In the first of seven FedEx Cup Fall events, Theegala, the 25-year-old second-year Tour pro from California, captured the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort’s North Course to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. Theegala finished at 21 under in Napa, California.
The victory earned Theegala $1.512 million.
Rookie S.H. Kim finished solo second and takes home $915,600. Justin Thomas finished solo fifth and earned $344,400.
Check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort’s North Course.
The wait for one of the best young stars in the game to get his first victory is over.
Following a stellar rookie season on the PGA Tour, many thought the 2022-23 season would be a breakout one for Sahith Theegala.
The 25-year-old California native had a good year, though it wasn’t as good as his first on Tour. He tied for second at the RSM Classic last November and had seven top-10 finishes, but he finished 31st in the FedEx Cup standings and missed out on the Tour Championship.
Earlier this week, Theegala said he was eager to play again, and it’s easy to see why.
Theegala finally got over the hump, capturing his first PGA Tour victory Sunday at the 2023 Fortinet Championship in Napa, California. Theegala finished at 21-under 267 at Silverado Resort’s North Course, and the wait for one of the best young stars in the game to get his first victory is over.
“It doesn’t feel real. It’s probably not going to set in for while,” Theegala said. “But man, that was a lot of good golf, and that was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I had so many family and friends cheering me on, and just the support I have is mind blowing. I go to bed at night these last few days and I’m like, I can’t believe how many people are cheering for me and rooting for me.
“But man, this feeling is incredible. And I couldn’t have done it without my whole team and everyone out here. This is such a team effort, and for me to just put it together like this, it means the world, it means the world to me.”
In the final round, Theegala shot 4-under 68, including three birdies in his first five holes to take control. He led by two shots heading into a final round, and the winning margin was two after a closing bogey, but it didn’t matter.
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Justin Thomas, who was in the group at T-2 before the final round, shot even-par 72 on Sunday and finished at 15 under and solo fifth. Max Homa, a fellow United States Ryder Cup team member with Thomas and the Fortinet Championship’s two-time defending victor, finished at 13 under and T-7.
Rookie S.H. Kim finished solo second at 19 under.
Although it doesn’t count as an official PGA Tour victory, Theegala won the QBE Shootout last December with partner Tom Hoge. However, there’s no doubt about his victory Sunday in wine country.
After he finished his round Sunday, Theegala’s family was there to celebrate. They walked along every hole in the final round and were boisterous in their support.
“They meant everything,” Theegala said. “Just like the way I am, I kind of keep my head down and keep going and stay focused, but I secretly just loving the cheering. It gets me fired up. And just knowing that I have that support no matter the good golf or the bad golf, they just have my back and I hope they know that I have their back, too.
“I can’t even express how I feel. It’s a team win. It’s not just a win for me, it’s a win for the whole family and everyone.”
Everything you need to know for the final round at Silverado Resort.
It’s time for the final round of the first FedEx Cup Fall event.
The third round is complete in the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, and it’s California native Sahith Theegala leading by two shots at 17 under in search of his first PGA Tour win. Theegala shot 5-under 67 on Moving Day.
In the group at 15 under is Justin Thomas, who’s searching for his best finish since February at the WM Phoenix Open. Also tied for second are S.H. Kim and Cam Davis.
Max Homa, the event’s two-time defending champion, is at 10 under.
Here’s everything you need to know for the final round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort. All times Eastern.
ESPN+ is the exclusive home of PGA Tour Live. There is no PGA Tour Live coverage of the third and final rounds of the 2023 Fortinet Championship. All times Eastern.
Sahith Theegala is closing in on his first PGA Tour win.
The first event of the FedEx Cup Fall is shaping up for a fantastic finish.
Following Saturday’s third round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, there’s numerous names in contention to win a title, including Justin Thomas, who was using this week as a tune-up before the Ryder Cup in two weeks.
In the group near the top of the leaderboard includes numerous PGA Tour winners, but there are also many who are searching for their first Tour victory. With plenty at stake for the 2024 season and beyond, there’s bound to be excitement Sunday in wine country.
Here’s everything you need to know from the third round of the Fortinet Championship.
NAPA, Calif. — After Peter Malnati wrapped up shooting 66 at Silverado Resort’s North Course on Moving Day to rocket into contention at the Fortinet Championship, he summed up the new FedEx Cup Fall, a series of seven events where jobs for the 2024 season are on the line, as “fun and exciting, unless you’re one of the ones trying to keep your job and then it’s a strain.”
PGA Tour veteran Jimmy Walker won this event when it was played at CordeValle a decade ago for his first Tour title. On Saturday, the 44-year-old Walker shot 69, which had him projected to improve from No. 124 to No. 118, but Walker was none too happy that he’s still battling to finish in the top 125 for the better part of the next three months.
“They changed the rules. It’s been 125 forever. Then it’s like, no, it’s 50, or is it 70? It’s definitely not 125. It’s total bulls–t, that’s what I think of it,” Walker said. “I’ve been working for 11 months to finish 124 and it’s like, nope, keep playing. So, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. That’s all I can do.”
A year ago, Walker shut down his season after the Valero Texas Open, his hometown event, and at age 43 the former PGA Championship winner contemplated calling it a career. But then enough players jumped ship to LIV that Walker climbed to No. 50 in career earning on the Tour, which gave him access to a one-time exemption for the 2022-23 season.
Walker has played 25 events this season and ranked No. 124 after the Wyndham Championship last month, which traditionally served as the final event of the FedEx Cup regular season. This year, only the top 70 earned a playoff berth and locked up their cards for next season.
“I can’t tell you how many people texted me saying congrats on making the 125. I’m like, ‘No man, it’s different.’ I had to explain. They’ve done such a bad job communicating what is happening, partly because I don’t think they knew what was happening, honestly,” Walker said. “It’s been one way forever. LIV and the Saudis happen and a lot of things change and everybody freaks out and we sign an agreement that stops litigation. I don’t know what’s going on. They’re talking about a big payout for the players that have stayed. All of it is blowing my mind. The Tour is doing everything they can to take care of themselves and not for the players. I’m just out here grinding, giving it all I’ve got. I’ve given them 20-some-odd years out here, you know.”
Walker expressed disappointment that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan wasn’t at the Fortinet Championship to answer questions from players at the first event of the re-imagined fall schedule. Jason Dufner, another player who was able to take advantage of the top 50 career earnings one-time exemption, entered the fall at No. 172, and called the fall an opportunity.
“We’re all adjusting to it a little bit. It’s nice to have the opportunity to play and try to, you know, sneak back into that 125 category,” Dufner said. “I don’t want to say I lucked into, but I was able to use a career money exemption for this year, and on top of that I got last fall and this fall, so it’s kind of a bonus type of deal for me so I’m trying to take as much advantage of it as I can to continue to be out here in some capacity.”
Walker realizes he’s lucky, too, to have had a second chance to play last season, but he doesn’t like the way the LIV threat has been used to change the landscape so drastically.
“I’m back because of LIV and then it was like we’ve got to change everything. We have to pump more money into the PIP to keep our guys, make all these elevated events. I’m not going to get to play Pebble Beach next year, a field that’s always had 180 players and I’m a past champion. I said to Jay, what if San Antonio was an elevated event? You’re going to tell me I live there, I’ve done I don’t know how many pressers for you guys and everything you’ve asked me to do and I can’t play my hometown event? It’s really bass-ackwards right now.”
Another veteran Ryan Palmer said he will play as many fall events as necessary until he’s locked up his playing privileges for next year. Walker said he’ll do the same, noting “it’s not a strategy, it’s my job, my card.”
Malnati can relate. He entered the Fortinet Championship at No. 116 and had missed three straight cuts. But Malnati, who serves as a player director on the Tour Policy Board, disagrees with Walker’s claim that the Tour’s moved the goalposts on him.
“Of course people are going to say that, but we’re making changes. Things have to change. Whether they are better or not, you can argue that but this is the way it is,” Malnati said. “I never once thought I should have my card locked up. We all knew going into the season it was going to be (No.) 125 after Sea Island (RSM Classic) and not Wyndham. The cool thing is, yes, I’m playing to earn my Tour card for next season but I get six opportunities to qualify for Maui. I see it as opportunity.”
NAPA, Calif. – It turns out golf fans at the Fortinet Championship have Johnny Miller to thank for arguably the best part of attending the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort.
Miller, the 76-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer from the Bay area, is the reason there are two Burgerdog stands – one on the North and one on the South Course – and a mobile truck near the main tournament entrance this week. The smell of the famed Burgerdog is simply irresistible.
What does Miller have to do with it? A child prodigy of the fairways, Miller was given a junior membership at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, where he was known to down a Burgerdog or two after making the turn. It was Burgerdog enthusiasts like Miller who aided in creating a loyal following of Bill Parrish’s creation.
Parrish, a professional trumpet player and entrepreneur, created the Burgerdog in the 1950s with the help of his wife Billie. To save on money and space, Bill made a burger shaped like a hot dog and served it on a pillowy hot dog bun. Bill took his rig on the road and stopped at places like Half Moon Bay, boat races and even a car wash in Daly City. Fishermen and park-goers were his target market but golfers quickly became regular customers too.
Golfers line up to order the original Burgerdog at a stand at the South Course at Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
When Bill set up shop alongside Lake Merced in San Francisco, just across the road from The Olympic Club, golfers playing the Lake Course would wind their way across to Bill’s stand mid-round, causing backups and pace-of-play issues. Eventually, the Burgerdog created enough hype that in 1954 Bill was invited to run the concession stands at The Olympic Club. Many Olympic members also held memberships at Silverado Resort & Spa and encouraged the Parrish family to bring the Burgerdog to Napa Valley. In 1973 Bill’s son, Steve Parrish, with the help of his wife, Linda, did just that by opening a concession stand on both the North and South Course. Steve’s son, Jeff, and his wife Ashley, are now third-generation owners.
The famed Burgerdog at Silverado Resort. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
When Miller and partners acquired Silverado Resort in 2010 (Miller has since sold his interest), he made sure the Burgerdog stayed at Silverado, on both golf courses. Today, the Burgerdog – lean, never-frozen ground chuck and sirloin topped with strips of cheese, zesty mustard, red sweet relish, dill pickle, onions and ketchup and delivered on a toasted eight-inch bun from Athens Bakery – is a staple of golfers at Silverado and the go-to concession item for fans at the Fortinet Championship. And like Lays potato chips, no one can eat just one!
Tom Johnson didn’t have to think very hard to name the last time he made a cut on the PGA Tour.
NAPA, Calif. — Tom Johnson didn’t have to think very hard to name the last time he made a cut on the PGA Tour.
“2015, Sony, right? It’s crazy,” he said. “I almost cried walking off the green. I was trying not to think about it. It hit me. I just made a cut at a PGA Tour event, you know. Just saying that now makes me choke up. It means that much. It means I’m getting better.”
Johnson, 42, shot a pair of 69s at Silverado Resort’s North Course to make his first cut in more than eight years. Johnson earned an exemption into this week’s Fortinet Championship by winning the Northern California PGA Section Professional Championship at Lake Merced in August and a check for $7,000. He’s been teaching the game since 2016 but lived the life of a Tour pro for several years, including in 2007 when he had full status.
“On one hand, it’s a dream come true to be out here. On the other hand, it’s a really hard life and it takes its toll, especially when you’re just existing on Tour like I was. I was just treading water,” he said. “It was what I dreamt of doing but when I got out here I didn’t feel like it was a dream.”
Johnson suffered from performance anxiety, recording just one top-25 finish ($56,667 represents his largest check for finishing 18th in the 2007 Bob Hope Desert Classic) and finishing 196th on the money list.
“Just imagine the worst kind of butterflies to the point where you think you are going to throw up,” he said. “I know I’m not alone. I’ve read how Bobby Jones lost lots of weight when he played.”
Johnson learned to calm his nerves in unusual fashion. Experiencing yips so severe at the Northeast Amateur when he was 18 that he putted one-handed, he took a shot of whiskey during a rain delay “that made me feel warm and at ease,” he told the Sacramento Bee in 2015. When he qualified for the PGA Tour at the six-round pressure-cooker known as PGA Tour Q-School, he smoked marijuana before every round and finished in eighth place.
He’s not the only golfer to ever smoke pot, but he may be the only pro to use it to enhance his performance.
“I thought that worked, I’ll do it again,” said Johnson, who has admitted to smoking marijuana before all 70+ rounds he played during the 2007 season. “It got to be where I was abusing it ever closer and closer to my tee times and I can think of a time I even did it during play, which I’m not proud of, but at that time I really needed something.”
Johnson hit rock bottom when he was arrested for driving under the influence in 2013. For her birthday present that year, on July 4th, his mother asked him to get sober. Johnson knew it was time to seek help. He has been drug- and alcohol-free since July 5, 2013.
“Hence the non-alcoholic brewery sponsor,” he said, pointing to the Athletic Brewery logo on the sleeve of his shirt. “That was a major turning point in my life. I went to meetings every day for three years because I knew I couldn’t keep sober on my own. That’s where I learned the 12 steps and the tools to deal with it. I needed a new operating system. With the help of a lot of people on that same path of sobriety, I no longer feel that way. My life is good.”
The other turning point was meeting his now-wife Caitlin in 2016. At the time, he was still competing on the Asian Tour, but he knew he had reached a fork in the road and decided to commit to her and starting a family. For a time, he covered sports for the Trinity Journal, the region’s weekly newspaper, and was a substitute teacher. Before long, he began teaching golf at Golden Gate Park Golf Course, a par-3 course with a driving range, consisting of hitting into a net 25 yards away. The Olympic Club hired him and he learned under the director of instruction Richard Sheridan.
“It’s so gratifying to teach, and to give back, and to basically share the gift of golf,” he told NCGA Golf Magazine in 2021.
Tom Johnson receives congratulations from a friend after making his first PGA Tour cut in more than eight years. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
Six months ago, he took the director of instruction position at the Meadow Club. Members from both his former and current club were out in force to support him during the first two rounds at Silverado Resort. After making the cut on Friday, a steady stream of caddies, including Steve (Pepsi) Hale, came over to congratulate him and wish him luck this weekend. Johnson played college golf at Northwestern University alongside European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and grew up playing against the likes of James Hahn, Nick Watney and Ricky Barnes, who are still toiling on the pro circuit.
“I feel like I’m not forgotten. Guys that were a couple of years older than me that I didn’t even know they knew I existed, like Charley Hoffman and Matt Kuchar, came up to me this week and to have all these years go by and to hear them call me by my first name, it was like Whoa,” Johnson said.
But don’t call it a comeback. Johnson is more than content with the life that he has made as a club pro, as a husband, as a father to two-year-old Preston.
“The other day I was riding my bike with my son on the back and I was thinking about the life that I’m living right now and the life I used to be living and could still be living if I chose to really dedicate to this, and I like the life I’m living right now,” he said. “I like being home and being a presence in my son’s life. I’m grateful that I’m not on Tour, honestly. I’m not trying to rekindle my career out here. I like my life.”
Everything you need to know for the third round at Silverado Resort.
It’s time for the weekend at the first FedEx Cup Fall event.
Thirty-six holes have come and gone at the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa, California, and it’s California native Sahith Theegala and S.H. Kim at the top of the leaderboard. The duo sit at 12 under and are each searching for their first PGA Tour victory.
Meanwhile, the event’s two-time defending champion, Max Homa, shot 6-under 66 on Friday and moved to 8 under. Also there is Justin Thomas, as the pair of U.S. Ryder Cup teammates will look to make a weekend run.
Here’s everything you need to know for the third round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort. All times Eastern.
ESPN+ is the exclusive home of PGA Tour Live. There is no PGA Tour Live coverage of the third and final rounds of the 2023 Fortinet Championship. All times Eastern.
Here’s a closer look at some of the notables who packed their bags and headed for home on Friday.
NAPA, Calif. — While Kevin Kisner grinded and Troy Merritt (67) and Chez Reavie (68) rallied like veterans, Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays showed he has the game to play with the big boys, making his first cut on the number.
They were among 68 players to shoot 3-under 141 at Silverado Resort’s North Course or better to make the cut and advance to the weekend at the 2023 Fortinet Championship.
Kisner, 39, holed a bunker shot at 17 for birdie en route to shooting 72 and making the cut on the number. Playing for the first time since he withdrew from the Travelers Championship in June, Kisner has a weekend tee time at a stroke-play tournament for the first time since the Players Championship in March. (Ben Crane has his first weekend tee time since the Corales Puntacana Championship, also in March.)
“It feels good,” Kisner said. “But damn if it wasn’t easy.”
Tom Johnson, a 42-year-old club pro and one-time Tour member, didn’t have to sweat the cut line but rather made it look like it was old hat for him. It was anything but at he survived his first cut since 2015 and nearly broke into tears of joy at the accomplishment after shooting a pair of 69s.
“It means so much to me and my family,” said Johnson, the director of instruction at The Meadow Club in Fairfax, California, and the father of a 2-year-old son.
They are all chasing Sahith Theegala, who posted the low round of the day, an 8-under 64, to improve to 12-under 132.
Here’s a closer look at some of the notables who packed their bags and headed for home on Friday.
Man. Missed cuts sting especially when you make a run on Friday and then stymie it up behind a tree on 18 to miss by 1. We have a plan to get Wesley’s driving back, just wait! pic.twitter.com/n2WOMJhn8z
Here’s what you need to know from Friday’s second round at the Fortinet Championship.
The first event of the FedEx Cup Fall has reached the weekend, and the leaderboard is strong with 36 holes in the books.
Ths second round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa, California, is complete, and there’s a California kid in front along with a PGA Tour rookie searching for their first victory. Meanwhile, a pair of U.S. Ryder Cup members, including the event’s two-time defending champion, are in position to make a weekend push.
The Fortinet Championship is the first of seven fall events on Tour, where players will battle it out to earn spots in signature-event fields at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.
