Tag: Minnesota golf

Frankie Capan III clinches top-30 spot on Korn Ferry Tour points list, earns PGA Tour card for 2025

Capan had a Sunday he won’t soon forget.

Frankie Capan III had a Sunday he won’t soon forget.

By virtue of his tie for 12th at the 2024 Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tennessee, the former Florida Gulf Coast golfer clinched a top 30 spot on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earning his 2025 PGA Tour card, the second FGCU alum to do so.

Here’s what you should know about the 24-year-old Capan.

Capan is a native of Stillwater, Minnesota, and is the first from the state in nearly a decade to reach the PGA Tour. Growing up he spent summers in The North State State but played high school golf at Northwest Christian School in Phoenix. He won the 2018 Arizona high school state championship by 10 strokes, shooting a 59 in the final round. Capan was also a top junior golfer, capturing the AJGA Puerto Rico Junior Open in 2016 and teaming with Shaui Ming Wong to win the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur Four-Ball Championship.

Capan started his collegiate career at Alabama but his sophomore season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. He transferred to FGCU for his final two seasons, earning a pair of ASUN Conference Second Team honors. In 2022, Capan helped the Eagles’ men’s golf team become the first program in FGCU history to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. His career scoring average of 72.35 still ranks among the top five in FGCU history.

Capan opted to forgo an extra season of eligibility at FGCU and began his professional golf career.

With two events remaining in the 2024 Korn Ferry season, Capan is currently 14th on the Tour’s Points List. In 23 starts this year, he has five top-10s and two runner-up finishes, losing in a playoff to Harry Higgs at the Visit Knoxville Open in May and finishing three shots behind Max McGreevy at last month’s Magnit Championships.

Capan also made some Korn Ferry history in the opening round of the Veritex Bank Championships in May by shooting a 13-under 58, breaking Scottie Scheffler’s course record by one shot.

Capan has earned nearly $350,000 this season on the Korn Ferry Tour and more than $580,000 in his two years on the circuit. He’s the 14th KFT player to earn PGA Tour status for 2025. There will be 30 cards in all earned this season.

Capan qualified for four PGA Tour events in his career so far: the 2016 Puerto Rico Open, the 2023 3M Open and the past two U.S. Opens. He’s made the cut twice, finishing T-62 at the 3M and T-41 at June’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

Derek Lamely, a member of the inaugural FGCU men’s golf team in 2000-01, earned his PGA Tour card in 2010. The 2023 FGCU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee won the 2010 Puerto Rico Open his rookie season.

Someone in Minnesota hit a mosquito control helicopter with a golf ball

If you’ve been to Minnesota in the summer, you’ve experienced the mosquitoes.

If you’ve been to Minnesota in the summer, you’ve experienced the mosquitoes.

That’s why different agencies in the state fly mosquito control helicopters, to combat the swarms of the small buzzy annoyances.

Last Friday, however, a golfer at The Refuge Golf Club in Oak Grove, Minnesota, about 35 miles north of Minneapolis, hit one of those helicopters, according to a report by Minnesota TV station WCCO.

Now, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office is looking into the incident. A helicopter pilot for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District reported the situation last Friday morning. He said during flight he could see a golf ball coming at the helicopter. Upon landing, he saw the damage to the aircraft caused by the golf ball and reported it.

There are a few unknowns, however. Authorities investigating don’t know who did it, nor can they confirm if it was intentional. Those helicopters do fly low as they need to be able to direct the spray.

“Helicopters are an essential part of mosquito control operations,” said Metropolitan Mosquito Control District Executive Director Daniel Huff, adding that larval control by helicopter is “the safest and most effective way to protect the public from disease and annoyance caused by mosquitoes.”