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Billy Hurley III

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Billy Hurley III
Hurley aboard the USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93)
Personal information
Full nameWillard Jeremiah Hurley III
Born (1982-06-09) June 9, 1982 (age 42)
Leesburg, Virginia
Height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight170 lb (77 kg; 12 st)
Sporting nationality United States
ResidenceAnnapolis, Maryland
SpouseHeather Hurley
ChildrenMadison, Will, Jacob
Career
CollegeUnited States Naval Academy
Turned professional2006
Current tour(s)PGA Tour
Former tour(s)Web.com Tour
Professional wins3
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentCUT: 2017
PGA ChampionshipT22: 2016
U.S. OpenT48: 2014
The Open ChampionshipT64: 2014

Willard Jeremiah "Billy" Hurley III (born June 9, 1982) is an American professional golfer] who played on the PGA Tour.[1][2]

Early life

Hurley grew up in Leesburg, Virginia, the oldest of four children of Billy and Cheryl Hurley.[3] He attended Loudoun County High School.[4] During his senior year in 2000, he was one of 17 golfers named honorable mention All-Met (Washington, D.C. metro area)[5] He was named all-state in Virginia.[3]

Hurley is a 2004 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Quantitative Economics.[6] He also was named Academic All-American.[3]

He was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy in 2004, rising to the rank of Lieutenant and serving until July 2009.[7] After his graduation from the academy, he was assigned to the USS Gettysburg, a guided-missile cruiser based in Mayport, Florida, where he was a combat electronic division officer.[4] He then taught economics for two years at the Naval Academy. From 2007 to 2009, he served a tour of duty in the Persian Gulf aboard the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon.[8]

College and amateur career

As an amateur, Hurley was a member of the victorious American team in the 2005 Walker Cup, held at the Chicago Golf Club. The Walker Cup is a competition held biennially that matches the top American amateurs against the best of Great Britain and Ireland.[9][10] He was also captain of the 2004 Palmer Cup team, an annual competition named for Arnold Palmer that matches American collegiate golfers against European college/university players.[4]

Hurley won seven collegiate golf titles at Navy, was named 2004 Patriot League Player of the Year,[9] and earned the award for the top college golfer and sportsman (the Byron Nelson Award). He was ranked the sixth-best amateur in the world.[11]

Professional career

2011 season

On the 2011 Nationwide Tour, Hurley's best finish was second place at the Chiquita Classic while having four top-10 finishes.[12] He entered the 2011 Nationwide Tour Championship in the 25th money list position and his T18 position earned him his PGA Tour card.[13]

2012 season

Hurley played 27 events on the 2012 PGA Tour, with his best finish a tie for fourth at the AT&T National.[12] He finished 150th in the FedEx Cup, earning a $32,000 bonus.[14] However, Hurley finished 151st on the money list and therefore he missed conditional status on the 2013 PGA Tour by $165.[15]

2013 season

At 2012 Q School, Hurley finished tied for 73rd place. Since at Q School, the top 25 players and ties earn PGA Tour cards and the next 50 players earn Web.com Tour cards, Hurley earned a Web.com Tour card for the 2013 Web.com Tour season.[16] He made 15 cuts in 24 events on the Web.com Tour in 2013 with his best finish a playoff loss at the United Leasing Championship. He played in the Web.com Tour Finals and finished 26th to earn his PGA Tour card for 2014.

2014 season

Hurley began the 2013–14 season with a tie for ninth place at the October 2013 Frys.com Open in San Martin, California.[12]

On March 2, 2014 Hurley recorded the fourth top-10 of his PGA Tour career with a fifth-place finish at The Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, just one shot out of the four-man playoff won by Russell Henley.[17] He earned $240,000, moving him to 65th on the 2014 money list with $440,551.[18] After a stretch of several mediocre tournaments and missed cuts, on May 18 he finished T-16 in the HP Byron Nelson Championship, earning $100,050.[12] He continued his strong play with a T-30 to earn $37,200 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on May 25[12] followed by a T-37 to earn $25,420 at the Memorial Tournament on June 1.[12]

On the following day, June 2, Hurley qualified to play in his first-ever U.S. Open (and first major) as he birdied three of his last four holes to finish in the top four of the 36-hole Monday qualifying tournament held in Rockville, Maryland.[19][20] At the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, out of 156 golfers entered, Hurley was one of only 67 to make the cut and play through the weekend. He finished the tournament T-48.[12]

Hurley posted another top 10 on June 29, finishing T-8 at the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club to earn $188,500.[12]

On July 6, 2014, Hurley, on the strength of a second-round 63 and a third-round 67, took a two-shot lead into the final round of the Greenbrier Classic held at The Old White TPC course in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.[21] He shot a final-round 73 to finish T-4 and earn $227,036, which put him over the $1 million mark in 2014 earnings at $1,105,659.[22] The T-4 finish combined with his world ranking also qualified him to play in his second major, The Open Championship July 17–20 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. At The Open, he again made the cut in a major and finished the tournament T-64.[12]

Taking three weeks off following The Open Championship, Hurley missed the cut in his next two tournaments, then his 2014 season ended with a T-57 finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He finished the season with career-high winnings of $1,145,299 with 17 cuts made in 26 starts.[12]

2015 season

Hurley missed the cut by one shot in each of his first two tournaments of the 2014–15 season. In his third tournament, he held a two-stroke lead after 36 holes in the CIMB Classic after consecutive rounds of five-under-par.[23] He finished T-8 to win $189,000.[24] After missing four cuts in his first six events of calendar year 2015, he had his best tournament of the calendar year March 15 at the Valspar Championship, finishing T-17 and winning $77,206.[25]

After his strong finish at the Valspar Championship, Hurley struggled, missing the cut at four of his next five tournaments. In June he finished at T-18 in the FedEx St. Jude Classic and tallied his only other top-25 finish on August 9 at the Barracuda Championship.[26] For the 2015 season, through August 23, he had played in 28 events, making the cut in 14 and earning $591,450.[26]

Because Hurley did not finish the season ranked in the top 125 players (he was ranked 136th)[27] on the PGA Tour after the Wyndham Championship, in which he missed the cut, he lost his PGA Tour playing card for the 2015–16 season. He played in the Web.com Tour Finals but did not regain his PGA Tour card and started the 2015–16 season with conditional status.[26]

2016 season

Playing a combination of PGA Tour and Web.com Tour events, through 11 PGA Tour events he made five cuts and totaled $80,707 in winnings on that tour. His highest finish to that point was T-41; he missed the cut in the U.S. Open.[26] However, on June 26 he earned his first victory on the PGA Tour at the Quicken Loans National, his 105th PGA Tour event. He was 198th in the FedEx Cup and 607th in the world rankings and was playing in the tournament on a sponsor's exemption.[28] By winning the tournament, he qualified for the 2016 Open Championship; however, he skipped the event to attend his sister's wedding.[29]

He attained his best-ever showing in a major tournament on July 31, 2016 by finishing T-22 at the 2016 PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club.[12]

On September 5, 2016 he posted his second top-10 finish of the season with a T-8 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, earning $212,500.[12] Heading into the tournament he was ranked 77th in the FedEx Cup standings and needed a good showing to finish in the FedEx Cup standings' top 70 and continue on to the next tournament, which he attained, ending the tournament 51st in FedEx Cup points.[12]

For the season, Hurley ended up with one win and earnings of $1,770,400, good for 55th place.[12]

2017 season

After finishing T-51 in the CIMB Classic to begin the new season, Hurley fired a 13-under to finish T-15 in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas to earn $92,840.[12] During the January 2017 Hawaii swing of the PGA Tour, he finished 29th to win $64,000 in the SBS Tournament of Champions followed by a T-20 in the Sony Open in Hawaii, earning $62,571.[12] Playing in the Masters Tournament for the first time, he missed the cut by one shot. In The Players Championship, he finished T-41 to earn $36,750. On May 7, he got his first top-10 of the year with a T-8 at the Wells Fargo Championship to earn $210,000.[12]

Hurley struggled in the second half of the season; in his last seven tournaments, he missed the cut five times along with finishes of 63rd and 68th. He ended 146th on the PGA Tour money list.[12]

2018 season

Hurley posted a T-25 finish on October 29, 2017 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, winning $33,540, in what was his best finish of the season. In 27 events played during the 2017–18 season, he missed the cut 19 times. He ended the season ranked 201st in the FedEx Cup standings after a T-41 in the Wyndham Championship on August 19, his third-best finish after a T-34 at the Barbasol Championship on July 22.[2][12]

This was his final year for the tournament exemption gained from his win in the 2016 Quicken Loans Invitational. Hurley's finish meant he only had past champion status for the 2018–19 season.

Personal life

Hurley is active in several charities and religious organizations including: Birdies for the Brave, a military outreach initiative sponsored by the PGA Tour;[30] World Gospel Outreach, a children's camp in Honduras; Ark Children's House, an orphanage in Ecuador; and Adoption Advocates International, which operates an orphanage in Ethiopia (Layla House) where he adopted his son, Jacob.[6]

Hurley resides in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife Heather, sons Will and Jacob, and his daughter Madison.[9][31]

In 2017, Hurley hosted his inaugural charity golf event, Billy Hurley III and The Brave Golf Tournament, at the Naval Academy Golf Course in Annapolis. Proceeds from the event were to go to three beneficiaries: the Anchor Scholarship Foundation, which provides college tuition for family members of surface warfare personnel; to fund a junior golf scholarship administered by the Middle-Atlantic PGA (MAPGA); and to the Naval Academy Athletic Association and directed toward improvements at the Naval Academy Golf Course.[32]

Sponsors and equipment

Hurley's sponsors are Leidos, Solenis, Fairway & Greene apparel, Sovereign Insurance Group, the non-profit SEAL Legacy Foundation, Charter Financial Group, Secor Group, Dynasplint Systems and Valspar.[33] His equipment includes: driver, Taylor Made Jet Speed TP; 3-wood, TaylorMade SLDR TP 15; hybrid, Adams Golf A12 Tour; irons, Bridgestone Golf J40 Cavity Back 4-PW; wedges, Cleveland Golf 588 Forged (52, 56, 60); putter, Odyssey White Hot #5; balls, Bridgestone Golf Tour B330-S; gloves, Bridgestone Golf Tour Glove; and shoes, Adidas Tour 360.[34]

Professional wins (3)

PGA Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin
of victory		 Runner-up
1 Jun 26, 2016 Quicken Loans National 66-65-67-69=267 −17 3 strokes Fiji Vijay Singh

Other professional wins (2)

Results in major championships

Tournament 2014 2015 2016 2017
Masters Tournament CUT
U.S. Open T48 CUT CUT
The Open Championship T64
PGA Championship T22
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

See also

References

  1. ^ Broughton, David (October 8, 2013). "Naval Academy grad Hurley excited for return to PGA Tour". Capital Gazette.
  2. ^ a b Ryan, Shane (August 19, 2018). "The hidden, merciless drama of the Wyndham Championship". Golf Digest.
  3. ^ a b c Balicki, Ron (September 28, 2004). "2004: A golfer and a gentleman". Golfweek.
  4. ^ a b c Orton, Kathy (June 1, 2011). "Naval Academy graduate Hurley chases PGA Tour dream". The Washington Post.
  5. ^ "Golf: All-Met – Spring 2000". The Washington Post. 2000.
  6. ^ a b "PGA Tour profile – Billy Hurley III". PGA Tour. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  7. ^ "Former Navy lieutenant Billy Hurley III earns PGA Tour card". Golfweek. October 30, 2011.
  8. ^ Strege, John (January 10, 2014). "Billy Hurley III visits former ship at Pearl Harbor". Golf Digest.
  9. ^ a b c "About Billy". Billy Hurley III official website.
  10. ^ Rodgers, Dan (July 20, 2011). "Former Navy golfer Billy Hurley III breaking through on Nationwide Tour". The Baltimore Sun.
  11. ^ "Sponsors Exemption Granted to Former Navy Lieutenant Bill Hurley". Archived from the original on November 7, 2011.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "PGA Tour results – Billy Hurley III". PGA Tour. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  13. ^ Milne, Doug (October 30, 2011). "Duke claims Nationwide Tour Championship title". PGA Tour.
  14. ^ "FedExCup Bonus Money – 2012". PGA Tour. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  15. ^ Rude, Jeff (November 15, 2012). "Golfweek: PGA Tour player of the year race no contest". USA Today.
  16. ^ "eGolf Tour Players Secure Eight PGA Tour Cards for 2013; Twenty-Two Players Earn Full Web.com Tour Status". Golf Club Business. December 4, 2012.
  17. ^ Gray, Will (March 2, 2014). "Results finally show for Hurley with top-10 finish". Golf Channel.
  18. ^ Lukat, Carl (March 5, 2014). "Hurley goes low at Honda Classic". Loudoun Times.
  19. ^ "Billy Hurley III qualifies for U.S. Open; former Navy golfer headed to Pinehurst". The Washington Times. June 2, 2014.
  20. ^ Svrluga, Barry (June 2, 2014). "At Woodmont Country Club, players from different backgrounds qualify for U.S. Open". The Washington Post.
  21. ^ "Billy Hurley keeps lead at Greenbrier". ESPN. Associated Press. July 5, 2014.
  22. ^ "PGA Tour Leaderboard – The Greenbrier Classic". Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  23. ^ "Ryan Moore, Kevin Na tied for lead". ESPN. Associated Press. November 1, 2014.
  24. ^ "CIMB Classic – Leaderboard". ESPN.
  25. ^ "Valspar Championship – Leaderboard". ESPN.
  26. ^ a b c d "Billy Hurley III – Season". PGA Tor. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  27. ^ "Billy Hurley III – Statistics". PGA Tor. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  28. ^ Martin, Sean (June 27, 2016). "Hurley's victory might be story of year in golf". PGA Tour.
  29. ^ "Hurley chooses his sister over The Open Championship". PGA Tour. June 28, 2016.
  30. ^ "About Us". Birdies for the Brave.
  31. ^ McCabe, Jim (February 8, 2013). "Hurley loses sponsor exemption after arrival". Golfweek.
  32. ^ http://www.capitalgazette.com/sports/navy_sports/ph-ac-cs-billy-hurley-golf-tourney-0729-20170728-story.html
  33. ^ "Sponsors". www.billyhurley3.com.
  34. ^ "Equipment". www.billyhurley3.com.
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