It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours but Zach Wright and Lindsey Weaver have made it work.
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WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Zach Wright felt like once he got past the par-3 13th on Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course, he could breathe a little easier. In the final round of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, Wright reeled off four birdies in the five closing holes, diving to 14 under and effectively securing eight guaranteed starts for the 2020 Korn Ferry season.
“I had two par 5s downwind, just had to keep breathing and I knew I’d be OK,” said Wright, who played those last five holes in a combined 10 under for the week.
That’s where his caddie came in. Wright had fiancée Lindsey Weave on the bag at Orange County National, who should know something about the pressure that comes with Q-School. She was a little over a month removed from a top-5 finish at the LPGA Q-Series, an eight-round monster played at Pinehurst Nos. 6 and 9. Weaver secured full status for the upcoming season.
At his own Q-School, Wright found that Weaver was good for reading greens and confirming lines, but also keeping him calm. This is the third time in four years he has played final stage.
“More than anything, she’s kind of there for support and help with emotions,” he said.
It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours. The past month is a good example why. Weaver caddied for Wright at a second-stage qualifier in San Diego, then flew directly to Pinehurst for her own Q-School. The couple, who lives in Phoenix, spent the past week in Orlando.
“It was exciting because it all worked out the way it was supposed to,” Weaver said.
Lindsey Weaver during the final round of the LPGA Q-Series. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Wright and Weaver met as kids playing junior golf in Arizona and ended up dating in high school. Weaver feels like they’ve known each other forever, but when they went to different colleges – Wright to LSU and Weaver to Arizona – they saw each other less frequently. When the Wrights moved to Iowa while the Weavers moved to Ohio, logistics became even harder.
“We weren’t in the same state anymore, it was like we were never going to see each other,” Weaver said. “We just reconnected a little over two years ago.”
It was perhaps easier in 2018, when Weaver was on medical leave with an injury for much of her LPGA rookie season. Wright was playing the Mackenzie Tour in Canada, and it was often a relatively short drive from Weaver’s parents’ house in Ohio to see him.
If you want to make it work, Weaver says, it works.
“This past year was really our first year both full schedules trying to make it work,” she said. It ended with a proposal.
Wright had the ring since February but didn’t pop the question until this fall on a trip to Napa. Weaver expects a long engagement. There’s much to plan amid a full schedule of golf.
With full LPGA status, Weaver plans to start her season at the new LPGA event in Boca Raton, Florida, on Jan. 20 before spending two weeks in China and a week in Australia. By mid-March, she’ll be back in Phoenix for the Founders Cup.
“We live like two minutes from that course,” she said.
Lexi Thompson was happy to see her older brother Curtis Thompson wrap up fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next season.
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NAPLES, Fla. – LPGA star Lexi Thompson played in the QBE Shootout for the fourth consecutive year but had her worst finish. She and partner Sean O’Hair, who was playing competitively for the first time since February due to surgery for a badly torn oblique muscle, finished last among the 12 teams in the field at Tiburon Golf Club.
The pair shot 8-under 208 and landed 12 shots out of 11th.
“I’m ready for some time off, definitely ready,” said Thompson, 24, who tied for sixth in the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship, also at Tiburon, back on Nov. 24. “But it was a fun week. Honored just again to be able to play here.”
Thompson was happy, however, to see her older brother Curtis, 27, wrap up fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for next season with co-medalist honors at Q-School. Thompson birdied the final hole on Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course in Winter Garden, Florida, on Sunday, which gets him back on the developmental tour for next season. Curtis turned professional in 2014 and played on the Korn Ferry Tour from 2015-18.
The third Thompson sibling, 36-year-old Nicholas, came up a couple of strokes short of earning any guaranteed starts for 2020 after tying for 53rd. The top 40 earned improved status.
“I’m very proud of Curtis, and both of them really,” she said.
It has been a tough year for Curtis, who had taken a break from competitive golf and begun caddying. He worked as a club caddie as well as Lexi’s caddie, and was memorably on the bag when Lexi won the 2018 CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon.
“She’s one of the best players in the world, you see how she gets it done,” Curtis said of the time spent with his sister.
Asked for a memorable experience from working as a club caddie, Curtis only smiled.
“It’s a lot different than caddying for Lexi. Lot of watching golf balls.”
Julie Williams contributed to this report from Korn Ferry Tour Q-School.
All 154 players who started the week at final stage already had Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2020. This week was about improving status.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – A year ago, Curtis Thompson went 14 under at the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School and missed advancing by a shot. There’s a lot to unpack in that, not the least of which is the difficulty of making a living as a professional golfer. Thompson, who turned professional in 2014, left Lakeland, Florida, that week ready to be done with this lifestyle.
“Hung it up for two or three months and didn’t really know what to do with myself,” he said.
On Sunday, Thompson holed a 30-footer for birdie on the final hole of Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course that he believed would send him to a playoff with Braden Thornberry for fully exempt status on the developmental tour in the 2020 season. Turns out both men earned full status for the following year.
All 154 players who started the week at final stage already had Korn Ferry Tour membership for next season. This week was about improving status. Only Thornberry and Thompson are fully set up for next season. The top 10 players (and ties) earned what amounts to 12 guaranteed starts next year while Nos. 12-40 earn eight starts.
“It’s a long day,” Thompson said of a final-round 66 that got him to 21 under. “It’s hard to stay focused for some of it. There’s a few different things you’re thinking about. How do I stay inside the number? How do I stay inside the top 10 and then at the end, how do you try to win it?”
In a field of varied professional experience, Thompson has probably seen as closely as anyone what it takes to compete at the very top level. The former LSU player competed on the Korn Ferry Tour from 2015-18. Struggling with his game, he took all of 2019 off and used a year of uncertainty to test out his caddie skills. He worked as both a club caddie and also carried the bag for his younger sister Lexi Thompson, who is currently No. 10 in the Rolex Ranking.
Curtis Thompson carries his sister Lexi’s bag at the 2018 CME Group Tour Championship. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Curtis was on the bag about this time last year when Lexi won the CME Group Tour Championship, which now awards the largest check in women’s professional golf. With so much golf in the Thompson family – older brother Nicholas was also at final stage, though a T-53 finish didn’t do much to improve his status – hanging it up was never really a viable option for Curtis.
“There’s been a lot of downs in the last two years,” he said. “Six months ago, didn’t know if this was possible.”
Thornberry, meanwhile, is on the way up. This time last year, he was a senior at Ole Miss. He entered Q-School uncertain whether he’d turn professional or return to college to finish his senior season – which was a challenging mindset to face in itself. He ultimately chose the former option, but without guaranteed starts, faced a hectic year.
“It’s very much a relief to know I can pick my schedule and basically play wherever I want,” Thornberry said of the co-medalist perks he secured with his closing 65.
Thornberry poured in putts on the front nine. Thompson, playing in the same group, said he’d never seen anything like it. Thornberry opened with birdie, then made six consecutive from Nos. 4-9 before the putter went cold on the back nine. His only birdie was at No. 17.
“It’s hard to complain when you made that many on the front,” he said.
At Q-School, when one player birdies, it tends to have a ripple effect on everyone else in the field. Zach Zaback might be the best example of that.
When Zaback birdied No. 18 on the Panther Lake course, it bumped him from 11 to 12 under, effectively moving the cut-off for status right up with him. That was potentially year-changing for the 12 players who were sitting at 11 under with an outside chance.
Duke senior Chandler Eaton was among them. Having come so close to earning something tangible for next year, he said he had some questions to ask before he made any immediate decisions about his future.
“It’s a weird type of pressure,” he said of the week. “I definitely feel like I’m a more mature player than I realized. I feel like I can hang with these guys.”
Mr. Monday earns status
Chip McDaniel, the player who garnered the moniker “Mr. Monday” after making something out of a season he entered with no status on any tour, was another one of the men left out at 11 under.
McDaniel, who successfully Monday qualified for three PGA Tour events in 2019 in addition to navigating his way through U.S. Open sectional qualifying, hammered his driver on No. 18 of Crooked Cat into a fairway bunker on the left side of the hole. He blasted it out to 20 feet and had to face that putt with an electronic scoreboard in his sightline. He said he didn’t pay much attention to that.
The 24-year-old had birdied No. 17 to give himself a shot, but ultimately missed the birdie putt on No. 18 to finish T-41.
“I have status,” he said. “This time last year I didn’t have status. I learned a lot this year, playing with the big boys.”
John VanDerLaan during the final round of the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
John VanDerLaan navigated his way to 18 under and a T-7 finish – which was just good enough to earn 12 guaranteed starts for 2020. VanDerLaan, who won the 2018 NCAA Division II individual title at Florida Southern, made sure to sign up for the first-stage qualifier at the Mocs’ home course in nearby Lakeland, Florida.
VanDerLaan was a combined 40 under for the first and second stages (which he played at another familiar course in Brooksville, Florida), and won second stage by eight shots (interestingly, over Broc Everett, the 2018 Division I NCAA medalist).
The 23-year-old felt that a culture of winning at Florida Southern helped shape him as he charted his way to a professional career.
“No matter how far you go, you have to win if you want to be successful,” he said. “I kind of had a little bit of it, but it definitely molded me more into that when I was there.”
Taking the next step
Perhaps nobody, though, represents the long and arduous road to professional success quite like Taylor Dickson. With a T-13 finish and eight guaranteed starts for the next year, Dickson will finally make his first sanctioned tour start after bouncing around mini-tours since his graduation from Winthrop University in 2015.
“Getting in the car, driving all over, just to play some golf,” he said of that journey.
Dickson has filled the downtime in those past four years doing odd jobs for his dad, who owns a Napa Auto Parts store. He’s careful to clarify that he’s an errand guy, not a mechanic. A budding Korn Ferry career might be the big break that allows him to move out of his parents’ house as he continues pursuing the dream.
Dickson was “late” to pick up this game as an 11-year-old. How he has blossomed since.
“I used to get down on myself some, and that’s probably one of the reasons it took me so long. This year I just tried to believe in myself that I can hit the shots required to play out here with these guys.”
Curtis Thompson, the brother of Lexi Thompson, has a one-shot edge with varying levels of Korn Ferry Tour status is on the line.
The top of the leaderboard at the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School was looking quite crowded until Curtis Thompson birdied his final two holes Saturday on Orange County National’s Panther Lakes course. Ultimately, the birdie at No. 18 bumped him out of a seven-way tie and into the solo lead in Winter Garden, Florida.
At 15 under, Thompson will take a one-shot edge over six men into the final round – where varying levels of Korn Ferry Tour status are on the line. Finish first (or tied for first), and a player earns fully exempt status for the 2020 season. Past the medalist, the rest of the top 40 players and ties earn some level of guaranteed starts on the developmental tour next year.
Thompson is the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, who is the only female in the field at this week’s QBE Shootout across the state in Naples.
Curtis celebrated his 27th birthday on Saturday. The former LSU player turned professional in 2014 and is fighting to make his way back on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he played from 2015-18. The player who says he’d be a motivational speaker if he wasn’t a professional golfer has struggled over the past few seasons, but a big day on Sunday could him set him back on track.
Interestingly, Curtis’ older brother Nicholas, 36, is also in the field but is tied for 58th after a third-round 74 on Panther Lakes.
The group tied for second at 14 under includes Braden Thornberry, who has bounced around the top of the leaderboard all week. Thornberry had a 65 on Panther Lakes in the third round, matching the score he posted on Crooked Cat in Round 1 that got him an immediate share of the lead.
Thornberry is back at final stage as a professional this year. He was halfway through his senior season at Ole Miss last year, and ultimately turned professional before the spring season despite not finishing high enough to earn guaranteed starts. Thornberry won the 2017 NCAA individual title and was formerly the No. 1-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Of the two college players in the field, Duke senior Chandler Eaton is in position to slide into the top 40 on Sunday. He is 7 under and tied for 50th, but only one shot out of a large tie for 38th. Kansas senior Andy Spencer, the other amateur, is 2 over and T-140.
Tommy Gainey, who made headlines for his arrest earlier in the week for allegedly soliciting a prostitute in nearby Polk County, is also on the bubble. He is 6 under and T-58 through three rounds. He was only one off the lead after Thursday’s opening round.
There are few courses Ryan Ruffels knows as well as Royal Melbourne. The 21-year-old is a member at the Presidents Cup venue.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – There are few courses Ryan Ruffels knows as well as Royal Melbourne. The 21-year-old is a member. He’s played thousands of rounds there between tournaments and afternoon nine-holers. Seeing it on TV this week as he grinds his way through the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School has been a welcome sight.
Nearly 10,000 miles away from pressure-packed Q-School, Royal Melbourne is hosting the Presidents Cup.
“You’ve got to be so versatile around there,” Ruffels said of a place that greatly shaped his game. “You can’t be one-dimensional with your short game or the way you approach greens or drive the ball. Everything is so strategic so to be able to grow up at a place like that, U.S. golf isn’t quite like that, but there are days like that where you do have to play a little bit that way.”
An opening 68 at Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course makes a good example. Ruffels and the rest of the field battled rain and wind. On the first tee, he had admitted to his caddie he didn’t have a clue where it was going. Still, he found “at least half” of the fairways.
Conditions were soggy again in the second round, but Ruffels managed a bogey-free 65 around the Panther Lakes course. He’s 10 under and four off the lead at the halfway point.
Ruffels was born in the U.S. but moved back to Australia when he was nine and thus holds dual citizenship. This is his second Q-School start, but his first time at final stage. Interestingly, Ruffels has played 19 PGA Tour events and made 43 PGA Tour Latinoamerica starts, but has never played a single Korn Ferry Tour event.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for Ruffels, who turned professional in 2016 at the age of 17. Impatient for results, Ruffels changed swing coaches. Last year – after struggling with a lingering injury that resulted from dislocating his shoulder during the middle of a round (it popped back in and he finished the round, for those wondering) – he returned to coach Denis McDade, with whom he’d worked since he was 11 years old, and doubled down on his game.
“We took some time toward the end of last year,” Ruffels said. “Lot of frustration, lot of long days of scratching our heads, trying to figure it out. Once we knocked through that barrier, it’s been a lot better.”
Ruffels lost to Andres Echavarria in a playoff at the Molina Canuelas Championship, his second PGA Tour Latinoamerica start of the year. He made 12 cuts in 15 starts on that tour this season and ultimately secured a spot in this week’s final stage.
This past summer, Ruffels’ younger sister Gabriela – a junior at USC – won the North & South Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Ryan calls his sister the hardest-working girl he knows, but she likely took a cue from big brother.
The Ruffels siblings are coming up in the world, but naturally, Ryan felt a little heat.
“I don’t want to be the brother of Gabriela Ruffels,” he said grinning. “I’d rather it be she’s the sister of Ryan Ruffels.”
The final stage concludes Sunday, when 40 players and ties earn status based on their position relative to the top of the leaderboard.
Sometimes it takes a few years to find the right formula for success, particularly at Q-School. Alistair Docherty can attest to that.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Sometimes it takes a few years to find the right formula for success, particularly where Q-School is concerned. Alistair Docherty can attest to that.
Docherty, 25, fizzled out in the first stage of two previous attempts at earning Korn Ferry Tour status. On Thursday, he ended the opening round of final stage one shot off the lead. The Pacific Northwest native posted a 6-under 65 on a soggy day on Orange County National’s Panther Lakes course. He had five birdies and an eagle at the par-5 14th that he set up with a “perfect 2-iron.”
“Caddie had a good read on it because I would have missed it,” Docherty said of the resulting 12-footer. “Give that one to the caddie.”
Docherty should get plenty of credit – for preparation and maturity, if nothing else. Since graduating from Chico State, an NCAA Division II program that finished as the national runner-up in 2015 when Docherty was a senior, the bulk of Docherty’s competitive experience has come on the Mackenzie Tour in Canada.
For a young professional just starting out, cost-saving measures are understandably in play. Docherty took that route in choosing a pre-qualifying start for Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. He went to St. George, Utah, to stay with a friend while competing at SunRiver Golf Club.
In retrospect, a high-altitude venue like SunRiver downplayed his advantage as a big hitter.
“Every time I got there, it just wasn’t my week,” Docherty said. “I like playing golf courses that are a little more difficult. Kind of eliminates some of the field. My length usually is to my advantage and that course just didn’t suit me.”
Docherty had been wintering in La Quinta, California, but this year moved to the Phoenix area and began work on his swing with Andy Patnou. A roommate introduced the two. Slowly, Docherty’s game began falling into place.
Docherty advanced through first stage at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, in September. He was third at the second-stage qualifier at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, California, a course he was familiar with from playing rounds with a host family member when he first turned professional.
A change in scenery seems to have done it for Docherty, but for 45-year-old Tag Ridings, the secret to an opening 7-under 64 on the Panther Lakes course was a new putter. Ridings, who guesses he’s played Q-School (through several iterations) 14 times over the span of his 22-year career, put a Piretti putter with a new shaft in his bag before the first round.
“I’d actually been putting really nicely,” Ridings said. “In fact, I only built it because I felt I had been putting so well, I didn’t feel like I had been searching. Just kind of a see-what-happens type of thing.”
Ridings had seven birdies and an eagle in his opening round.
Braden Thornberry played the Crooked Cat course in 7-under 65 and tied Ridings for the lead. There is no cut this week’s event, and every player will play two rounds on each of Orange County National’s two courses.
Thornberry advanced to final stage as an amateur last year, halfway through his senior season at Ole Miss. After finishing T-72, which didn’t earn him any guaranteed starts for the 2019 season, Thornberry ultimately turned professional for the spring. He made 14 Korn Ferry Tour starts but played the weekend only six times.
Now that he’s established as a professional, Thornberry thinks Q-School might even be a little easier to attack mentally. Either way, you’re playing for your living.
“I wouldn’t say there was less pressure last year, obviously there was another option,” he said. “Honestly, that probably made it a little bit tougher. You weren’t fully making up your mind either way, there’s that little it of doubt – if I finish here what am I going to do. This year, it’s pretty clear cut.”
After three more rounds, the top 40 finishers and ties will receive a number of guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2020 relative to their position on the leaderboard. The medalist (and ties) receives fully exempt status for the upcoming season.
Gainey, who was in the next-to-last group to come off Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course in Thursday’s opening round, is part of a nine-way tie for sixth at 6-under 66.
According to Polk County jail records, Gainey was arrested for soliciting a prostitute and charged with a first-degree misdemeanor. He was booked Dec. 8 and later released after posting the $500 bail.
In a Wednesday news conference, Polk County Sherriff Grady Judd said Gainey, who lives in South Carolina, told the sheriff’s office Gainey was in Florida for a charity golf event.
“He didn’t make it,” Judd said. “He was a scratch.”
Known as Tommy “Two Gloves,” the 44-year-old was one of 124 arrested as part of the investigation titled “Operation Santa’s Naughty List” which closed over the weekend.
After his round on Thursday, Gainey declined to comment to Golfweek about either his arrest or the charity outing that he allegedly missed.
Gainey’s position on the leaderboard after the first round of Q-School is promising. His card included three front-nine birdies. He had three more on the back nine, plus two bogeys and an eagle at No. 14. He said he was able to get a read from playing competitor Spencer Levin on that hole.
Gainey’s late-morning tee time meant he caught the brunt of the wind and rain that moved through the area mid-afternoon.
“The conditions sucked for the most part,” he said after the round. “We had a lot of wind, we had a lot of rain actually. I think we maybe played four, five holes the whole day without rain so it made it that much tougher especially with the wind blowing 10 to 15 or maybe a little more than that.”
Leader Tag Ridings is 8 under and four players are tied for second at 7 under. After three more rounds, the top 40 finishers and ties will receive a number of guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2020 relative to their position on the leaderboard. The medalist (and ties) receives fully exempt status for the upcoming season.
Gainey turned pro in 1997 and joined the PGA Tour in 2008. He gained popularity among fans for wearing gloves on both hands. He also was a notable character on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” in 2005.
Gainey has played four PGA Tour events this season, missing three cuts and finishing T-36 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He competed in five PGA Tour events last season, missing three cuts with his best finish a T-39 at the Barbasol Championship. He also played eight events on last season’s Korn Ferry Tour, making three cuts with no top-10s.
More than 150 players will tee it up at Orange County National’s two courses – Panther Lakes and Crooked Cat – this week in the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School.
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Several of the golf bags that were carted back and forth across the Orange County National driving range on Wednesday lacked the logos, sponsorship patches and embroidered names that are typical of a professional event.
Stand bags gave way to bags of a more practical weight. Qualifying School, on any tour, is about setting yourself up for the next season, and it doesn’t really matter what you look like doing it.
More than 150 players will tee it up at Orange County National’s two courses – Panther Lakes and Crooked Cat – this week in the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. A player’s position relative to the top of the leaderboard determines the number of guaranteed starts he will receive on the developmental tour in the 2020 season. The medalist (and ties) will be fully exempt for the entire regular season. Players who finish Nos. 2-10 on the leaderboard will be exempt into the first 12 events while Nos. 11-40 are exempt into the first eight events. Both of those groups are subject to the reshuffles that occur in four-event intervals.
Winning this event isn’t necessarily a guarantor of future success, however. In the past six years of this particular qualifying format, no player who won the final stage of Q-School has been able to turn that into a PGA Tour card.
Danny Walker, last year’s winner, is back at the final stage this year, approaching it the same way he did last December in Arizona after a year of learning the ropes. That is to say, he’s trying to win.
“Obviously, in a lot of ways you don’t want to be here,” he said. “In some ways it could have been a lot worse because I didn’t have to go back to first stage.”
Walker, a 24-year-old who turned pro in 2018 after a college career at Virginia, cites learning how to travel and build his schedule as one of the steepest learning curves from a year in which he made the cut in nine of 22 Korn Ferry Tour starts. In retrospect, he thinks he could have scheduled a couple more weeks off here or there.
“It just kind of wears on you,” he said of life on the road.
There was a certain confidence that came from Walker’s Q-School win, even though the story line didn’t ultimately play out the way he had hoped. He has worked on his driving and putting as he prepares for another shot at this tournament.
Still, there’s really no right way to prepare for the final stage of Q-School. Part of that has to do with the diversity of resumes among a 154-man field.
Daniel Wetterich is among a group of players who has risen all the way from the pre-qualifying stage back in August.
“When I was at pre-qualifying, honestly that was the most nervous I ever was throughout all the stages because I’m like, ‘I’m going to be doing this for a living.’”
Korn Ferry final stage is about improving status as opposed to avoiding elimination, but Wetterich, a recent Ohio State graduate, has viewed every step as being the same – particularly after getting over that initial hump. He won the Lincoln, Nebraska, pre-qualifier by two shots.
Wetterich turned professional right after that – ending a remarkable summer of amateur golf that included a runner-up finish at the Western Amateur – and has kept himself busy ever since. He made his professional debut at the Toledo Open and sprinkled various other professional starts among the next two stages of Q-School.
He always kept in mind advice he heard during a Q&A session with Mackenzie Tour president Jeff Monday at the Players Amateur this summer.
“He said the most important thing was inside of 50 yards so and I took that to heart and that’s part of what I really practiced and mentally focused on,” Wetterich said. “It allowed me to get to where I am right now.”
Wetterich is one of several recent college graduates in the field. That group also includes Brandon Wu, the Stanford senior who was presented with his diploma at Pebble Beach after making the cut in the U.S. Open (as an amateur), plus Texas A&M standout Chandler Phillips, Barry star Jorge Garcia and Yale’s James Nicholas, who did a turn on the Bulldog football team before committing to golf.
On the flip side of that, the field also includes Martin Piller, who owns six Korn Ferry Tour titles, and Andres Gonzales, who has won twice on this tour.
There are two current amateurs in the field this week: Kansas senior Andy Spencer and Duke senior Chandler Eaton.
Will Grimmer, who was a teammate of Wetterich’s at Ohio State, knows what that feels like. He entered Qualifying School as a senior a year ago, but only advanced as far as second stage and ultimately returned to finish his spring semester with the Buckeyes.
“Knowing the biggest thing I got out of it was experience, I don’t think necessarily I’d be at final stage this year if I didn’t experience what it takes,” said Grimmer, who is now a professional.
PGA Tour golfer Tommy Gainey was arrested Sunday for soliciting a prostitute in what turned out to be a human trafficking investigation.
Professional golfer Tommy Gainey was arrested Sunday in Polk County, Florida for alleged involvement in a major prostitution and human-trafficking sting.
Known as Tommy “Two Gloves,” the 44-year-old was one of 124 arrested as part of the investigation titled “Operation Santa’s Naughty List” which closed over the weekend.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stated in a press conference Wednesday that Gainey faces a first-degree misdemeanor solicitation charge after being arrested for soliciting a prostitute.
Gainey, who lives in Hartsfield, South Carolina with his wife and two children aged 11 and 5, was released Monday after posting bail, TMZ Sports reported.
“He’s married,” Judd said. “He told us he was here for a charity golf event and it was supposed to be like the next morning tee off. He didn’t make it. He was a scratch.”
Judd begins speaking about Gainey at 19:55 in the video from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office below.
Gainey turned pro in 1997 and joined the PGA Tour in 2008. He gained popularity among fans for wearing gloves on both hands. He also was a notable character on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” in 2005.
Gainey has played four PGA Tour events this season, missing three cuts and finishing T-36 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Gainey competed in five PGA events last season, missing three cuts with his best finish a T-39 at the Barbasol Championship. He also played eight events on last season’s Korn Ferry Tour, making three cuts with no top-10s.
He has one career PGA Tour win at the McGladrey Classic in October 2012.
Judd said the investigation began Dec. 3 and wrapped Sunday, using internet advertisements to arrange meetings with suspects and undercover detectives. Judd said the goal of the investigation was to identify and rescue victims of human trafficking as well as “find deviants that prey on children.” Five of the 124 arrested came to homes allegedly attempting to sexually assault children.
Chase Koepka, the younger brother of Brooks Koepka, faces final qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour next month near Orlando.
Following in the same field as a successful family member can be a mixed bag, as all three Baldwins known as “the other brother” can attest. A name can open doors but might also close minds, fueling assumptions about indolent coattail jockeys trying to shortcut their way to the big leagues.
Dru Love’s only status was conferred by birth, but he has ridden his family’s respected name to 18 PGA Tour starts, three times as many as he has made on the developmental circuits. On the reverse side of that ledger is another 25-year-old, Chase Koepka. He earned his status on both the Challenge and European Tours, and next month faces final qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour. Success will bring him one step closer to joining his brother Brooks on the PGA Tour, but he isn’t planning to rely on his celebrated sibling for advice on tackling the four-round gauntlet at Orange County National near Orlando.
“He’s probably not the person I would lean on because he’s never really done well in Q-School,” Chase says with a laugh. “He knows that. He’s better at major championships than he is at Q-School.”
He did lean on his brother’s caddie though: Ricky Elliott piloted Chase through second stage qualifying recently in Texas. Koepka opened that decisive final round with a double bogey. “Well, better it happen on the first hole than on the 18th, right?” the experienced bagman said as they walked to the second tee.
“I’m looking at him and I say, ‘I’m not sure Rick!,’ ” Koepka recalls. “I was very upset at myself, but it was the perfect thing to say to get under my skin and make me laugh at the same time.” Playing the remaining holes 6-under par, Koepka battled through to the final stage.
The other Koepka-Elliott partnership has won four majors in the last couple of years, and the power of his last name has helped get Chase a couple of sponsor invitations on the PGA Tour, though he distantly trails Love in the Starts Gained Mooching category. He made cuts in Las Vegas and South Korea, which helped lift his world ranking by more than 350 places to 1,498th.
“I really don’t pay much attention to that,” he says of the ranking. Then he adds with a wry chuckle: “Obviously, it’s pretty easy to figure out where Brooks is at.”
Obviously. Just scroll up 1,497 spots.
The younger Koepka seems at ease with the inevitable comparisons to Brooks, who is four years his senior and whose footsteps he followed all the way to the unglamorous venues of Europe’s Challenge circuit. Whatever expectations he has felt burdened with are mostly self-inflicted, he says, owed to his own competitiveness rather than pressure to emulate his sibling. But he admits to having been worn down by the disappointments inherent in the grind of professional golf and life on the road.
“I’m willing to play wherever I can. As a golfer you have to do that,” he says. “I just didn’t do a very good job this year mentally. That’s completely on me. This is going to be my fourth year out here and I’ve had status on a tour since I turned pro. After three years, I should be able to figure out how I need to go about my business. I’m starting to do that.”
He has momentum heading to Q-School off solid play in Korea and in second-stage qualifying. “I got kicked in the teeth for the last year, but there’s so many positives I can take that I haven’t seen in a really long time,” he says. “It’s exciting to see where my game is starting to go.”
Koepka’s intended preparation included some minitour stops and entering Monday qualifiers for PGA Tour events in Mexico and Sea Island, Georgia. The latter is the Love family’s home tournament. Dru, who was eliminated from Korn Ferry qualifying at the second stage, will be in the field for the fourth time in the last five years.
