Nicholas Alan Watney (born April 25, 1981) is an American professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er who plays on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. The highlight of Watney's career is his victory at the 2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship. In July 2011, Watney won the

AT&T National The National, originally titled for sponsorship reasons as the AT&T National and later as the Quicken Loans National, was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 2007 to 2018. It was hosted by Tiger Woods and benefited the Tiger Woods ...

and broke into the top ten of the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

for the first time.

Early career

Watney was born in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. He played his high school golf at Davis Senior High School in

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...

. He played collegiate golf under his uncle Mike Watney at

Fresno State University California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bache ...

, where he was a three-time

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

golfer. Mike did not offer his nephew a scholarship to Fresno State; Nick had to walk on to the team. He turned professional in 2003, following in the footsteps of his uncle, who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s.

Professional career

In 2003, Watney's first professional victory came at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial on the

Canadian Tour PGA Tour Canada, commonly referred to as the Canadian Tour, is a men's professional golf tour headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The United States based PGA Tour took over operation of the tour on November 1, 2012, at which time it was renamed PG ...

. The next year he played on the Nationwide Tour, and after winning the season-ending

Nationwide Tour Championship The Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance is the year-end golf tournament of the Korn Ferry Tour. It has been played at a variety of courses; starting in 2019 it will be played at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburg ...

, Watney earned qualification for the PGA Tour. In 2007, Watney won his first PGA Tour title at the

Zurich Classic of New Orleans The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is a professional golf tournament in Louisiana on the PGA Tour, currently held at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, a suburb southwest of New Orleans. Beginning in 1938 and held annually since 1958, it is commonly play ...

. This victory took Watney into the top 100 of the

for the first time. He got his second tour win at the 2009

Buick Invitational Buick () is a division (business), division of the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American Brand, marques of automobiles, and w ...

Torrey Pines Golf Course Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility on the west coast of the United States, owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla, just south ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, with a one-stroke victory over John Rollins, taking him to his highest position yet in the World Golf Rankings, number 76. In the

2010 PGA Championship The 2010 PGA Championship was the 92nd PGA Championship, played August 12–15 at the Straits Course of the Whistling Straits complex in Haven, Wisconsin (postal address Kohler). Martin Kaymer won his first major championship in a three-hole ...

Whistling Straits Whistling Straits is one of two 36-hole links (golf), links-style golf courses associated with Destination Kohler, a luxury golf resort owned and operated by the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin. The other course is Blackwolf Run, located in ...

, Watney had a three-shot lead going into the final round. However, he shot a final round of 81, which dropped him back to a tie for 18th place. Watney won the biggest tournament of his career to date and his first

World Golf Championship The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four ...

at the

WGC-Cadillac Championship The WGC Championship was a professional golf tournament that was held between 1999 and 2021. It was one of the three or four annual World Golf Championships until the number of WGC events was reduced to two following the 2021 season. Under sp ...

at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in March 2011. He entered the final round trailing by two strokes, but shot a final round 67, including a run of four birdies in five holes in the middle of the round, and finished with a birdie at the notoriously difficult 18th, to record a two-stroke victory over compatriot

Dustin Johnson Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record scor ...

. Watney admitted in an interview afterwards that he had dwelt on finishing 2nd at Doral, in the same tournament two years before, when his putt on the 18th finished a couple of inches short of the hole. After the victory, Watney moved up to number 15 in the World Golf Rankings. In July, Watney won for the second time in 2011 at the

by beating

K. J. Choi Choi Kyung-Ju ( ko, 최경주; born 19 May 1970), commonly known as K. J. Choi, is a South Korean professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Since turning pro in 1994, he has won more than twenty p ...

by two strokes. The victory owed much to his third-round score when he set a course record 62 around

Aronimink Golf Club Aronimink Golf Club is a private country club in the eastern United States, located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, a suburb west of Philadelphia. Its championship layout is consistently rated among the nation's top golf courses. Aronimink is curr ...

, beating the previous record set coincidentally on the same day, which

Chris Kirk Christopher Brandon Kirk (born May 8, 1985) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. He won four tournaments on the PGA Tour between 2011 and 2015. He finished second in the 2014 FedEx Cup Playoffs and re ...

and Steve Marino held briefly with joint 63s. Watney shot a 27 on the back nine, which tied the second lowest nine-hole score ever recorded on the

. The record is held by

Corey Pavin Corey Allen Pavin (born November 16, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and currently on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 150 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1986 and 1997 ...

who shot 26 at the

U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee The Greater Milwaukee Open was a regular golf tournament in Wisconsin on the PGA Tour. For 42 years, it was played annually in the Milwaukee area, the final sixteen editions in the north suburb of Brown Deer at the Brown Deer Park Golf Course. ...

in 2006. During the final round Watney did not record a single bogey, making a number of crucial par saving putts to hold off the challenge of Choi and capture his fourth PGA Tour title. This win took Watney to the top of the FedEx Cup standings, ahead of Choi, and into the top ten of the

for the first time in his career. He finished the 2011 season ranked third on the PGA Tour money list. During the 2011 President's Cup, he defeated

on the final day to give the United States team a distinct advantage over the International Team coached by

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...

. The four-day match play tournament was played in Melbourne, Australia, and it was won by the American team 19–15. During the first round of the 2012 U.S. Open at the

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...

, Watney made a

double eagle A double eagle is a gold coin of the United States with a denomination of $20. (Its gold content of 0.9675 troy oz (30.0926 grams) was worth $20 at the 1849 official price of $20.67/oz.) The coins are 34 mm x 2 mm and are made from ...

on the par-five 17th hole to become only the third man to record a double eagle in U.S. Open history, the others being

Chen Tze-chung Chen Tze-chung (; born 24 June 1958) is a Taiwanese professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour, the Japan Golf Tour, the Asian Golf Circuit, the Asian Tour and the European Tour. In the U.S., he is often referred to as T.C. Chen. His older ...

in 1985 at Oakland Hills and

Shaun Micheel Shaun Carl Micheel (born January 5, 1969) is an American professional golfer who is best known for his surprise victory at the 2003 PGA Championship. Career Micheel was born in Orlando, Florida. He attended Christian Brothers High School in Me ...

in 2010 at Pebble Beach. In August 2012, Watney won the first of the four FedEx Cup playoff events,

The Barclays The FedEx St. Jude Championship, founded as the Westchester Classic in 1967, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Since 2007, it has been played as the first tournament of the playoff system for the FedEx Cup, with the field limi ...

, at

Bethpage Black The Bethpage Black Course is a public golf course at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, New York. The course was designed by Joseph H. Burbeck and was assited by noted golf architect A. W. Tillinghast. It is the most difficult of Bethpage's f ...

in New York. He came from two behind in the final round to win by three strokes over

Brandt Snedeker Brandt Newell Snedeker (born December 8, 1980) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He won the 2012 FedEx Cup with a victory in the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. After this victory, he moved into ...

to take the outright lead in the FedEx Cup standings. After Rory McIlroy won the second playoff event, Watney dropped to second in the standings and wound up in fourth place at the conclusion of the FedEx Cup playoffs. For the season, Watney finished in 22nd on the PGA Tour's money list. In October 2012, after the PGA Tour season ended, Watney won the Malaysian

CIMB Classic The CIMB Classic was a professional golf tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour. Played in the fall, the event debuted in 2010 and moved to the West Course of the TPC Kuala Lumpur in 2013; the first ...

, an event on the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wor ...

(co-sponsored by the

), with a final round, course-record 61. In 2013, Watney finished second at the BMW Championship, fourth at the Farmers Insurance Open, ninth at

and tenth at the

Shriners Hospitals for Children Open The Shriners Children's Open is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Nevada. Founded in 1983, it is the fourth event of the Tour's 2019–20 wrap-around season and is played annually in October in Las Vegas. It is currently held at the TPC Summ ...

and the

Wells Fargo Championship The Wells Fargo Championship is a professional golf tournament in North Carolina on the PGA Tour. Held in early May at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located i ...

. For the season, Watney finished 24th on the PGA Tour's money list. In 2014, Watney finished fifth at the

Wyndham Championship The Wyndham Championship is a professional golf tournament in North Carolina on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in Greensboro and was originally the Greater Greensboro Open. History Founded in 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open, it was usua ...

and eighth at the

Barracuda Championship A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...

. With only two top-10s and five top-25s, Watney dropped to 106th on the PGA Tour's money list. In 2015, Watney finished second at the

AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held annually at Pebble Beach, California, near Carmel. The tournament is usually held during the month of February on three different courses, currently Pebble Be ...

, seventh at the Farmers Insurance Open and tenth at the

AT&T Byron Nelson The AT&T Byron Nelson is a golf tournament in Texas on the PGA Tour, currently hosted by TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, northeast of Dallas. Held in May, it is one of two PGA Tour stops in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex – which until the 2020 ...

. With three top-10s and eight top-25s, Watney rose to 55th on the PGA Tour's money list. Watney only played in five events the following season due to a herniated disc in his lower back. He played the 2016–17 season on a Major Medical Extension. In 2018, Watney tied for second at the Wells Fargo Championship. Watney finished 88th on the PGA Tour's money list and finished 74th on the final FedEx Cup standings. He made 21 of 26 cuts. On June 19, 2020, while playing in the

RBC Heritage The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia. T ...

in Hilton Head, Watney became the first PGA Tour player to test positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Personal life

Watney's cousin is journalist

Heidi Watney Heidi Watney (born May 19, 1981) is an American sportscaster who serves as a reporter for Apple TV+. A graduate of the University of San Diego, her past sportscasting experience includes roles at MLB Network, New England Sports Network in Bos ...

Professional wins (9)

PGA Tour wins (5)

Asian Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

, but unofficial money event.

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

Canadian Tour wins (1)

Other wins (1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 5 (2010 Masters – 2011 Masters) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Canceled after the first round due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

World Golf Championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
WD = withdrew
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur *

Palmer Cup The Arnold Palmer Cup is an annual team golf competition for college/university golfers. From 2018 it has been contested between a United States team and an International team representing the rest of the world. The teams consist of 12 men and 12 ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

(winners) Professional *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

(winners) *

Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge was an unofficial golf event held in November at the Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada. The tournament was a unique stroke play event, and, as the name suggests, pitted three teams, with three members per team, ...

(representing PGA Tour): 2012 (winners)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watney, Nick American male golfers Fresno State Bulldogs men's golfers PGA Tour golfers Korn Ferry Tour graduates Golfers from Sacramento, California Golfers from Nevada People from Davis, California Sportspeople from Fresno, California People from Henderson, Nevada Davis Senior High School (California) alumni 1981 births Living people