In this second part of my Upper Midwest Connection (Umcee) of the Week feature, I detail candidates for the honour who competed either in the Korn Ferry Tour's Ascendant Presented by Blue or the Quebec Open on PGA Tour Canada. Since the Barbasol Championship on the PGA Tour didn't have any Upper Midwest connections, I could safely omit that event from consideration. Nevertheless, it was a thrilling finish, with Sweden's Vincent Norrman overtaking 54-hole leader Trevor Cone and beating England's Nathan Kimsey in a playoff despite suffering his only bogey of Sunday at the last.
The Ascendant, held at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, Colorado, featured one Umcee--namely, Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota. He was on his way to a top-ten finish again when he sprung a leak at the 17th hole. Unfortunately, the KFT page at pgatour.com doesn't have shot trails, so I had to rely on origin types for the shots to describe what happened. Capan shanked his tee shot into the native area and used up the four shots needed for par to get to the green, and he then missed the bogey putt to drop to 12-under. He was fortunate that he didn't replicate the feat at the final hole, as he not only missed the GIR, but he needed to get up and down from the first cut around the green just to keep the damage to a single bogey. As a result, he lost two places on the KFT points list, and the meltdown of sorts also probably kept him from cracking the top 400 in the OWGR for the first time. Moreover, the lost places in the KFT list pushed him out of the top 30 who will receive PGA Tour cards for next year for now. Even so, it was another good showing. Better finishing at the Price Cutter Championship, hopefully.
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| Frankie Capan III stares down a putt. |
Meanwhile, the Quebec Open featured five Umcees: Justin Doeden, Thomas Longbella, Derek Hitchner, Harrison Ott and George Kneiser. Doeden and Longbella played for the University of Minnesota in college, while Hitchner went to the Blake School in Hopkins, Minnesota for high school. As for Ott and Kneiser, both are from Wisconsin. When the cut fell, Doeden (fresh off finishing 16th in the swan song season of PGA Tour Latinoamerica) and Kneiser both missed out. Ott started out the weekend strong, adding a 5-under 65 to his card, but then he sputtered Sunday, settling for a 1-under 69. Longbella, who MC in the season opening Royal Beach Victoria Open but hasn't done so since, mustered a bogey free 5-under round for his Sunday (starting on the back nine) after struggling to a 1-over 71 Saturday. Sunday was also the one day he didn't double-bogey No 1!
Arguably the most remarkable week for the Umcee contingent in Quebec, though, belonged to Hitchner. Even on Thursday, he mustered a 1-under 69, followed by 4-under 66 on both Friday and Saturday and then his best round, a 6-under 64. This despite TWO bogeys that day, as he finished T6 and soared from #67 to #23 in the Fortinet Cup! To be fair, this isn't quite the accomplishment that one might think it is. As a top-20 finisher in this past school year's PGA Tour U program, Hitchner automatically qualified for the second stage of PGA Tour Q-school, which is being revived this year. Still, for one who skipped the season opener and struggled in the following two events, it's a big deal.
So, with seven of ten Umcees involved in tour golf this week making the cut in their respective events and four of these players meriting special consideration, who will come out on top as Upper Midwest Connection of the Week? Did he play in Europe or in America? Did he have a strong start or rally for a quality finish? Find out in part III of this feature, either tonight or tomorrow!!!
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