Tag: Pierceson Coody

After Monday qualifying, Parker Coody joins twin Pierceson Coody in field at 2023 Honda Classic

In a 5-for-3 playoff, Parker hit the stick with his approach and had a tap-in birdie to advance.

It took until Tuesday morning, but Parker Coody earned his way in the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic field thanks to a Monday qualifier. In a 5-for-3 playoff, Coody hit the stick with his approach and had a tap-in birdie to advance.

Now, Coody gets to join his twin, Pierceson, teeing it up at PGA National Resort’s Champion course.

“It’s a lot better than staying at home or watching him this week,” Parker said.

Pierceson, who won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Panama Championship earlier this month, is in the field on a sponsor exemption. The brothers helped Texas claim the 2022 NCAA title last spring, and now, they’ll make their professional debuts on Tour together.

“It’s really cool for our parents,” Pierceson said. “Dad is caddying for Parker this week. Mom is flying in. It’s turned into a good week, and it’s turned into a really special week that hopefully we make the most of.”

For Pierceson, who has two wins on the KFT, it’s his third Tour start as a pro. He previously missed the cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson and the U.S. Open in 2021. Parker is making his second start as a pro; he missed the cut in 2020 at the Shriners Children’s Open.

Parker and Pierceson are the grandsons of Charles Coody, the winner of the 1971 Masters. Charles is close friends with Jack Nicklaus, one of the hosts of the Honda Classic. The brothers say they’ve gotten plenty of advice from grandpa.

“He has referenced Jack, he has referenced Arnie, all those great players that he played with,” Pierceson said. “To see the Bear logo around this week and kind of think about some of the little tidbits he has given us about Jack is really cool.”

Parker earned his first professional victory last summer on PGA Tour Canada. He has conditional status on the KFT and has missed the cut in both his starts. In November, he won the TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational.

The Honda Classic’s field is wedged between a pair of designated events, meaning plenty of names could look to get their big break this week. Parker and Pierceson are hoping to do just that, just don’t get them confused.

“We said this a decent amount, but the goal is to play the Tour together.” Parker said. “This is obviously a great step in that direction, and hopefully in five, 10 years we’re still doing this. But yeah, to be able to both make our Tour starts as professionals together, I think it’s something we’ll always remember.”

They’re not grouped together during the first two rounds but they are in consecutive groups, with Parker playing alongside Kyle Westmoreland and Scott Harrington off the first tee Thursday, just in front of the Harry Higgs-Brandon Matthews-Pierceson Coody trio.

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Former Texas star Pierceson Coody earns first Korn Ferry Tour win in just his third start

Coody didn’t take long to earn his first professional win.

Three starts into his professional career and Pierceson Coody is already a winner.

Just a month after helping lead Texas to the team title at the NCAA Championship, Coody ran away to win the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2022 Live and Work in Maine Open at 20 under, five shots clear of runner-up Jacob Bergeron. The former Longhorn shot a 5-under 66 in the final round at Falmouth Country Club for his fourth round in the 60s of the week (69-62-67).

Nelson Ledesma, Will Gordon, Fabian Gomez and amateur Cole Anderson finished T-3 at 14 under. Zach Sucher shot the low round of the day, a 7-under 64, to climb into seventh at 12 under.

Coody finished in the top five of the final 2022 PGA Tour University standings to receive Korn Ferry Tour membership for the rest of this season, starting with the BMW Charity Pro-Am earlier this month. The Plano, Texas, native missed the cut at the BMW, then finished T-4 last week at the 2022 Wichita Open.

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College Performers of the Week powered by Rapsodo: Pierceson Coody, Texas

Coody won in his first start since October after a freak injury.

It’s a Texas sweep for the men’s team and player of the week honors.

The Longhorns claimed the team title at the 2022 Augusta Haskins Award Invitational by an impressive 26 shots and were led by senior Pierceson Coody, who claimed individual honors at 17 under following rounds of 67-66-66 in his first start following a freak injury in the fall. The win is the second of Coody’s college career following last year’s George Hannon Collegiate.

Coody matched the second-best 54-hole score in relation to par at 17 under, one shot off the mark previously set by Beau Hossler in the 2015-16 season.

Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual
College golf blog: The Road to Grayhawk

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Players to watch: Predicting 10 first-time PGA Tour winners in 2022

Keep an eye on these PGA Tour veterans and incoming rookies in 2022.

After a nearly two-month holiday hiatus, the PGA Tour returns to action with the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

The last time we saw the boys in action, Talor Gooch earned his first-ever win on Tour at the RSM Classic in November. Three weeks prior Lucas Herbert did the same at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. As the new year approaches, with the depth and level of talent on Tour at seemingly an all-time high these days, your friends at Golfweek got to thinking — who might be next to earn that first big Tour win?

From veterans to rising stars from the amateur ranks, here are 10 players who we predict will hoist a trophy for the first time in 2022.

Walker Cup: USA’s Pierceson Coody overcomes stomach bug, knocks off Alex Fitzpatrick

After sitting the morning session due to illness, Team USA’s Pierceson Coody rallied from a 2-down deficit to earn a big scalp in downing Alex Fitzpatrick of GB&I.

JUNO BEACH, Fla. – When Pierceson Coody woke up at 9 a.m. ET, nearly an hour after the first match of the morning foursomes got underway at the 48th Walker Cup, he enjoyed his first full meal in 38 hours.

Coody was one of several competitors who needed medical attention after contracting a stomach bug that required a trip to the hospital for observation and an IV of fluids.

“We couldn’t even lay in our beds,” he said. “It was a really weird feeling, a really down feeling… Ever since I started my college career, this is all I wanted to do.”

Coody, 21, of Plano, Texas, recuperated quickly enough to live his dream. He batted leadoff for Team USA in the afternoon singles session and rallied from an early 2-down deficit to defeat Great Britain & Ireland’s top gun Alex Fitzpatrick, 2 up.

“It was really easy to get going,” Coody said. “It went as smoothly as it could, as sick as we all were a couple days ago.”

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This wasn’t Coody’s first rodeo with a stomach bug while competing in a USGA championship. He suffered from food poisoning at the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, losing 14-15 pounds in two days, and also dealt with mononucleosis as a freshman at Texas.

“I’m not surprised in the least,” said Cole Hammer, Coody’s teammate at Texas. “He’s one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever been around.”

Coody started sluggishly, losing two of the first four holes to birdies by Fitzpatrick, a 22-year-old Englishman who plays for Wake Forest University and is the younger brother of PGA Tour pro Matt Fitzpatrick. Coody described the club as feeling “a little light,” and it reminded the Texas junior of playing for the NCAA National Championship as a freshman. That experience prepared him to handle the nerves.

As his grandpa, 1971 Masters champion Charlie Coody put it, “He’s a fighter. He got 2 down and he never gave up.”

Coody battled back with birdies at Nos. 7 and 9, the latter a nifty up-and-down for birdie at the par 5.

“To get to be even at the turn was huge,” Coody said.

He kept momentum by holing a tricky 8-foot par putt at 10 to halve the hole, lost the 11th to a Fitzpatrick birdie before hitting “three perfect shots” at 12 to square the match. It stayed that way until the par-3 17th when Fitzpatrick’s bunker shot slid off the green and he made double bogey. Coody closed it out with a beautiful approach from the Seminole driving range and a conceded birdie to win the battle of the good golf gene pool.

Coody, who won two of the oldest amateur golf competitions in the country – the 116th Trans-Mississippi Amateur and the 118th Western Amateur — had his grandfather in attendance, watching on television from the Victory Club.

“The things he’s accomplished in golf is everything that I want to be able to accomplish, so having him come to my tournaments is amazing,” Pierceson said. “It’s really special.”

When the former Masters champion was asked if he ever played in the Walker Cup, he deadpanned, “I wasn’t good enough.”

As for wearing white pants like his grandson and Team USA had today, the elder Coody said that he usually opted for a different shade because of the habit of his black Golf Pride grips to stain them. What advice has young Coody gathered from his major-winning grandpa?

“I’ve kind of been asked to stay away a little bit, so I obey the instructions,” Coody said. “He’s got a lot of natural ability, so I just let that natural ability take hold.”

What little advice Coody has gleaned from his grandpa is of the simplest nature.

“The only advice he gives me is 3 is better than 4, 4 is better than 5 and never give up,” Coody said.

There was plenty of fight from Coody on Saturday and if he follows his grandpa’s other sage advice – 3 is definitely better than 4 – he should be in good stead for 36 holes on Sunday.

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Pierceson Coody earns Western Amateur title after marathon week

Pierceson Coody prevailed at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, dispatching Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in the final match, 2 and 1.

Pierceson Coody had climbed into his hotel room bed by 6:30 p.m., on Friday night and he didn’t move again. He was already six rounds into the Western Amateur and faced the possibility of a third consecutive 36-hole day on Saturday.

This is why they call the Western one of the most grueling events of the summer.

In the end, Coody prevailed at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, warming up as the day went on before eventually dispatching Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in the afternoon’s final match, 2 and 1.

Pierceson Coody with his dad Kyle and mom Debbie after winning the Western Amateur. (Western Golf Association photo)

It was a soggy week in Indiana, with constant rain – or the threat of rain – impacting most of the championship. Coody had his dad Kyle on the bag, and he endured a 138-hole workout right alongside his son. Both were grateful for a push cart by Saturday because, as Pierceson said, “carrying it would have been insane – brutal.”

If there’s a man who knows the weight a Western Amateur title carries, it’s Kyle. He played the event in the 1980s – played many events on the summer amateur circuit, in fact – and knows “everything about the Western Am and what it means. And what it means to (Pierceson).”

“All these amateur events we keep coming back to,” Pierceson Coody said, “like (Point O’Woods) was last year, that’s where he played this tournament. It’s so cool being able to have him with me and the experience of just playing high-level competitive golf he brings.”

Coody landed in 10th on the stroke-play leaderboard after rounds of 71-71-73-69. From there, he had to take the rest of the week in chunks.

“You have to play a mind game with yourself,” he said. “Like, ‘Alright, I’m going to play 18.’”

In the very first match against Alexander Yang, Coody was 2 down through 11 and felt his game wasn’t there. But a birdie on No. 12 followed by a par on No. 13 and then another chip-in par on No. 13 allowed him to square it. He won on the 17th hole.

Other than at the NCAA Championship and the U.S. Amateur, there aren’t many other amateur events that feature match play. Coody was part of the Texas team that finished runner-up at the 2019 NCAA Championship. He made it to the third round of match play at the U.S. Amateur last year.

After the match against Yang at Crooked Stick, Coody settled down.

“It just could not have gone better for me after that moment,” he said.

His dad remained a reassuring voice when he needed it, which wasn’t often.

“We get along great, he pretty much does everything on his own and then he’ll call me in if he feels unsure about something,” Kyle Coody said. “But he’s a fast player, he’s a committed player. When he sees it, he just goes with it.”

Coody proceeded to knock out Connor Creasy and George Duangmanee on his way to meeting Oklahoma State’s Neergaard-Petersen in the final match. Considering that both players compete in the Big 12, they’re familiar with each other’s games. Coody figures he has played eight or nine of the same tournaments as Neergaard-Petersen, drawing him in the same pairing twice.

Texas players have a long history of success at the Western Am. Most recently, teammate Cole Hammer won in 2018, but Justin Leonard and Ben Crenshaw are also on the list.

Overall, Coody is the seventh Longhorn to win the event.

“I knew my game was there for this week,” Coody said, “and I just had to let it go.”

Lance Ringler contributed reporting.

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Nation’s top amateurs head back to Maridoe Golf Club for Southern Amateur

Maridoe Golf Club is hosting a field of high-level amateurs at the Southern Amateur this week.

Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, has become something of a golf oasis in the midst of this pandemic. The club took it upon itself to demonstrate how golf could safely be played and proceeded to stage two fundraising events with a stout field of amateurs and pros – dubbed the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational (and MSFI2.0) – then created the Maridoe Junior Invitational for the nation’s top up-and-coming players.

The Southern Amateur already was on the calendar for July 15-18, and it got an added boost June 17 when the U.S. Golf Association announced that the winner and runner-up would receive exemptions into the U.S. Amateur field, if they hadn’t already qualified for it.

Southern Amateur: Tee times and scoring

As a result, the field of 156 players includes some of the best college players and juniors in the nation. The 54-hole event begins Wednesday with a cut to the top 66 players and ties after the first two rounds.

PGA Tour events are the only tournaments with featured pairings. We present the four most stacked groups at the outset of the Southern:

12:50 p.m., No. 1: Quade Cummins, Cooper Dossey, Austin Eckroat

Impressive resumes here for some of the Big 12’s best. Oklahoma’s Cummins is the reigning Pacific Coast Amateur champ, and remains so for another year after that tournament was canceled for the summer. Baylor’s Dossey won the North & South Amateur in 2019, but came up two match-play victories short of a title defense earlier this month at Pinehurst. Eckroat, finished T-4 at the first MSFI event and finished as the low amateur that week.

12:50 p.m., No. 10: Phillip Barbaree, Preston Summerhays, Noah Goodwin

Three USGA champs with a unique bond make up this group. Barbaree, an LSU senior; Goodwin, an SMU junior and Summerhays, a high school senior committed to Arizona State, are all past champions of the U.S. Junior, with Summerhays being the defending champ. Goodwin won in 2017 and Barbaree in 2015.

All have been busy this summer but particularly Barbaree, who teed it up on the amateur circuit two of the past three weeks.

1:20 p.m., No. 1: John Pak, John Augenstein, Pierceson Coody

John Pak played perhaps the craziest schedule of all last summer, teeing it up six times in a 10-week stretch. More than perhaps any other player, he truly played his way onto the U.S. Walker Cup team with his summer performance. Pak is toning it down this summer, playing only the Southern, the Western Amateur and the U.S. Amateur and otherwise camping out in Tallahassee, Florida, where he attends Florida State.

Walker Cup teammate Augenstein won his last college start (the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate in March) on the strength of an opening 63 and also won the G-Rock Open (something like a rogue state open) at the start of June.

As for Coody, a member here, he’s already won a major amateur event at this venue. The Texas junior defeated Paul Gonzalez (also in the Southern field) by two shots almost exactly a year ago to win the Trans-Miss Amateur.

2:30 p.m., No. 1: Trent Phillips, Cole Hammer, Joe Highsmith

All three of these men land among the top 100 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, with Hammer at No. 8, Phillips checking in at No. 36 and Highsmith at No. 92.

Hammer is a native Texan, and comes off a disappointing missed cut at the North & South. Highsmith beat his Pepperdine teammate Dylan Menante in the second round of the North & South, only to fall in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Tyler Strafaci. Phillips, a Georgia junior, is making his first major start since the Southern Highlands Collegiate. He won the Ka’anapli Collegiate Classic last fall.

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Event info, players to watch as college golf’s best compete at The Prestige

Everything you need to know for the 20th playing of men’s college golf’s The Prestige.

Three of the top-10 and six of the top-25 men’s college golf teams in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings will tee it up this week at the 20th playing of The Prestige, Feb. 17-19 in La Quinta, California.

The Greg Norman Course at PGA West plays host once again for the three-day event featuring a field of 16 teams highlighted by No. 1 Pepperdine, No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 7 Texas and No. 15 SMU. Defending national champion Stanford is also in the field, along with 2018 NCAA champion Oklahoma State and host-school UC Davis.

Golfweek will livestream the final-round coverage as part of College Golf Live’s 2020 Spring Series. You can catch the final round action at Golfweek.com/Prestige2020 on Feb. 19 from 1-6 p.m. ET.

PGA Champion, three-time NCAA champion and veteran golf commentator Steve Elkington will call the action alongside ESPN personality Ben Lyons, with analyst Will Haskett delivering onsite coverage.

Here’s everything you need to know for The Prestige.

Where

Greg Norman Course at PGA West, La Quinta, California. Par 71, 7,100 yards.

Schedule

Feb. 17-19. 18 holes each day, beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET off Nos. 1 and 10.

Field

Arkansas, Iowa State, LSU, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, SMU, Stanford, Texas, Texas Tech, UC Davis, UCLA, Wyoming and University of Stirling (Scotland).

Players to watch

Sahith Theegala, senior, Pepperdine

Theegala, ranked No. 2 in the nation, has won twice this season, bringing his collegiate total to four. A fifth win this week at The Prestige would set a new program record. His 69.08 scoring average is tied for sixth best in the country.

Sandy Scott, senior, Texas Tech

The Scottish senior finished 10th in Hawaii at the Amer Ari Intercollegiate to start the Spring, his third top 10 on the season. He won the Red Raiders first event of the year at the Carmel Cup and is 18-12-0 against the top 50 players in the country. Ranked No. 3 by Golfweek/Sagain.

Noah Goodwin, junior, SMU

If it’s a par 5, chances are Goodwin’s making birdie. His 4.40 scoring average on the long holes is T-4 in the nation, and his 3-1 record vs. the top 23 (7-3 vs. the top 50) isn’t too shabby, either.

Pierceson Coody, sophomore, Texas

Former No. 1 Amateur Cole Hammer gets a lot of the headlines, and deservedly so. But Coody should get a fair share, as well. The sophomore has three top 10 – and two top five – finishes this season, including a fifth-place showing last week at the Amer Ari, where he shot 66-67 in the final two rounds. Ranked No. 6 in the country.

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