Kristoffer Reitan won his first PGA Tour event on Sunday after outlasting multiple challengers down the stretch at Quail Hollow. After starting the day two shots behind the leader, Alex Fitzpatrick, Reitan toughed out a hard-fought 69 to come out with the win.

At some points on Sunday, it didn’t seem to be Reitan’s day. The tour pro that at one time considered giving up the professional game altogether to pursue YouTube golf didn’t look like he’d be able to close out the win. While recognizable names like Rickie Fowler charged up the leaderboard with a 5-under front nine, Reitan went out with a pedestrian even par front to remain in the hunt.

Despite a lacklustre start, Reitan’s back nine sealed the deal. After making pars on the first four holes on the back, Reitan made two clutch birdies on 14 and 15 to secure a two-shot lead over Fowler that would stand for the tournament.

This weekend marks Reitan’s best finish on the PGA Tour since the Zurich Classic a few weeks ago, where he lost to Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick. In an unusual narrative twist, Reitan was paired with Alex Fitzpatrick on Sunday and was able to steal the Truist victory away from him, after Fitzpatrick narrowly squeezed out a win over him a few weeks ago.

Fitzpatrick entered the final round with the lead, but after a poor start to his round — going par, bogey, double in his first three holes — he looked lost. He righted the ship with a birdie on 5, but gave it back with a bogey on 8, leading to a 3-over front nine. An impressive three birdie run from 10 through 13 brought him back into the conversation, but he took himself back out with a double bogey on 17, all but handing the victory to Reitan.

Hit the Sweet Spot: While Fitzpatrick wasn’t the main story of the weekend — and he still needs to learn how to close out a tournament when he has a lead — he has at least shown that he belongs.

For those unfamiliar, Alex Fitzpatrick is the brother of Matt Fitzpatrick, and he was in the Truist field in some ways because of his brother. The younger Fitzpatrick earned his PGA Tour card after winning the Zurich Classic with Matt as his partner. Winning a PGA Tour event earns a player their tour card and qualifies them for every signature event. Since Fitzpatrick won a team event, and didn’t technically win on his own individual merit, the story was quickly blown out of proportion, and some made it seem Matt gifted his hack brother a pity tour card and signature event status.

That narrative was always bogus, and Alex proved why this weekend.

Even before his win at the Zurich, Fitzpatrick had picked up a win on the DP World Tour and he was top-10 in the Race to Dubai standings. Had he simply maintained his position in the rankings, he would’ve earned a PGA Tour card at the end of this season.

He didn’t come away with a victory this weekend, but a solo top-5 finish proves he belongs on the PGA Tour and he wasn’t gifted a card by his older brother. Fitzpatrick still has a long way to go in his career — and who knows if he’ll ever win on tour, let alone approach his brother’s status, but for now he’s earned some respect. Alex Fitzpatrick is a PGA Tour player, full stop.

Jeeno Thitikul picked up her second win of the season on Sunday at the Mizuho Americas Open. After a stellar opening round 67, Thitikul showed no signs of slowing down, posting rounds of 69, 70 and 69 to close out her victory.

The win was far from assured over the final round on Sunday, despite what the margin of victory would suggest. Ruoning Yin stormed from four shots back to within one stroke of Thitikul’s lead after Yin rolled in five birdies on the front nine. Thitikul showed her grit though and finished with birdies on 16 and 18 to pull away and secure her victory.

Aside from being an impressive victory, this weekend serves as an important bounce back for Thitikul after failing to break par in her past two tournaments and missing the cut at her last event.

“It means a lot to me,” Thitikul said about her win. “I don’t feel great with my performance, with my game, at all. But had a call with my coach earlier on the practice round and then went everything out of my head, which is really helping.”

“Sometimes you don’t have to try to fix things to be perfect.”