The last two weeks have finally seen elite, brand-name players fare well on the PGA Tour. Led by Scottie Scheffler, the top ranked player in the world according to the OWGR, the top players who have remained loyal to the meritocratic traditional structure of tour golf are casting aside the underdogs and comeback players who owned the first couple months of the year. While ratings are still lower than at this point a year ago, what with several stars and a few up and comers having sold their souls to the Saudi PIF, I expect them to improve as the season progresses.
But when some players benefit, others get left behind. The Umcee contingent last week had six players in two fields. The big three men's Umcees--Tom Hoge, Erik van Rooyen and Troy Merritt--all got to play the Players Championship, while Emily Lauterbach was finally able to play on the Epson Tour alongside Kate Smith-Stroh and Kim Kaufman at the IOA Golf Classic in Longwood, Florida. Unfortunately, four Umcees missed the cut, which made it a disappointing week for Upper Midwest connections. Only Hoge and Kaufman survived after 36 holes at their respective events. (Because the IOA Classic commenced a day later than the Players, its cut fell Saturday rather than Friday.)
Heading into Saturday, it seemed Hoge would repeat as Upper Midwest Connection of the Week. Sadly, TPC Sawgrass burst his bubble with consecutive rounds of +3/75. (Despite his weekend struggles, Hoge did move to #55 in the OWGR, giving him an outside chance to get a Masters bid without necessarily winning the Houston Open next week.) Meanwhile, Kaufman was coming off a near-miss for the prior honours in her own right, and after struggling to a +2/73 Friday, she jumped to -1/70 Saturday before saving her best for last with a Sunday -2/69. Her overall score to par of -1 was good enough for a T15, which means Kim Kaufman is this year's first female Upper Midwest Connection of the Week!
 |
| (Epson Tour) |
After last week's slim pickings, this week should prove more remunerative. Although Hoge and van Rooyen are skipping this week's Valspar Championship, Merritt will play, and he'll be joined by Zach Johnson. On the Epson Tour, Lauterbach narrowly drops off for lack of priority unless someone else drops out before her tee time, but the other two Umcees on the tour are playing as usual in their quest for LPGA Tour status come 2025.
Lastly, the PGA Tour Americas gets going this week. As I have mentioned many times on this blog, it combines many of the events on the old PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour Canada into a single tour with ten Korn Ferry Tour cards at the end of the rainbow, along with a number of conditional memberships. Five Umcees will be participating at the inaugural event, which is the Bupa Championship in Tulum, Mexico. Derek Hitchner (Minneapolis, MN), George Kneiser (Oconomowoc, WI), Thomas Longbella (Chippewa Falls, WI/Minnesota '21) and Harrison Ott (Brookfield, WI) are returning members of the third tier of the PGA Tour pyramid. They will be joined by Matthew Walker of Ottumwa, Iowa, who was a medallist in the First Stage of PGA Tour Q-School and earned Latin American swing exempt status as a result. Good luck to the Umcees competing on the PGA Tour Americas, taking that first step towards big-time glory!
Edward the Scop
No comments:
Post a Comment