Team USA completes comeback to win the 2026 Spirit International
After a slow start at The Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship, the University of Florida star saved his best for last, canning a 22-foot birdie putt at Whispering Pines Golf Club on the final hole for a one-stroke victory over Team Australia on Saturday.
Key points
- Turner led all golfers with 22 points to win the Men’s Division by five over Team Italy’s Biagio Gagliardi (Clemson University) and Team Colombia’s Payan (New Mexico State University).
- Team USA, which consisted of Turner, Ethan Fang, Anna Davis and Farah O’Kefe, set a tournament scoring record of 45 under in Trinity, Texas, in the three-day event.
- Teams compete over 54 holes of four-ball stroke play in three concurrent competitions: international team, men’s team and women’s team.
I knew if I missed mine that Fanger was going to roll it right in, so I knew we were in a good spot.” Team USA, captained by former Spirit participant and PGA Tour player Sam Saunders, improved every day en route to its victory.
Additional details
- Turner and teammate Fang of Oklahoma State won the Men’s Division with a combined record score of 30 under, seven strokes better than Team Colombia (Mateo Payan/Tomas Restrepo) and Team Australia (Harry Takis/Chun Ta-Wa).
- All I had to do was run around and tell them, ‘Yeah, I like it,’ and they just kept hitting good shots.” Team Canada, on the strength of Vanessa Borovilos’ (Texas A&M University) seven birdies on Saturday, captured the Women’s Division at -22.
- Once you see a couple of putts falling, you start getting more aggressive, more confident going forward and luckily, we were able to do that today.” Team Australia made a great run at the overall championship but came up just short.
- Team Australia’s women’s squad, Amelia Harris (University of South Carolina) and Raegan Denton (Louisiana State University), finished tied for second in the Women’s Division with Team France’s Valentine Delon (Virginia Tech University) and Sara Brentcheneff (University of Arkansas) at -21.
- Jack Turner knew he needed to make birdie at the last for Team USA.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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