A Mexican Tour legend nicknamed ‘The Shrimp’ is coming to the PGA Tour

It’s often good to look beyond the biggest and richest tour in the world for the best moments on any given golf weekend. This Sunday was another example of that. The two-man team format at the Zurich Classic is a welcome change of pace and styles. And while the walk-up music was overhyped and received an outsized slice of the coverage, it was an enjoyable enough week of golf at TPC Louisiana. But Sunday finished with two stories that resonated much more with me than the team of Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy winning on the biggest Tour.

It’s likely you’ve never heard of and don’t know Mexico’s José de Jesús Rodríguez, nicknamed “Camarón” or “The Shimp” since he was a little boy. Rodriguez is no longer a little boy and he’s definitely not young by golf standards, but he picked up his first win in the United States at age 37 on Sunday. Camarón won the Web.com Tour’s United Leasing and Finance Championship, played at one of the hardest venues on any professional tour, Victoria National in Indiana.

The Shrimp is a bit of a legend on the Mexican Tour, where he’s won 13 times and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, where he’s the all-time money leader. His 2017 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica season was good enough to earn order of merit honors on that Tour and give him fully exempt status on the Web.com Tour, the second highest Tour in North America and the final step to a PGA Tour card.

He’s got a giant shrimp on the side of his bag. His coach is his brother, Rosendo. And he talks to his ball in a much more creative and entertaining way than just about any other pro you will encounter. Please watch and enjoy:

Rodriguez has been solid for much of the season on the Web, which on many weeks has fields deep enough to rival the European Tour as the second-most competitive in the world. The win at Victoria National now means the Shrimp has likely locked up a PGA Tour card for next season. The top 25 on the regular season money list get a PGA Tour card, and Rodriguez is now No. 3 on that list. On his official Web.com Tour profile, his personal section reads “His biggest dream is to become a member of the PGA TOUR.” So he was emotional after the win.

A couple months ago at the Honda Classic, I wrote about how cool it was to see Tiger Woods paired with Sam Burns on a Sunday on the PGA Tour. Burns is a stud amateur, but he’s accomplished very little at the pro level, either on the Web Tour or the PGA Tour. But in just his first few months as a pro, there he was playing alongside arguably the greatest of all time, a playing partner with as accomplished a resume as you will find in the game. That tee time is what makes golf, even at the very highest level, so different. They were both in contention and playing with each other despite having so little in common and sitting in such drastically different spots in their lives and careers.

Rodriguez’s story is amazing in its own right, and the win at 37 was a special moment. But what I found so fascinating and cool about it was the final pairing and player he started the day chasing.

At 5-under, Maverick McNealy was the 54-hole leader and one shot clear of Rodriguez. McNealy is 22 and was the No. 1 amateur in the world for a portion of 2017. He was the college player of the year in 2015 and won the prestigious McCormack medal in 2016 as the top ranked amateur, which yielded invites to both the U.S. Open and British Open. Rodriguez has never played in a major. McNealy is 15 years younger, went to Stanford, and comes with the prestige of once being the top amateur prospect in the sport. He’s got equipment contracts and apparel contracts and years of on-course success coming his way. Oh, and his dad is Scott McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems and a billionaire. Maverick doesn’t have to play pro golf and contemplated going into another career despite his amateur bona fides.

I promise I am not trying to force a narrative here other than to say it was extremely cool to have two players of such divergent backgrounds, pedigrees, ages, and likely futures playing together in the final pairing of the final round of an event that could have dramatically different meanings to their careers. This doesn’t have to be a simple Manichean narrative — McNealy is not the bad guy and Rodriguez is not the hero. From all accounts, McNealy is an extremely good dude. But Rodriguez was the underdog and this was just a reminder of how cool golf can be putting together these kind of pairings and players with varied ages and accomplishments.

So the Shrimp is an awesome character, his win is an awesome story, and he’s definitely one you should get behind as he pushes his way to the highest Tour in golf. But the pairing with, and beating of McNealy, was what struck me more than anything on Sunday.

The moment getting the most run on Monday morning is the one that deserves it. Lydia Ko hit what could be the shot of the year on any tour at any level on Sunday night, when she stuffed it to three-feet from 235 yards out in the fairway. This came after she nearly holed out a chip shot to win it in regulation. You’ve hopefully seen the shot already but here it is again because it’s worth watching many times.

Ko cleaned it up for eagle and became the youngest ever on any tour to get to 15 wins. Ko possesses GOAT talent and a resume, already at 21, that’s lived up to and exceeded the hype. But this was her first win in almost two years after constant personnel changes and upheaval around her (detailed in a wonderful profile here). If we’re about to get Ko back in form, add it to the pile of reasons why this 2018 season has been and is going to be incredible. Even if she does nothing more this year, we’ve still got that approach shot that will run all season and in every end-of-year highlight package.

After three weeks off, Woods is back for the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte this week. That means all eyes will be back on the PGA Tour, the best and richest tour in the world. But this Sunday was the latest reminder to always look beyond it and that there’s great golf and players to root for across all of these tours.