Branden Grace wins emotional 2021 Puerto Rico Open

Branden Grace (Hanson K. Joseph, Wikimedia Commons)

Usually, when the World Golf Championship takes place, the other PGA Tour event held on the same weekend does not get much media attention. However, that was not the case this past weekend in Puerto Rico, where Branden Grace of Pretoria, South Africa, defeated Jhonattan Vegas of Maturin, Venezuela by a stroke to win the Puerto Rico Open.

Grace posted a four-round score of -19 to win his second career PGA Tournament. He previously won the 2016 Royal Bank of Canada Heritage (also known as the Heritage Classic) from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where he beat former world number one Luke Donald of Hemel Hempstead, England, and Russell Knox of Inverness, Scotland by two strokes.

However, Grace’s victory on Sunday on the Caribbean island, had significant personal meaning. That is because Grace’s father Peter died of coronavirus over a month ago according to the Daily Mail. 

Peter Grace had owned a shop and restaurant in the South African town of Knysna. The country of South Africa has been decimated by coronavirus. There have been 1,513,959 total cases of coronavirus in South Africa, with 50,077 deaths. There are also 32,546 active cases of coronavirus in South Africa, while 1, 431, 336 people in South Africa have recovered.

South Africa has also been the African country hit the hardest by coronavirus by a significant margin. South Africa has the 16th most cases in the world, while Egypt, which has had 183,010 cases, is second among African nations, and 66th among countries worldwide.

Grace meanwhile became the latest PGA golfer to eagle in the final round and win a golf tournament in 2021. He follows Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, and Daniel Berger.

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