Abraham Ancer
Personal information
NicknameHonest Abe,[1] El Turco
Born (1991-02-27) 27 February 1991 (age 33)
McAllen, Texas, U.S.
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight155 lb (70 kg; 11.1 st)
Sporting nationality Mexico
ResidenceSan Antonio, Texas
Career
CollegeOdessa College
University of Oklahoma
Turned professional2013
Current tour(s)LIV Golf
Former tour(s)PGA Tour
European Tour
Web.com Tour
Professional wins6
Highest ranking11 (8 August 2021)[2]
(as of 17 March 2024)
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour1
European Tour1
Asian Tour1
PGA Tour of Australasia1
Korn Ferry Tour1
LIV Golf1
Other1
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT13: 2020
PGA ChampionshipT8: 2021
U.S. OpenT49: 2019
The Open ChampionshipT11: 2022
Medal record
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2023 Santiago Individual

Abraham Ancer (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈβɾan ˈanseɾ];[check surname stress] born 27 February 1991) is a Mexican-American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and is currently playing on the LIV Golf tour. He won the 2018 Emirates Australian Open and the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational for his first PGA Tour career victory.

Amateur career

Ancer was born in McAllen, Texas; raised partially in Reynosa, Mexico; and has dual American and Mexican citizenship.[3] He attended Sharyland High School in Mission, Texas. He played college golf at Odessa College and the University of Oklahoma, from which he graduated in 2013 with a degree in General Studies.[3][4]

During his one year at Odessa, Ancer was a first-team All-American and finished in a tie for second in the Junior College National Golf Championship. At Oklahoma, he saw his most success during his first year, winning twice while having the sixth-lowest scoring average in Oklahoma history of 72.03. During his entire career, he ended up second in all-time scoring average.[4]

Professional career

Ancer turned professional in 2013. In December 2014, he tied for 35th place at the Web.com Tour Qualifying School final stage.[5] He played on the Web.com Tour in 2015, where he finished runner-up at the Brasil Champions in March and won the Nova Scotia Open in July.[6]

He finished 11th in the regular season money list, which earned him a PGA Tour card for the 2016 season.[7] In his rookie year, Ancer did not perform consistently, with a best finish of T-18 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. He finished 190th in FedEx Cup points and couldn't maintain his card for the 2017 season, which sent him back to the Web.com Tour.[3][8]

During the 2017 Web.com Tour, Ancer carded five top-5 finishes, including three runner-up finishes, which allowed him to secure his PGA Tour card for the 2018 season by finishing in 3rd place on the regular-season money list.[3][9]

During the 2018 season, Ancer finished 9th at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, 8th at the Houston Open, 4th at the Quicken Loans National, 5th at the RBC Canadian Open, and 7th at the Dell Technologies Championship. The Quicken Loans National was part of the Open Qualifying Series and his high finish gave him an entry to the 2018 Open Championship, his first major championship, where he had rounds of 71 and 78 and missed the cut. In the PGA Tour season Ancer earned US$1.7 million and finished 60th in the FedEx Cup.

Ancer had a good start to the 2018–19 season with top-5 finishes in the CIMB Classic and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, results that lifted him into the world top-100 for the first time. He followed this up with a 5-stroke victory in the Australian Open, a week before representing Mexico in the World Cup of Golf. His Australian Open win gave him an entry to the 2019 Open Championship. Ancer finished second in the Northern Trust in August 2019 and ended the year by tying for 21st at the Tour Championship. This earned him $478,000 in FedEx Cup bonus money.

Ancer's strong play in 2019 qualified him for the 2019 Presidents Cup International team. The event was held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in December 2019. The U.S. team defeated the Internationals 16–14. Ancer went 3–1–1. His lone loss came in the Sunday singles, 3 & 2 against U.S. playing-captain Tiger Woods. Ancer had told media prior to the event that he wanted to play Woods in singles. Woods said afterward "Abe wanted it, he got it."[10]

At the 2020 RBC Heritage, Ancer finished runner-up shooting −21, earning him $773,900. Ancer led the tournament in Driving Accuracy (82.1%) and Greens In Regulation (90.3%).[11]

In May 2021, Ancer finished second at the Wells Fargo Championship. One shot behind Rory McIlroy.[12] In late July/early August he played in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finishing tied for 14th place with Norway's Viktor Hovland after scoring 12-under-par for the four rounds of the Men's Tournament.[13] The following week he obtained his first career victory in a PGA Tour event after winning the 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational after two sudden-death playoff holes against Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns.[14] With the win, Ancer became the fourth Mexican player to win on the PGA Tour and the first to win on the European Tour.

Ancer joined LIV Golf in June 2022 following the U.S. Open, and was subsequently suspended from the PGA Tour.[15] Ancer has yet to win individually on the tour, but did win the team trophy in Bangkok.[16]

In February 2023, Ancer won the PIF Saudi International on the Asian Tour. He shot a final-round 68 to win by two shots ahead of Cameron Young and claim a wire-to-wire victory.[17]

Amateur wins

Source:[18]

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (1)

Legend
World Golf Championships (1)
Other PGA Tour (0)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 8 Aug 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational 67-62-67-68=264 −16 Playoff United States Sam Burns, Japan Hideki Matsuyama

PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational United States Sam Burns, Japan Hideki Matsuyama Won with birdie on second extra hole

European Tour wins (1)

Legend
World Golf Championships (1)
Other European Tour (0)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 8 Aug 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational 67-62-67-68=264 −16 Playoff United States Sam Burns, Japan Hideki Matsuyama

European Tour playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational United States Sam Burns, Japan Hideki Matsuyama Won with birdie on second extra hole

Asian Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 5 Feb 2023 PIF Saudi International 63-66-64-68=261 −19 2 strokes United States Cameron Young

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)

Legend
Flagship events (1)
Other PGA Tour of Australasia (0)
No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 18 Nov 2018 Emirates Australian Open 69-69-65-69=272 −16 5 strokes Australia Dimitrios Papadatos

Web.com Tour wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runner-up
1 5 Jul 2015 Nova Scotia Open 69-70-64-68=271 −13 Playoff United States Bronson Burgoon

Web.com Tour playoff record (1–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2015 Nova Scotia Open United States Bronson Burgoon Won with birdie on first extra hole
2 2017 Nashville Golf Open United States Lanto Griffin Lost to birdie on first extra hole

LIV Golf League wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score To par Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 10 Mar 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong 63-62-72=197 −13 Playoff England Paul Casey, Australia Cameron Smith

LIV Golf League playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponents Result
1 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong England Paul Casey, Australia Cameron Smith Won with birdie on first extra hole

Other wins (1)

No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner-up
1 5 Nov 2023 Pan American Games −21 (68-67-65-67=267) 1 stroke Colombia Sebastián Muñoz

Results in major championships

Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020.

Tournament 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Masters Tournament T13 T26 CUT T39
PGA Championship T16 T43 T8 T9 CUT
U.S. Open T49 T56 CUT T54
The Open Championship CUT CUT NT T59 T11 T49
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 3
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 2 3 5 4
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 3
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 3
Totals 0 0 0 0 2 5 18 13

Results in The Players Championship

Tournament 2019 2020 2021 2022
The Players Championship T12 C T22 T33

"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Cancelled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic

World Golf Championships

Wins (1)

Year Championship 54 holes Winning score Margin Runners-up
2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational 4-shot deficit −16 (67-62-67-68=264) Playoff United States Sam Burns, Japan Hideki Matsuyama

Results timeline

Tournament 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Championship T52 T39 T12 T18
Match Play T17 NT1 T18 QF
Invitational T15 1
Champions T4 NT1 NT1 NT1

1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = no tournament
"T" = tied
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.

Team appearances

See also

References

  1. ^ "Rory McIlroy called Keith Mitchell's shot, Abraham Ancer slays the biggest bird and Vegas is the new Palm Springs". Chronicles Golf. 16 October 2021.
  2. ^ "Week 32 2021 Ending 8 Aug 2021" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d "Abraham Ancer Profile". PGA Tour. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Abraham Ancer biodata". Oklahoma Sooners. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  5. ^ "Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament - 2017 Leaderboard". PGA Tour.
  6. ^ "Abraham Ancer wins Nova Scotia Open". Yahoo Sports. Associated Press. 5 July 2015. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  7. ^ "2015 Web.com Tour End of Season Money List". PGA Tour. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  8. ^ "2016 FedEx Cup Standings". PGA Tour. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  9. ^ "2017 Web.com Tour Regular Season Points List". PGA Tour. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  10. ^ Woodard, Adam (15 December 2019). "Abraham Ancer wasn't cocky when he said he wanted Tiger Woods at Presidents Cup". Golfweek.
  11. ^ "Webb Simpson birdies 5 of 6 after return from delay to win at Hilton Head". ESPN. Associated Press. 21 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  12. ^ "Abraham Ancer takes second place at the Wells Fargo Championship". Archy Sports. 10 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  13. ^ "Results" (PDF). Olympics.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  14. ^ Stukenborg, Phil (8 August 2021). "Abraham Ancer of Mexico wins FedEx St Jude Invitational". Associated Press. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  15. ^ Lavner, Ryan (21 June 2022). "Abraham Ancer Announces Move to LIV Golf". Golf Channel. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  16. ^ "Abraham Ancer". LIV Golf. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  17. ^ "Abraham Ancer completes wire-to-wire win in Saudi Arabia". ESPN. Associated Press. 5 February 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  18. ^ "Abraham Ancer". World Amateur Golf Ranking. Retrieved 4 August 2015.

External links

World Golf Championships champions
International Presidents Cup team – 2019
Pan American Golf Champions – Men's Individual
Categories