PGA Tour Golfer Wins Tournament a Week After Coming Under Fire for 'Blue Lives Matter' Bracelet
Some athletes have a lot to say when they are engulfed in a controversy.
Not Richy Werenski, who last week was only famous for wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” bracelet at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities course in Blaine, Minnesota.
While the news media’s talking heads and social media’s clicking fingers reviled him ever since they discovered the bracelet, Werenski just did what he does — play golf.
Do you guys think wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” bracelet…
in the final group of a PGA Tour event…
in the Twin Cities…
could be viewed as kind of tone deaf or no? https://t.co/c8tFOwTKvi— D.J. Piehowski (@DJPie) July 26, 2020
As a result, Werenski — thanks to a strong finish — won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course in Truckee, California. It was his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Hard to describe this feeling right now!! Years of hard work and trusting the process ? @CudaChamp pic.twitter.com/rBN9mQy0uw
— Richy Werenski (@werenskir) August 3, 2020
The championship is an unusual PGA Tour event. It used a modified Stableford scoring system that assigned points based upon how well, or how poorly, a player does. For example, Werenski, 28, received five points for the eagle on the 16th hole that helped propel him to his win.
“It’s huge. I’ve been playing well for I feel like the last couple of months, but to get a win, I mean, that’s huge. I got a couple seconds and everything, so it just helps my confidence a lot. Now I know I’m good enough, and now we’re going to go make a good move for the FedExCup Playoffs,” Werenski said, according to the PGA’s website.
“I knew I needed a big day and then I started off with a bogey, which wasn’t good,” Werenski told the website. “Just wasn’t in a great rhythm early on in the round, but did a good job of just kind of snapping out of it, stopped trying on every shot, stick with my game plan and just try and make as many birdies as we could.”
He said that until his 16th-hole eagle, he had not been thinking about winning.
“When it went in, I wasn’t really thinking about where I was in relation to the leader until then,” Werenski said. “But when you start kind of doing the math, you’re like, ‘I’ve got three holes left, make a couple birdies and see what we can do.’ It was pretty cool.”
But nothing was over until the 18th hole, where he nailed a 15-foot putt.
“There was a lot going on, but I really just tried to stay in my pre-shot routine, focus on that as hard as I could and just fall in love with the speed of that putt and just kind of go through the motions,” Werenski told the PGA website. “I did a pretty good job of that.”
Last week the “woke” mob tried to crucify Richy Werenski for wearing a BLUE LIVES MATTER bracelet at a golf tournament in Minnesota.
This week he WON his first #PGA golf tournament!!
I love it when good things happen to good people! ❤️⛳️?? pic.twitter.com/TGK9JZsUMk
— Bradley Scott ??? (@Hoosiers1986) August 3, 2020
Werenski has made a habit of avoiding questions about the “Blue Lives Matter” bracelet.
His brother, Michael, however, has filled in the background, saying Werenski “comes from a family where his grandparents and cousins have been serving,” according to Golf Digest.
Michael Werenski said his brother has worn the “Blue Lives Matter” bracelet for several years, and was adamant that “no assumption should have been made” about its relation to the death of George Floyd or current Black Lives Matter protests.
“I understand how divisive the movements are, and I know I’m biased,” Michael Werenski told Golf Digest. “But Richy is one of the best, calmest guys on tour, and it’s not fun to see him get so much hate for wearing a bracelet to support what his grandparents and cousins do.”
The Barracuda win followed a tie for third place at the 3M Tournament.
The Barracuda field did not include many of golf’s top players, who were competing in the World Golf Championship FedEx- St. Jude Invitational.
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