Tag: Ollie Schniederjans

Ollie Schniederjans was in contention down the stretch at Bermuda Championship, which shows he’s back on track

Ollie Schniederjans finished third in the Bermuda Championship, which is a sign that the 27-year-old’s Korn Ferry Tour reset is paying off.

Ollie Schniederjans was in the Bermuda Championship until the very end. The 27-year-old, in the field on a sponsor exemption, came up two shots shy of the playoff between Brian Gay and Wyndham Clark on Sunday – which Gay ultimately won. Schniederjans’ 13-under total was good for solo third.

A few more back-nine putts drop and Schniederjans, a player who has gone back and forth from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour, would have returned stateside in a totally different situation.

“Obviously a win would change my whole situation more than these guys because I’m a sponsor exemption this week,” Schniederjans said. “I’m just lucky to get the opportunity and take advantage of it and have a chance.”

Truly, Bermuda was a family affair for the Schniederjans crew. Ollie and Luke Schniederjans, 22, both received sponsor exemptions. (Bermuda Championship tournament director Sean Sovacool is a Georgia Tech alum, just like the Schniederjans brothers). It was their first time playing in the same Tour field. Middle brother Ben has caddied for Ollie for the past year.

Bermuda Championship: Leaderboard | Best photos

“I always dreamed of us playing a PGA Tour event together,” Ollie said before the tournament. “All three of us brothers out here walking around, it’s pretty incredible.”

Luke missed the 36-hole cut.

Ollie lost his Tour privileges after finishing No. 180 in the 2018-19 FedEx Cup point standings and spent last season competing on the Korn Ferry Tour. But he took the chance to regroup and had five top-10 finishes in 17 events in 2020. He is 11th in scoring average on that tour.

Schniederjans admits he has been lost for a few years – didn’t know what his swing was doing or how to fix it, and as a result, struggled from tee to green. In the early part of 2020, Schniederjans was devoted to figuring out the formula for his own success. Now when he finds himself veering of the rails, he can get himself back on track.

[vertical-gallery id=778072677]

“I’ve been able to manage it really nice this year and get some consistency and I’ve learned even when I’ve gotten off, gotten back on track, I kind of understand my stuff even better,” he said.

The Bermuda stop, where Schniederjans missed the cut a year ago, is a good indicator that it’s working. Any Tour stop for a player looking for a breakthrough, like Schniederjans, can be life-changing. Brendon Todd demonstrated that last year. The journeyman pro was winless since 2014, but Bermuda represented the first of two straight fall wins that turned around his career.

Schniederjans calls it a “high responsibility” playing on the PGA Tour, where there’s a lot more money on the line and a sense of importance. In that sense, a step back to the Korn Ferry Tour was a blessing – one that allowed time to hit the rest button.

“Kind of used it to my advantage, I would say. You don’t want to do that when you’re on the PGA Tour, you don’t want to take your time. You want to be ready to go right away. I think I was able to kind of look at it as, all right, I’ve got 12 or 15 months to kind of get myself ready so that when I come, back I’m actually ready to do something out here. I think it worked out in my favor.”

It sure would seem so.

[jwplayer 7NBaZ2A0-vgFm21H3]

[lawrence-related id=778072997,778072940,778072570]

Bermuda Championship: Who could be this year’s Brendon Todd?

While the stars prep for Augusta National in two weeks, there are plenty of storylines for someone to grab the spotlight in Bermuda.

A year ago, Brendon Todd arrived in Bermuda as a down-on-his-luck journeyman PGA Tour pro winless since 2014. By Sunday he had blitzed the field at the Bermuda Championship, victorious by six strokes, won the next event too, and racked up another 10 top-25 finishes last season as he resurrected his career.

When asked how he would have responded if told prior to the start of last year’s tournament that he would improve from outside the top 500 to No. 41 in the Official World Golf Ranking this week and be the highest ranked player in the field, he said, “I probably would have laughed and said, ‘I’ll take it, give me more, right?’ ”

While much attention already is being devoted to the Masters, which begins in two weeks, for the 132-man field this week and next at the Vivint Houston Open, these starts mean everything. Todd, who is making his 200th career Tour start, took advantage last year making seven birdies in a row in the final round, beginning on the second hole, to coast to victory.

BERMUDA: Tee times, TV info | Fantasy | Odds, best bets

“I felt like I was kind of walking on clouds and that’s a really special feeling to have,” he said.

For some of the special invites, this week could change the trajectory of their career. Take Camiko Smith, a 35-year-old native of Bermuda who is making his Tour debut after winning a 36-hole local qualifier played earlier this month. Until Todd came along and shot one of three 62s at last year’s tournament, Smith shared the course record of 64 with Adam Scott. Smith grew up along the fourth hole of Port Royal Golf Club in Southampton, so close to the Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, in fact, that a ball pulled left will end up out of bounds in his family’s yard.

“I actually hop over a fence and I’m right on it,” said Smith, who had been teaching golf in Orlando and Dallas prior to returning to Bermuda and working at a local glass company for the last four months. “I used to get kicked off for doing that, now I’m sitting here playing a PGA Tour event in my backyard, so it’s pretty awesome.”

Danish teen sensation Rasmus Hojgaard has already won twice on the European Tour, becoming its first champion that was born in the 2000s. The 19-year-old, who has PGA Tour aspirations, played in the U.S. Open in September and jumped at the chance to make another PGA Tour start.

“It was a no-brainer for me to come over here and play,” he said.

Left to right: Brothers Ben, Luke and Ollie Schniederjans enjoy a walk in Bermuda. Photo by Mark Williams/PGA Tour.

The Bermuda Championship also has a couple family affairs as 64-year-old former Players Championship winner Fred Funk and son Taylor, 24, are grouped together Thursday (12:15 p.m. ET tee time) while brothers Ollie and Luke Schniederjans, who also benefited from sponsor’s exemptions, will be playing in their first Tour field together. It didn’t hurt the chances for the brothers, who both attended Georgia Tech, that Bermuda Championship tournament director Sean Sovacool is also a fellow Yellow Jackets alum.

Ollie, 27, a former No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, lost his Tour privileges after finishing No. 180 in the 2018-19 FedEx Cup point standings and spent last season competing on the Korn Ferry Tour, while younger brother Luke, 22, is making his Tour debut. (Middle brother Ben has caddied for Ollie for the past year.)

“I always dreamed of us playing a PGA Tour event together,” Ollie said. “All three of us brothers out here walking around, it’s pretty incredible.”

Someone will leave Bermuda with a trophy, $720,000 added to their bank account, a two-year Tour exemption and a berth in the 2021 Masters among the spoils.

“There’s probably going to be somebody this week that finishes first or second who is a great player and has shown great form either in the last year or in a previous year that changes the curve of their career,” Todd said. “That’s what’s so cool about some of these events that don’t have the top-ranked guys in them.”

[jwplayer xR5QuA20-9JtFt04J]

[lawrence-related id=778072376,778072329,778011394]