This week, he’s playing in a Korn Ferry Tour event, which means he’s still playing with some talented golfers. He got a sponsor’s exemption to play at the Veritex Bank Championship, and on his very first hole at Texas Rangers Golf Club, he managed to chip in a shot for an eagle.
Look at this shot from a couple of angles — he’s on top of a little hill and needs to put the right amount of speed on it and land it just right … and he does!
A field of 156 players, including 21 of the top 25 players from the Korn Ferry Tour points standings, will play for a total prize of $600,000 this week, with a cool $108,000 going to the winner.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS NFL analyst Tony Romo returns to Korn Ferry Tour competition this week in Texas.
Tony Romo is teeing it up alongside the professionals once again this week.
The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current lead NFL on CBS analyst is playing on a sponsor exemption this week at the Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour at Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington, Texas.
The course, where all 18 holes are baseball themed (No. 1 is Lead Off, No. 18 is, you guessed it, Walk Off), is just two miles from the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium.
Romo, 41, has made four starts on the PGA Tour since his retirement from the NFL, missing the cut and failing to break 70 in each event. His most-recent pro start was last July at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship, where he withdrew with a wrist injury.
Will Zalatoris, the 24-year-old rising star who finished runner-up at the Masters, plays often with Romo and said on the Pardon My Take podcast that the former quarterback will send him swing videos at 11:30 at night asking questions like, “What do you think of this move because (Ben) Hogan did it?”
A field of 156 players, including 21 of the top 25 players from the Korn Ferry Tour points standings, will play for a total prize of $600,000 this week, with a cool $108,000 going to the winner.
The Monday qualifier for the Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour amounted to one very long day for this group.
Connor Murphy started his day at Trophy Club (Texas) Country Club with an 11 on the par-4 first hole. It wouldn’t be terribly significant but for the fact that Murphy was entered in a Monday qualifier for this week’s Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Unfortunately it got worse – much worse – from there.
Murphy, from Encino, California, had two more doubles and a triple on the front nine at Trophy Club, but also made four pars and a birdie at the par-5 fifth – far and away the highlight of the day. After turning with a 14-over 50 on the front nine, Murphy went off the deep end. His back nine ended with a 12 on the par-5 18th hole for a 58.
At 36-over 108 for 18 holes, Murphy finished 139th, last of those to finish the round and 16 shots behind Taylor Carruthers, an amateur from Granbury, Texas.
After looking at the card, what’s arguably most remarkable about Murphy’s day is how one of the two men paired with him fared. Josh Hart, a professional from Jupiter, Florida, managed a 2-under 70, which still left him four shots short of being in contention for one of four spots in the tournament. Amateur Anthony Gregory, the third member of the group, had an 86.
Peter Uihlein, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion, earns his first win since the 2017 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.
David Lipsky shot 21 spots up the leaderboard after a final-round 65 but neither he nor anyone else was going to catch Peter Uihlein at the MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute in Las Vegas.
Uihlein shot all four rounds in the 60s, capped by his final-round 69 on Sunday, to win on the Korn Ferry Tour at 16 under.
Uihlein, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion, took the outright lead on Saturday at the Paiute Golf Resort’s Sun Mountain course and carried it over to Sunday for his first win since the 2017 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.
Lipsky tied for second with Jamie Lovemark, who started the day one shot off the lead. Lipsky and Lovemark each finished 12 under. Taylor Moore was solo fourth at 10 under.
The four-way tie for fifth at 9 under included Aaron Baddeley, Braden Thornberry, Nick Hardy and Sean Tuten.
Up next on the Korn Ferry Tour is the Veritex Bank Championship at Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington, Texas.
Will Zalatoris is making plenty of Masters headlines for a first-timer. But who is he?
Not since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 has a Masters rookie walked away with the green jacket at Augusta National. Only three players have ever done it. There’s a legitimate possibility it could happen again on Sunday as Will Zalatoris hovers near the top of the leaderboard.
Zalatoris, 24, played in Saturday’s final round alongside Justin Rose. He has displayed a good feel for the golf course (particularly the greens) and opened with rounds of 70-68. In the third round, Zalatoris struggled to get anything going, offsetting each birdie with a bogey.
Who is the tall, thin blonde who recently rose off the ranks of the Korn Ferry Tour? We give you the basics below.
Andrew Novak fired a 29 on the back nine, including an eagle on No. 17, and finished the day with a 62.
SANDESTIN, Florida — The Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort has long hosted collegiate tournaments and senior PGA events. Now for the first time the world-renowned Raven Golf Club welcomed the Korn Ferry Tour for the inaugural Emerald Coast Classic, starting Thursday.
Andrew Novak fired a 29 on the back nine, including an eagle on No. 17, and finished the day with a 62. After the first day of play he has a four-stroke lead over Hayden Buckley and Austin Smotherman.
The Robert Trent Jones Jr. design is playing host to a field of 156 players competing for $600,000 purse.
“Sandestin Resort is truly a remarkable location for professional golf, and we are eager to bring the Emerald Coast Classic to this community,” Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin said. “We have vibrant partners with great track records of building spectacular events, and we are confident that the future stars of the PGA Tour will enjoy competing in this region.”
The Raven Golf Club is a par-71 layout and has previously hosted the PGA Tour Champions Boeing Championship in 2006 and 2007 and has hosted the Golfweek D-3 Fall Invitational since 2010.
The Korn Ferry Tour is the primary pathway for professional golfers looking to earn their PGA Tour card. Since 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour has had 50 available cards for the following season. Twenty-five Tour cards are reserved for the leading points earners at the end of the regular season, and another 25 are up for grabs at the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals that follow.
Adam Svensson won his first Korn Ferry Tour event in more than two years Sunday at the Club Car Championship after surviving a playoff with Max McGreevy.
Svensson shot a final-round 6-under 66 at The Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia, to finish 72 holes with the lead at 17 under until McGreevy, who finished Sunday a 2-under 70, birdied his final two holes Sunday to send the tournament into a playoff.
In the playoff, Svensson and McGreevy each missed a birdie putt on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. On the second playoff hole, McGreevy wasn’t able to match Svensson’s birdie to further extend the playoff, handing Svensson the win.
Svensson, 27, last won on the Korn Ferry Tour at the 2018 Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club.
Finishing one shot back in third at 16 under were George Cunningham, Shad Tuten and Brett Coletta. Taylor Moore finished in solo sixth at 15 under followed by Dawson Armstrong, Zecheng Dou and Carl Yuan – who tied for low round of the day with 8-under 64 – at 14 under in seventh. Six golfers rounded out the top-10 at 13 under.
One of the safest spots to be found Saturday was at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club.
It was Military Appreciation Day and there was enough hardware and personnel on hand at the Deer Creek Course to handle literally any situation which may have arisen.
The U.S. Army had a strong force on hand and the Coast Guard also was represented on the third day of the Korn Ferry Tour event. The Army troops and equipment were from the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart and the Coast Guard was from the detachment stationed at Hunter Army Air Field.
It marked the return of the military presence to the golf tournament after having missed last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone involved was happy to be on the grounds.
The troops enjoyed meeting with civilians and explaining their particular equipment and how it is deployed in the service of our country. The civilians, especially younger spectators, got a delight in seeing the impressive arsenal on display.
The first vehicle visible when entering the grounds was perhaps, other than possibly a Chinook helicopter, the most impressive sight of the day.
Parked across from the cart corral and near the parking areas for volunteers, caddies, VIPs and media was an Assault Breacher Vehicle. Sgt. Joseph Welch was more than happy to explain the vehicle’s details and how it is used.
“The main purpose of the vehicle is to clear a pathway for troops and vehicles through areas which may include mine fields, roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices,” Welch said. “For our job as combat engineers, this is the whole package.
“It makes our job safer,” Welch said. “I don’t know any other vehicle I would be safer in due to the amount of armor.”
Samantha Balmes waves from a Chinook helicopter during Military Appreciation Day at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (Philip Hall/Savannah Morning News)
The two-man vehicle — it has a driver and a vehicle commander — weighs an incredible 55 tons and is full tracked. Due to its armor plating, it is practically impossible for normal enemy fire to penetrate and it can sustain three to five mine blasts.
The vehicle, Welch said, was fielded in 2005 and first used in combat in 2019 by the Marine Corps.
This the first Club Car Championship for Welch, a native of Crawfordsville, Florida, who has been in the Army for six years.
“I’ve been at Fort Stewart for about a year,” Welch said. “This is my first time at the tournament and we’ve had a good number of people wanting to know about the vehicle. We appreciate that very much and it has been a pleasure to explain what it’s about.”
If a 55-ton road hugging vehicle is not to your taste, Coast Guard Lt. JG Nate Gallagher was happy to show fans how they could cover ground quickly through the air.
Gallagher’s job, however, does not call for transporting troops but rather those who have found themselves in a jam and were rescued by the Coast Guard.
“Our primary mission is search and rescue,” said Gallagher who has been in the military for 11 years, the last two in the Coast Guard. “What we have here today is an MH65 Dolphin helicopter.
“I was in the Army for nine and a half years,” Gallagher said. “I moved over to the Coast Guard two years ago. I wanted to join the Coast Guard initially but I couldn’t come in as a helicopter pilot. The Army had a program where I could.”
A native of Pelham, Tennessee, Gallagher explained the local Coast Guard detachment stationed at Hunter can be responsible for a territory extending from the North Carolina-South Carolina line to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Coast Guard, incidentally, does not come under the auspices of the Department of Defense but rather is part of Homeland Security.
“We have one 24/7 crew at Hunter and one that goes up to Charleston, South Carolina,” Gallagher explained. “We’re on duty at all times.
“If there’s a capsizing in North Myrtle Beach or one at Cape Canaveral and they need us, we’ll go. We fly around 250 missions a year” (from Hunter).
Children pose for pictures on a helicopter during Military Appreciation Day at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (Philip Hall/Savannah Morning News
Gallagher welcomed the opportunity to be on hand Saturday after missing last October’s tournament.
“This is a great opportunity for us to come out and talk to people and show them what we do,” Gallagher said. “A lot of people don’t know we’re actually stationed here in Savannah and don’t know much about what we do.”
There were also at least two players in the tournament field who have a military connection.
Tom Whitney, who did not make the cut, is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who turned to pro golf after five years in the Air Force as a nuclear missiles officer. He is in his second year on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Brent Grant, who is playing this weekend, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where his father, who was a career man in the Navy, was stationed. Grant was at 7-under par and tied for 30th place going into Sunday’s final round.
The nightmares refreshed a harrowing, all-too-true memory for van der Walt, who is playing this week in the Club Car Championship.
Dawie van der Walt said the nightmares have finally stopped. One or two nights a month with regularity, he had been dreaming his house was flooding, and the dreams seemed so real.
“One hundred percent,” van der Walt said Friday. “You’re standing and you see water coming into your house and there’s absolutely nothing you can do. Like my dad said, ‘You can fight fire with water; you can fight water with nothing.’ ”
The nightmares refreshed a harrowing, all-too-true memory for van der Walt, 38, a Korn Ferry Tour golfer playing this week in the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club.
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated the Greater Houston area including the neighboring town of Kingwood, Texas, where Dawie (pronounced DAH-vee) resides with his wife Bobbie Jo, a kindergarten teacher, and their two daughters (now 9 and 6).
Their home was flooding, so they tried to evacuate their street by kayak, but the current was too powerful and they escaped by boat.
Except van der Walt needed to go back to his house to retrieve diapers for his infant daughter. They had stored them upstairs, and stores were closed. The South African, a big guy at 6-foot-5 and a former rugby player, planned to float out by mattress.
The water was receding but the current, however, was too strong, and he eventually got stuck in harm’s way.
“I couldn’t move,” he said. “I was hanging onto a flagpole. I was hanging on like this with all the might I had and (a police boat) pulled me out of this current. It’s crazy.”
He feels extremely fortunate that the disaster did not result in tragedy for the van der Walt family. They were able to keep and repair their home. He is thankful to the federal agencies and others for disaster relief funds.
Talk about nightmares: He wishes he had flood insurance but said the house was not in a flood zone and that coverage was not available. He said his homeowners insurance policy covered wind-driven damage but that did not apply.
He is not using this life-and-death experience as a salve whenever he has a bad day at the office.
“Really, it adds pressure,” van der Walt said. “I got a $200,000 bill overnight. At least $200,000, maybe more. I’m still paying that off. It doesn’t make it easier out here. It’s just more pressure.”
He has all the perspective he needs since turning pro in 2007. The former All-America golfer at Lamar University worked his way from mini-tours through the Web.com tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) and onto the PGA Tour for one full, rough season in 2016 (11 cuts made in 25 events). He’s back to grinding on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won twice in 2015.
“When you have no other option, that’s what you’ve got to do,” said van der Walt, who also won twice on the European Tour in 2013 before the current dry spell. “When you don’t have a Plan B, this is your only option, you grind it out and just keep pushing. At some point, things will turn around.
“Unfortunately you can’t force it. There’s nothing you can do. You can practice and do all the right things, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. You’ve got to be patient.”
Perhaps his patience will pay off as soon as this weekend. After opening with a 70, van der Walt moved up 38 spots to fifth place with a 7-under-par 65 on Friday at the Deer Creek Course.
He said he loves the course, which has “no easy holes.” Still, he carded an eagle at the par-5 No. 3; and birdies at Nos. 5, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15; with a lone bogey at No. 11.
The 65 didn’t feel like it, he said. He does feel he’s playing well; now he’s got to figure out how to play better on the weekends, which has been an issue for him.
“I shoot even par on the weekend and I get lapped,” van der Walt said. “I’ve got to figure out how to keep doing this, how to keep the pedal down.”
So far, van der Walt said Friday, nothing has worked.
“I feel like I need about a 14-shot lead going into the weekend if I want to pull it off,” he said.
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominiz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.” Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of …
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.”
Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of the Club Car Championship at The Landings. The tournament is being played on the Deer Creek course.
But Thompson and Macdonald and the rest of the field are chasing former Oklahoma All-America Max McGreevy, who shot a seven-under 65 on the wind-swept course to take the lead with the afternoon starters yet to go off when he finished.
Crowd favorite Shad Tuten, a former All-America at Armstrong State before it was merged with Georgia Southern, turned in a solid 67 to share fourth place with Matthew Short.
Kris Blanks, a former assistant pro at the Landings Club, carded a one-over par 73. Blanks played in last October’s tournament, then known as the Savannah Golf Championship, but he missed the cut.
Jonathan Griz, a 17-year-old high school junior from Hilton Head, carded an even-par 72 to put himself in a position to make the cut.
Griz, who last year at age of 16 became the youngest player ever to win the South Carolina Amateur state championship, got into the tournament by being the runner-up at Monday’s qualifier at the Georgia Southern course in Statesboro.
Kris Blanks blasts out of a bunker on the 9th hole during the first round of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Club Car Championship at the Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News)
After playing at even par on the front, Griz shot five-under on the back nine to finish second and earn himself a spot in the field. Although graduation is a year away, he has already committed to play at Alabama.
The other amateur in the field, 16-year-old Reed Lotter of Savannah, shot an opening round 1 over 73 and is T-108.
Roberto Diaz, who won last week’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open for his first victory in his 194th start as a professional, let a good round get away from him down the stretch and finished at 2-under 70.
“I’ve not been getting off to a good start,” Tuten, who missed the cut last week, said. “The plan was to get off to a good start and I did.”
Tuten had a group of followers and he rewarded them with an eagle on hole No. 7, which was his 16th of the day.
“You want to play well even if you’re playing without anyone following you,” he said. “But for me to have people watching it motivates me.
“I live for this tournament. It’s a huge deal for me to come out here and have fun. Everyone here makes you feel great. I’m in a comfort zone and it helps me to perform better playing in front of friends and family.”
Tuten said the weather was ideal at the beginning but that the wind started picking up and gusting around his seventh hole and it never let up.
“It was like playing two golf courses,” he said. “This is not a bomber’s course which suits me. I just tried to stay steady.”
In talking about his round Thompson uttered what every player loves to say: “When I won in Chicago…”
Thompson turned pro in 2014 and earlier this season he won the Evans Scholar Invitational for his first win in his 103rd start.
“There was a lot of wind,” Thompson said, echoing the thoughts of nearly all of the early finishers. “I didn’t expect the wind when we started. It was really calm.
“We had four or five holes straight into the wind and all you want to do there is make par,” Thompson said. “Then we went downwind and that’s when you try to make some birdies.”
Thompson hit mostly three-wood off the tee and hit 13 of 14 fairways which enabled him to turn in his best round at Deer Creek. He was 15th at last fall’s tournament.
“I’m just trying to do what I did when I won in Chicago,” Thompson said. “I’m not forcing anything. Today I had great ball striking and putted well.”
