But the summer and fall have belonged to Luke Clanton. The junior at Florida State had a chance to win the 2024 RSM Classic on Sunday at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course, but a late bogey resulted in a runner-up finish for the top-ranked amateur in the world.
Since June, Clanton has made eight starts on the PGA Tour, making the cut seven times and finishing in the top 10 four of those starts. He even finished runner-up twice, coming this week at the RSM Classic and at the John Deere Classic.
Thanks to PGA Tour University Accelerated, he’s closing in on a PGA Tour card, too.
This week, he earned two more points for the program, which awards collegiate amateurs a PGA Tour card if they get to 20 points. At PGA Tour events, one point is awarded for a made cut while another is given if a player finishes in the top 10.
Just in PGA Tour events, Clanton has earned 11 points this year. Add in his No. 1 WAGR ranking and appearance on the Arnold Palmer Cup team, Clanton is up to 17 points. Three more, and he’s got a PGA Tour card.
Vanderbilt senior Gordon Sargent secured his 20th point last fall but decided to return to school and defer his card until May when he completes play at the NCAA Championship. In addition to Sargent, the leader of the PGA Tour University standings for the Class of 2025 will also earn a card following nationals.
If Clanton finds his way into more PGA Tour events and his stellar play continues, three of college golf’s best players could be PGA Tour members by next summer.
If these amateurs could’ve collected prize money, their 2024 winnings would have totaled $4,263,930.
The amateurs shone bright this year.
A total of 15 amateurs made 22 cuts on the PGA Tour in 2024.
Luke Clanton of Florida State led the way, having turned the trick at seven different events, including a tie for second in the season-ending RSM Classic.
Neal Shipley made two cuts, both at majors: the Masters and the U.S. Open.
Nick Dunlap, of course, one-upped all the ams in 2024 as he’s the one with a victory, at the American Express back in January. He’s on the very short list of just eight golfers to win a PGA Tour event as an amateur. He later won the Barracuda Championship for his first victory as a professional.
Would-be winnings
Ams don’t get paid if they make the cut or win, of course, but if these guys did pocket the money from the finishing positions they posted, they would have taken home $4,263,930.
Dunlap’s payday at the AmEx would’ve been worth $1.512 million. Clanton’s tie for second at the John Deere would’ve been good for $712,000. His tie for second at the RSM would’ve meant $676,400. If he could’ve cashed in on all seven finishes, he’d have won $2,022,713. He would have been the 84th player to surpass $2 million on the PGA Tour’s 2024 season money list.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Maverick McNealy guessed that in his mind he had made a putt to win a PGA Tour over a thousand times. On Sunday, the 29-year-old stuffed a 6-iron from 183 yards on the par-4 18th hole at Sea Island’s Seaside Course to set up a 5-foot, 5-inch putt for his first victory at the 2024 RSM Classic.
“It felt like déjà vu and it came off perfectly,” he said.
His younger brother, Scout, screamed in jubilation after the winning putt dropped: “We’re going to Maui, baby!”
That would be the site of the 2025 Sentry, the first tournament of the new season in January that is a reward for winners. Maverick replied, “Yeah, we’re going to Augusta, too.”
Indeed, McNealy’s maiden victory comes with an invitation the Masters in April, too. McNealy had numerous birdie opportunities down the stretch during the final round, but he made the one that counted the most.
The birdie propelled McNealy to a final-round 2-under 68 and a 72-hole aggregate of 16-under 266, topping Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria and amateur Luke Clanton by a shot. Berger was in the final group with McNealy and missed a 21-foot birdie attempt, but he moved inside the FedEx Cup top 125 with his runner-up finish at the RSM. (Joel Dahmen closed with a bogey-free 64 to finish No. 124 and Sam Ryder, who missed the 36-hole cut, hung on to No. 125 and the final fully-exempt card for 2025.)
Both Echavarria and Clanton missed par putts on the final hole to drop to 15 under, waiting to see what the final two groups did down the stretch.
McNealy was the first to reach 16 under in the final round but he made a bogey at 14 and his trusty putter started to let him down. “I was definitely leaking oil, that’s for sure,” he said.
Maverick McNealy and his caddie Scout McNealy pose with the trophy after winning The RSM Classic 2024 at Sea Island Resort in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
He credited his brother, who began caddying for him in August, with breaking the tension on the 17th green, making a joke that had him doubled over in laughter.
“Busting a gut, I didn’t think that was possible in that situation,” McNealy said.
Asked to share the joke, McNealy thought better of it.
“There’s two kinds of jokes,” he said, “there’s jokes that you can share and there’s funny ones, so I’m sorry.”
Added Scout: “I just try to keep him smiling and laughing, and when he’s playing like he is, it’s easy.”
Tied for the lead at the 18th hole, which played as the statistically most difficult hole of the day, he said he told himself, “Let’s hit two great golf shots and I can have the best off-season of my life.”
After a perfect drive, McNealy weighed his options, choosing a 6-iron, and listened to his brother’s advice. “He told me compress it, just smash down, take a divot. Scout’s coaching has been pretty simple lately, he says swing left and take a divot. So I just swung left, took a divot, all came out right online dead center of the clubface and it couldn’t have been a better time for it.”
Growing up, McNealy’s sport was ice hockey and he was a little-known recruit to just about everyone but Stanford’s golf coach Conrad Ray, behind top-ranked junior Jim Liu and Australia’s No. 1 player Viraat Badwhar.
McNealy always joked that Stanford had recruited No. 1 in America. No. 1 in Australia. No. 1 in Portola Valley (Calif). But he blossomed into the Haskins Award winners as the top male collegian, winning 11 times, and was the No. 1-ranked amateur when he turned pro out of Stanford. He made steady progress from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour but couldn’t get over the hump for a win.
“I knew all the pieces were there, they just hadn’t fit together,” he said, noting that he was waiting to wait 10-15 years to taste victory if that’s what it took.
McNealy was sidelined for nearly five months last year after tearing the anterior sterno-clavicular ligament in his left shoulder during the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am.
“I never lost faith that I would be back better than ever,” he said.
He changed his golf swing mechanics to make sure he doesn’t put as much stress on the joint in his shoulder. This season, he satisfied his major medical exemption at the Farmers Insurance Open in Feburary.
McNealy admitted that the RSM Classic hasn’t been a good fit for his game in the past but his wife, Maya, convinced him to play this week because she enjoys staying at The Lodge, the hotel at the Sea Island Resort.
“I think she loves that cookie and milk service at 7:00 p.m. She’s like, ‘We’re playing Sea Island.’ I’m like, ‘OK, we’re playing Sea Island,’ ” he said.
McNealy opened with an 8-under 62 at the Seaside Course to take the lead, calling his play an A+ on Thursday.
“It was as good as it has ever been,” McNealy said. “it kind of affirmed all the work that our team’s been putting in and the changes we made this year.”
Then the task at hand became more difficult and he hung on through the worst of the windy weather on Friday to shoot 2-under 70 at the Plantation Course. A 66 on Saturday gave him a share of the 54-hole lead.
Clanton, a junior at Florida State University, nearly became the second amateur to win on the Tour this season. The T-2 gives him another point in the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, moving him to 17. That’s three points from earning a PGA Tour card.
“It’s going to be a tough one to definitely take, for sure, after bogeying the last, but I think it’s proven to me that out here I can win, so I’ll be training for that,” he said.
Instead, it was McNealy, who finally proved he had what it takes to win on the PGA Tour.
“The cool thing about professional golf is that you have the chance to change your life any given week and it doesn’t matter what happens the week before, two weeks before,” McNealy said. “Rafa Campos (last week’s winner in Bermuda) is an amazing example of that. It takes all year to have a bad year and it takes one week to have a great year.”
Josele Ballester picked a good place to pick up his first collegiate victory.
The senior at Arizona State made pars on his final two holes Sunday morning to hold on and win the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational, one of the top events of the season, at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois.
Because of Sunday’s weather forecast, the teams played 36 holes on Saturday in an attempt to finish the tournament. However, Ballester’s group had two holes remaining before play was suspended due to darkness on Saturday, so he and a few others returned early Sunday to finish in the rain.
Ballester, the 2024 U.S. Amateur champion, finished at 10 under for the week, tying the 54-hole record at the event. He topped Georgia Tech’s Benjamin Reuter by one shot for the individual title.
Reuter and the Yellow Jackets aren’t going home empty handed, though. Georgia Tech captured the team title for its first win since 2023, beating ASU by a shot, with Reuter placing runner-up, 2024 NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai T-6 and Carson Kim and Kale Fontenot finishing T-28.
Oklahoma State and North Carolina tied for third at 1 under, 11 shots behind Georgia Tech.
Florida State junior Luke Clanton made his collegiate debut this weekend, shooting 3 under to tie for sixth.
Clanton earns spots in two majors thanks to the achievement.
To say it has been the summer of Luke Clanton may be an understatement.
Five made cuts in six PGA Tour events, three of those being top-10 finishes, the first amateur to do so since Jack Nicklaus in 1961. A runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships. Three collegiate wins dating to the spring.
On Wednesday, Clanton was awarded the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading male in the 2024 World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“Winning the McCormack Medal is an honor I will cherish forever,” Clanton said in a release. “This award represents not just my efforts, but also the incredible family support I have. This will inspire me to keep pushing boundaries and to pursue my dreams with even greater determination. I’m proud to join the ranks of those who have achieved this distinction.”
Next summer, Clanton earned exemptions into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
The American rose to the top of the men’s ranking after a Round of 64 victory at the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club last week. Over the summer, Clanton became the first amateur to record consecutive top 10s on the PGA Tour since 1958. A week after finishing T-10 in the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic, the Florida State first-team All-American finished runner-up in the John Deere Classic. He most recently recorded a solo fifth place finish at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
Clanton also made his U.S. Open debut at Pinehurst and became the first amateur in championship history to record consecutive rounds in the 60s with back-to-back 69s in the second and third rounds. He would finish T-41.
Luke Clanton hugs his caddie after finishing No. 18 during Round 3 of Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit on Saturday, June 29, 2024.
During this past collegiate season at Florida State University, Clanton finished fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship and fifth in the NCAA Stanford (Calif.) Regional, leading the Seminoles to the NCAA Championship, where they fell to Auburn in the championship final. Clanton shared runner-up honors with five other golfers in the NCAA Division I Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort’s North Course, one stroke behind winner Hiroshi Tai of Georgia Tech. Clanton went 2-1 in match play, losing to Auburn’s JM Butler in the championship match, 2 and 1.
Now, Clanton turns his sights toward earning a PGA Tour card, which he could do before finishing his junior year.
Thanks to PGA Tour University Accelerated, players earn points based on their accomplishments in college, amateur and professional golf, and they will earn PGA Tour membership if they amass at least 20 points by the end of their third year of NCAA eligibility. Clanton is at 14 points, and there’s a good chance he gets to 20 by next spring.
He gets points for every made cut and top 10 in PGA Tour events. Three points are also up for grabs for every major college golf postseason award. For majors, he gets points for competing in them, making the cut and placing top 20.
It’s likely Clanton will get a few more Tour starts, and he’s guaranteed spots in two major championships. Dominate the college level this season, win some awards, and Clanton could join Gordon Sargent as players to earn a Tour card and making the jump after the NCAA Championship next May.
CHASKA, Minn. — Luke Clanton’s wild summer is over.
The top-ranked amateur in the world lost Thursday afternoon in a Round of 32 match at the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Clanton, who came into the week off playing 39 holes Sunday in the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, lost 1 down to Jackson Buchanan, a rising senior at Illinois who’s ranked 17th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“It’s kind of hard to go against one of your good buddies out here,” Clanton said after his match. “No matter which way it would’ve went, it was awesome. Great match.”
Clanton led 1 up with four holes to play, but Buchanan birdied the par-5 15th to tie the match, and a wayward Clanton drive on the signature par-4 16th led to a bogey and a 1-up lead for Buchanan.
Then on 18, Buchanan’s approach missed right while Clanton gave himself a 20-footer for birdie. Buchanan hit a delicate chip shot to a couple feet, and Clanton’s birdie chance slid beneath the hole. Buchanan cleaned up for par, and he’s into the Round of 16, where he will face Tyler Mawhinney Thursday afternoon.
Jackson Buchanan plays his tee shot on the fifth hole during the round of 32 of the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (Chris Keane/USGA)
Mawhinney won the Canadian Amateur last week to earn his way into the field at the U.S. Amateur.
As for Clanton, his crazy summer has come to a close. After leading Florida State to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship in late May, he proceeded to make the cut in five of six PGA Tour events, recording top-five finishes in three of them, the first amateur to do so on Tour since Jack Nicklaus in 1961. He rose to No. 1 in the world, and he also earned 14 points in the PGA Tour University Accelerated ranking, meaning if he can earn six more, he’ll earn an automatic PGA Tour card.
But his biggest lesson this summer was that golf isn’t everything.
“I think I get a little bit too obsessed with it sometimes,” Clanton said. “I’ve got a great family, great girlfriend, great friends. Golf is just a game. You don’t have to be too hard on yourself all the time. But, you know, it was awesome, dude. This is like, what you train for to be in those positions. So it’s fun.”
As for what’s next, Clanton said he’s looking forward to getting back to Tallahassee and beginning his junior season with Florida State. Last year, Clanton finished as the top-ranked player in the NCAA golf rankings.
Now, he returns to college golf as the best amateur in the world with a whole lot of confidence to build on what has been an incredible 2024.
Clanton had to play 39 holes Sunday, a day before he’s set to tee it up in the U.S. Amateur.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Amateur Luke Clanton signed scorecards for three different rounds on Sunday at the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship en route to finishing fifth and recording his third top-10 finish of the summer. In doing so, he joined Jack Nicklaus as the only amateurs since 1961 to notch three top-10s in a Tour season.
Clanton began the day waking up at 4:50 a.m. ET to play three holes when play resumed at 6:50 a.m and complete his second round and make the cut. When play was suspended on Saturday due to darkness, he was on the cut line at 4 under. He made two pars and a birdie at No. 9, his last hole, to sign for 67 at Sedgefield Country Club.
“It’s probably the most stressful three holes I played in a while,” he said.
Clanton relaxed and went on a roll in the third round, making a pair of eagles and shooting 8-under 62, his third score of 63 or better, the most on Tour since he made his debut at the U.S. Open in June.
Clanton had a share of the lead as he played the 11th hole, his second hole of his final round, when Matt Kuchar made bogey at 14 in his third round.
Clanton was bidding to become the second amateur to win this season on Tour. Nick Dunlap won the American Express earlier this season, the first amateur to do so since Phil Mickelson in 1991. But Clanton, who said he was exhausted by the end of his 39-hole endurance test, posted a final-round 69 after bogeys on his last two holes.
“It’s just that confidence builder knowing I can compete out here and it’s awesome,” he said.
Asked if his success against the pros this week might change his mind about turning pro, he reiterated that he wanted to win a national championship with his teammates after losing in the match-play final this season to Auburn.
“It’s pretty plain and simple. I keep saying it over and over, and I will say it because it’s been pretty hard to lose the way we did,” he said. “I’ve got that in the back of my mind for a while.”
With another top-10 finish, Clanton earned his 13th point in PGA Tour U so it’s just a matter of time before he clinches a Tour card while at FSU. But first, he’s scheduled to compete in the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National in Edina, Minnesota, 1,162 miles away.
Asked about how he’s was going to handle all this golf, he said, “It’s going to be pretty brutal, no doubt, but again, like I signed up to do this. It’s cool to be busy, I’m excited to be out here. To play 36 on the PGA Tour, never complain.”
After the tournament the rising 20-year-old junior at Florida State dubbed the U.S. Amateur his favorite championship and added, “These pro events are no joke for sure, but as an amateur you want to win the U.S. Am. Going to try to get some rest and go out and play tomorrow.”
The stroke-play portion of the U.S. Amateur begins on Monday, and Clanton has a 3:09 p.m. ET tee time. Speaking Sunday, Clanton said he would be flying later that night.
“I’m actually taking a private airline to Minnesota, which is very nice,” he said. “It’s pretty expensive, but whatever.”
Many of the world’s best players are across the pond this week for the 2024 Genesis Scottish Open, but there’s a field of PGA Tour players headed to Kentucky for the ISCO Championship at Keene Trace Golf Club. Arguably the biggest storyline heading into the tournament is amateur Luke Clanton, who last week became the first amateur to finish inside the top 10 in back-to-back Tour starts — T-10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, T-2 at the John Deere Classic — since Billy Joe Patton in 1957.
Incredibly, with names like Joel Dahmen, Cameron Champ and Sam Ryder in the field, Clanton is the betting favorite to win the ISCO Championship at +900 (9/1). The next closest is Michael Thorbjornsen, another rising Tour star, at +1400 (14/1). Thorbjornsen, like Clanton, was a runner-up at TPC Deere Run last week.
Thanks to his amateur status, Clanton, a sophomore at Florida State, lost $804,776 in earnings over the last two weeks.
Photo: DraftKings
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The name Davis Thompson is not unfamiliar for those who follow the PGA Tour.
He has been trending in recent weeks, with two runner-up finishes in his past six starts, including last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His worst finish in that stretch, outside of a missed cut at the Canadian Open, was T-27.
And now, Thompson is a PGA Tour winner. He captured the 2024 John Deere Classic on Sunday for his first Tour victory. Thompson blitzed TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, setting a tournament scoring record of 28-under 256, besting Michael Kim’s 2017 record of 27 under. He won by four shots in his 63rd career start over a group of players at 24 under, including amateur Luke Clanton.
“I got off to a great start today and was able to just kind of cruise on the back nine,” Thompson said. “Yeah, getting off to a good start was crucial, and I was just able to ride the momentum coming in.”
Thompson earned $1.44 million with the win in addition to 500 FedEx Cup points.
Also in a weird twist, for the third straight year at the John Deere Classic, the winner has stayed at the same house. In 2022, J.T. Poston took home the title while staying at the property. Last year, Sepp Straka was in a group of golfers who rented the house, and he won.
This year, Thompson was in the group who rented the house. And lo and behold, he’s the winner. He even stayed in the same room that Straka did.
“I think I have to pay for the whole house now, which is unfortunate, but I’ll gladly write the check for that,” Thompson said.
Thompson is also the 24th golfer to earn his first career win at the John Deere Classic, which is the most of any event in PGA Tour history.
Patton did it in the 1957 U.S. Open and 1958 Masters. Clanton did it in consecutive weeks, and he’s in the field next week at the ISCO Championship, as well.
For Pan, his finish earned him the second spot up for grabs this week at the 2024 Open Championship.
“It’s going to be a great trip,” Pan said. “Honestly going to be hectic to arrange all the travel details last minute, but it will be a good problem to have and my wife and I will be looking forward to our trip there.”
“It’s unreal to make a birdie on the last hole and do all that.”
Luke Clanton is in the midst of the best stretch of golf of his life. On Sunday at the John Deere Classic, he did something not done since the 1950s on the PGA Tour.
Clanton, a rising junior at Florida State, finished tied for second at TPC Deere Run. With the finish, he became the first amateur with top-10 finishes in back-to-back starts on the PGA Tour since Billy Joe Patton in the 1957 U.S. Open and 1958 Masters.
Last week, Clanton placed T-10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club.
“We came into the week with pretty high expectations,” Clanton said. “I think I kind of reached that expectation for sure. Of course you want to win. But again, to do what I did out there today was awesome. It’s just a blessing to be here, man.
“It’s unreal to make a birdie on the last hole and do all that.”
Clanton made the cut at the U.S. Open and now has in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour. He’s up to nine points in PGA Tour University Accelerated, a program that awards Tour status for college golfers who earn 20 points for achievements in the professional and amateur game.
He gets a point for every made cut on Tour in addition to another point for top-10 finishes. That’s four in two weeks.
Clanton is third in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and finished the college season as the highest-ranked player in the NCAA Golf rankings. He helped Florida State to a national runner-up finish.
