after Bigham drained his birdie attempt right on top of him.
“It was a weird stance,” he said when talking about that putt which he had to attempt with one foot in a greenside bunker. “I can honestly say I have never had a stance like that putting before. But, I just told myself to commit to the line I wanted to hit it on, have good pace and see what happens.
“It started on line, and it went in. I kinda blacked out there for a minute and screamed. But, that was crazy. It was really cool.”
Several other players had the solo lead or a share of the lead throughout the closing 18 holes, creating a buzz in the galleries and making for a suspenseful ending.
Russell was the first to jump ahead Sunday afternoon when he went to 5-under with a birdie at the par-5 third hole. However, he dropped three shots in the next six holes and turned at 2-over.
Russell, who is 16 and the No. 1 junior player in the country, did birdie the par-5 10th to get back to 3-under. He stayed in the title chase throughout the back nine, but settled for seven straight pars before finishing with a bogey at the last when he needed to hole out a chip shot to try and reach 4-under for any chance to win.
Duke golfer Luke Sample, who had the overnight lead with Albright after round one on Friday, got back to the top of the leaderboard in the final round as well. He was actually alone in first when he walked to the par-3 15th hole, but that’s where he missed a short par-saving putt and dropped back to 3-under.
Sample bounced right back with a birdie on the 16th hole to return to 4-under, but he saw his title hopes disappear with his double-bogey at No. 17.
Jackson Van Paris of Vanderbilt, in the next-to-last pairing with Samples, also flirted with winning on Sunday. He made three birdies and a bogey on his front side to pick up two shots and was atop the leaderboard at 3-under when he started his closing nine.
Van Paris stayed near the top of the heap coming in, but didn’t make another birdie. He finished with eight straight pars until he bogeyed the last hole to finish third at 2-under.
Also, Ryan Voois, who plays at Illinois, was in contention late in the day despite a triple-bogey 8 at the par-5 sixth. The California native was 3-under for the weekend through 13 holes in his final round, but he finished making bogey, double-bogey and bogey on the final three holes and wound up solo ninth at 1-over.
Seven players finished below par for the championship. Henry Guan, another junior player who has signed with Oklahoma State, finished at level-par to end up eighth overall. Guan carded a 7-under 65 score on Saturday that is a new record-low on the new-look Ocean Forest layout that debuted at the tournament last January.
This year’s event was the 21st playing of the Jones Cup.
