Popular Scot comes from six back to claim Dubai Duty Free Irish Open
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (July 10, 2018) – Scotland’s Russell Knox, one of the newest members of the Secret Golf team, holed consecutive and almost identical 40-foot birdie putts on the final hole to complete a six-stroke comebacke and win the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open on Sunday.
First, Knox needed to hole the first long putt on Ballyliffin’s 18th hole in regulation to get to 14-under and have a chance at a playoff with New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and he did just that. Following Knox’s heroics, Fox missed a nine-foot birdie putt to win the event outright on the final hole of regulation, setting up the playoff situation. Despite being outdriven on the first extra hole by almost 70 yards, Knox hit his approach shot on the par-4 18th to almost the same exact spot on the green where he had just made birdie from 20 minutes earlier. The 33-year-old stepped up and holed the curling left-to-right breaking putt to a thunderous ovation. When Fox lipped out his putt from inside 15 feet, Knox was the winner of his second European Tour title.
“All the practice, all the misses, all the bad memories, are taken care of with putts like that,” he said. “I remember standing over it and thought just don’t aim, just hit the putt and see what happens and I flushed the putt. Make two of them from almost the same distance is a bit of a bonus but it’s unbe-lievable.”
Knox’s win in Ireland came on the heels of a second place finish at the HNA Open de France the week prior and vaulted him back into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings. His victory at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open was his sixth as a professional and was his first since the 2016 Travel-ers Championship on the PGA TOUR almost two years ago.
The Knox victory was also the fifth this year for members of Team Secret Golf. In addition to a pair of wins from Patton Kizzire (2017 OHL Mayakoba Classic, 2018 Sony Open in Hawaii), Andrew Land-ry (Valero Texas Open) and Brittany Lincicome (Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic) registered victo-ries during the current season.
Golf fans will want to look for Knox’ private Player Channel, coming soon on Secretgolf.com. Secret-Golf.com features some of the game’s best personalities, each giving their unique perspective on golf in their own style.
“Russell has been a great addition to our Secret Golf team and he is our first European Tour/PGA Tour player. Scots are intense golf fans and I think his Player Channel will help grow our base in Europe. Let’s now get him on the European Ryder Cup team,” said Steve Elkington, the co-founder of Secret Golf.
About Secret Golf
Secret Golf is one of the world’s fastest-growing digital golf media companies and is the industry leader in golf instruction by Tour professionals. Secret Golf is the first company of its kind, owned by Tour professionals who passionately believe in sharing deep insights into the game of golf. Secret Golf is the first to have personalized online video instruction from Tour professionals who play or have played the game at the highest level.
In addition to Elkington, a winner of 10 PGA TOUR events, including the 1995 PGA Championship and a pair of PLAYERS Championships, Secret Golf’s growing team from the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour includes World Golf Hall of Fame member Jackie Burke, PGA Champion Jason Duf-ner, Bronson Burgoon, Jason Gore, Brian Harman, Patton Kizzire, Russell Knox, Colt Knost, Jason Kokrak, Andrew Landry, Marc Leishman, Lee McCoy, Ryan Palmer, Pat Perez, Martin Piller, Chris Stroud and Ethan Tracy. Team Secret Golf’s LPGA staff features two-time LPGA Tour Player of the Year Stacy Lewis, U.S. Open winner Brittany Lang, two-time ANA Inspiration winner Brittany Lincicome, Sandra Gal, Gaby Lopez and Gerina Piller. Former Tour player turned instructor Bradley Hughes of Australia rounds out the group of professionals
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