For the first time since adding the televote for Upper Midwest Connection of the Week on my YouTube channel, we have a tie in the results. Of the votes that were submitted, half went to Erik van Rooyen based on his T42 performance at the RBC Canadian Open and half to Kim Kaufman for her T58 at the U.S. Women's Open, the second major of the women's golf year. In the end, the jury (me) has decided to break the tie, and the winner by decision is...
Kim Kaufman.
She won't get Upper Midwest Connection of the Month honours, but she had her best finish in a women's major in seven years to earn weekly plaudits. As I mentioned in my weekly recap Tuesday, her payout of over $23 000 was about half of what she's earned on the Epson Tour, which is the women's equivalent of the Korn Ferry Tour. She also cracked the top 500 of the Rolex Rankings, the women's version of the OWGR. Making the cut at the Tartarus that was Lancaster Country Club will give Kaufman confidence as she seeks a return to the LPGA Tour in 2025, either via the Epson Tour Race for the Card or LPGA Q-Series. (Too bad that U.S. Women's Open performance doesn't count toward the Race for the Card, as far as I know, unlike the men's version counting toward KFT graduation progress.)
This week is the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, AKA Jack's Place. Only one Umcee, Tom Hoge, made the event, and he has an opportunity to seal a trip to the Open via the Open Qualifying Series. In contrast to previous years, when multiple tickets were punched at the event, the signature status of this year's edition means a reduced field (73 at last count) and, with it, a reduction of exemptions to one.
On the developmental tours, the Korn Ferry Tour holds its BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer, South Carolina. Although Frankie Capan III is taking the week off, the field still includes two Umcees in Van Holmgren and Andre Metzger. Lastly, the Epson Tour holds an event for the first time since Memorial Day weekend, as the Firekeepers Hotel-Casino Championship takes over Battle Creek, Michigan. Unlike most early-season events on that tour, the field size is sufficient such that Emily Lauterbach of Hartfield, Wisconsin is able to join the fray, which also Kate Smith-Stroh. Smith-Stroh has struggled this year generally, so a good result here could kickstart her season. However, Kaufman is taking a well-deserved break after making the cut as mentioned above.
One more note: The Clutch Pro Tour, which feeds into the Challenge Tour--the DP World Tour's developmental arm--is underway in its second season but first with OWGR points. One of its regulars is former Wisconsin Badger O.J. Farrell, who made European Q-School finals last year but missed the 72-hole cut. So far, he ranks 33rd on the Clutch Order of Merit.
I was going to post yesterday about this past weekend's tour action, as well as about the U.S. Women's Open. But as you know if you're a true golf fan, yesterday was the "longest day in golf," in which ten 36-hole qualifiers for 44 spots at the 2024 U.S. (men's) Open at Pinehurst No 2 in North Carolina took place. Following that when I wasn't at work, needless to say, took the utmost precedence, and I had to put off writing this as a result. Don't worry, I'll get to yesterday's action in my next post.
Anyway, we start with the second major of the women's golf season, held in Pennsylvania German country at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. The Amish must have prayed a sort of divine curse upon the course, as even by USGA tourney standards, the event was nothing short of masochistic. When the course's bloodlust was sated, Yuka Saso of Japan and her countrywoman Hinako Shibuno were the only two under par (-4 and -1, respectively). Saso now has two Semple Trophies, adding to her 2021 victory...representing the Philippines. That's right, Saso is the first-ever repeat offender at the U.S. Women's Open to be a heroine of two lands.
The sole Umcee at the event was Kim Kaufman of Clark, South Dakota. Having won her qualifier in Arizona, she started slowly with a round of +6/76 but improved to +2/72 Friday to make the cut on the number. She then had her best round Saturday, an even-par 70, before falling back with a +6/76. Despite her mediocre finish, Kaufman earned over $23K, about half of what she's made on the Epson Tour so far as she tries to gain back her LPGA Tour card.
The drama, though, was at the Canadian Open, where Scotsman Robert MacIntyre edged out Ben Griffin to claim his first PGA Tour win. It looked uncertain Sunday when Mackenzie Hughes, who is from Hamilton, Ontario--where the event was held this year--took a share of the lead with MacIntyre struggling. But Hughes fell back and finished a disappointing -10. MacIntyre then rebounded, only to suffer consecutive bogeys at 12 and 13, while Rory McIlroy surged alongside Tom Kim. Both eventually finished -13. Victor Perez of France finished -14 as MacIntyre and Griffin approached the final hole with Griffin at -15 after three straight birdies and his playing partner at -16. Fortunately for the Scotsman, he landed his approach on the green, while Griffin missed to the left. Griffin tried an off-the-green putt to tie it but came up short, enabling MacIntyre to two-putt for the win.
Before I get to my Umcee breakdown, I should note that the Canadian Open, as an Open Qualifying Series Event, got three top finishers who weren't otherwise exempt into the Open Championship next month. Griffin and Hughes joined Maverick McNealy in earning their way via this conduit.
Three Umcees were in action. With Tom Hoge skipping ahead to this week's Memorial Tournament (which is a signature event), Erik van Rooyen, Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson competed in Hamilton. The latter two missed the cut, and van Rooyen, despite a strong first-round -4/66, cooled off afterward to back-to-back even par rounds before struggling with a final-round +3/73.
Lastly, the Korn Ferry Tour's UNC Hospital Championship was in action, and like the U.S. Women's Open, it was won by a Japanese in Kaito Onishi. As for the Umcee contingent, Frankie Capan III, Van Holmgren and Andre Metzger played there. Unfortunately, only FCIII made the cut, and he generally struggled, finishing over par for the week and not really showing up. That's why he wasn't in the best of the week televote on my YouTube channel. He's still #8 on the KFT points list.
My next post concerns the U.S. Open qualifying action yesterday, 3 June 2024.
Having started a YouTube channel affiliated with this blog, I recently got clearance to add community posts, including polls. To that end, I decided to run a viewer/reader poll on people's opinion of who should be crowned Upper Midwest Connection of the Week. Although the poll is still running, I decided to cut off consideration for the "people's choice" alongside my own opinion.
Since YouTube limits polls to five choices but more than four Umcees made the cut at their respective tournaments (at least seven did), I took a representative sample of Umcees, basing my selections on the principle of one per event. In the end, Tom Hoge at the PGA Championship, Van Holmgren at the Korn Ferry Tour's AdventHealth Championship, Kim Kaufman at the Epson Tour's Copper Rock Championship and Thomas Longbella at the PGA Tour Americas' Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship made the poll. By popular vote (if one vote counts as such, since that's how many I got), Van Holmgren was people's choice for the week. To his credit, unlike the other three finalists, Holmgren lacks full membership on the tour he primarily plays on these days but made the cut and finished in the top twenty and ties. This sufficed to get him into this week's Visit Knoxville Open in Tennessee, which is the third event in this reshuffle period. After next week's UNC Health Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina, the reshuffle falls again, and players will be ordered for priority reasons according to their points-list position. Holmgren is in a very good position to get more starts on the Korn Ferry Tour this year.
However, this is a time when expert or semi-expert opinions trump those of the crowd. See, I don't even consider Holmgren's performance the second-best of the week in tour golf. Two golfers from the Dakotas top my list. Kaufman had the better rank and moved up in the Epson Tour's Race for the Card with her simple T10, but given that she played just three rounds (the length of most Epson Tour events), she just loses out to...
Tom Hoge finished T23 at Valhalla (Fargo Forum).
Tom Hoge.
Hoge has made the cut at every PGA Championship since Harding Park 2020, and this year fit the bill as well. His finish of three-way T23 at Valhalla Golf Club was his second-best major finish ever only to a T9 at Southern Hills in 2022, also at the PGA Championship. He moved up to #21 in the FedEx Cup, and his OWGR remained at the minimum #60 to enter the U.S. Open, no qualifiers needed.
Speaking of U.S. Open qualifiers, another Umcee, Erik van Rooyen, secured his exemption straight to the event at Pinehurst as the fifth-leading FedEx Cup placement among those not yet exempt by any other category, including world rankings, after the PGA Championship. His T53 at Valhalla got him 10 FedEx Cup points, which enabled him to edge out Patrick Rodgers by about six points for the final spot for now.
Anyway, this week's action revolves mostly around the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. The Inter Rapidisimo wrapped up the Latin American Swing on the PGA Tour Americas, and a series of Q-school events follow to help fill fields for the North American (mostly Canadian with one U.S. event) Swing. As for the Epson Tour, it has the rest of the month off, both for Memorial Day and the week of the U.S. Women's Open, two weeks before the men's version (Kaufman did qualify for the former). Three Umcees--Hoge will be joined by Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson, both of whom are struggling to keep PGA Tour membership--will contest the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial National in Fort Worth, Texas. The aforementioned Visit Knoxville Open involves two more, as Holmgren is joined by Frankie Capan III, who missed the cut last week but remains in the top 30 of the KFT points list. The only other Umcee of note is O.J. Farrell, former Wisconsin Badger, who is on the Clutch Pro Tour in his native England. Farrell competed in European Q-school last winter but missed the 72-hole (out of 108 holes) cut, losing access to DP World Tour events and having few opportunities to play the Challenge Tour.
For those coming to the Devilish Rake blog via my YouTube channel, one of the quirky topics I cover is connections to the Upper Midwest. There is a glossary on the blog defining the region and what constitutes a connection to it.
Anyway, the PGA Championship had three Upper Midwest connections, often abbreviated at "Umcees." Tom Hoge, Erik van Rooyen and club pro Ben Polland--the latter this year's PGA club-pro champion--were present at Valhalla in Louisville. Polland, despite his credentials, missed the cut by one stroke with a bogey to close his second round on even par overall. However, the two Umcee tour pros--Hoge is from Fargo, North Dakota, and EVR went to the U. of Minnesota--both made it with room to spare against the -1/141 cut. Van Rooyen eventually finished -5/279, going even-par or better his last three rounds to finish T53 and gain just enough FedEx Cup points to qualify for next month's U.S. Open (per the "top five players not otherwise exempt in the FedEx Cup standings" criterion). Meanwhile, Hoge secured a T23 with a final score of -10/274, doing well enough to clear the OWGR threshold (top sixty after the PGA Championship).
While no major is run by any tour, the PGA Tour (along with the DP World and Japan Golf tours) includes all four majors as part of its calendar. Hence, it is prudent to go through the tour pyramid and scour for Umcees who made the cut. The circuit immediately below the PGA Tour is currently known for sponsorship purposes as the Korn Ferry Tour, and this past week's Advent Health Championship in the Kansas Cities featured two Umcees--Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota, who enjoys full KFT membership; and Van Holmgren of Plymouth, Minnesota, who achieved conditional membership via Q-school last fall and slotted well thanks to his performance at the Argentina Open back in February. FCIII missed the cut (badly), but Holmgren made it on -4 through two rounds and threatened to break through before settling for T20. He still climbed into the OWGR top thousand.
On the women's side, there are no Umcees on the LPGA Tour, but the developmental Epson Tour has a couple of them. Kate Stroh (nee Smith) of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota finished 19th in the Race for the Card, which is pretty good for a second-year pro. But she has stumbled so far this year, making the cut just twice, and that didn't change this week at the Copper Rock Championship in Tucson. On the other hand, Clark, South Dakota native Kim Kaufman, who played on the LPGA Tour as late as 2021, tied for tenth in the 54-hole event with a cut, posting consecutive -3/69 rounds to earn $5234 and jump to seventh in this year's R4C. It looks at this point like she'll be back on the big tour next year, as the top fifteen R4C finishers will earn LPGA Tour status.
Finally, five Umcees--Thomas Longbella, George Kneiser, Derek Hitchner, Sam Anderson and Matthew Walker--were involved in the Inter Rapidisimo Championship in Bogota, Colombia on the PGA Tour Americas. None of the four impressed in the end, but three of them did make the cut. Longbella and Hitchner--the latter of whom went to the Blake School for high school near the Twin Cities--both finished -5/283 for the week. Kneiser, who hails from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, showed promise but fell apart at the weekend. Anderson (homegrown Wisconsin Badgers alumnus) and Walker both missed the cut. At the end of the Latin American phase, Longbella didn't do quite well enough to get even conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour yet, but he is fifth in the Fortinet Cup, and the current top five will receive exemptions into four Latin American KFT events next year: the Panama Championship, the Astara Championship in Colombia, the Argentina Open and the Astara Chile Classic. Anderson also finished the Latin American swing in the top ten. Hence, he and Longbella are on track to receive KFT cards in 2025.
Whom do you think was the Upper Midwest Connection of the Week this past week? Offer up your opinion in the comments, whether on Blogger or on YouTube.
I know it's been a while since I wrote last, but there have been some developments here. Firstly, I now have a YouTube channel. On it you can find announcements in short-video form as to whenever I put out a new blog post, usually in advance of the same. From time to time, I'll put out longer-form content, but it's mostly going to consist of videos lasting no more than one minute each. It's taken some time to figure out a direction for the channel, but I plan to mostly use it to get people to read the Devilish Rake. There's still some sawdust, but it's coming along.
Anyway, to get you up to speed, the first Upper Midwest Connection of the Week I missed was Frankie Capan III. He secured the honours twice, at the LECOM Suncoast Classic and the Veritex Bank Championship, both on the Korn Ferry Tour. He set an official course record of -13/58 in his first round! Though he was unable to hold on in the face of Sweden's Tim Widing, who played this week's PGA Championship and made the cut at Valhalla (more later), FCIII still kicked ass, as this was his third straight finish in the top ten on the Korn Ferry Tour. It also secured his status as Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for April 2024.
The next week on the PGA Tour Americas, Thomas Longbella won the KIA Open in Quito, Ecuador for his first win that counts in the world rankings. Longbella is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Minnesota, playing alongside Angus Flanagan and current Gopher star Ben Warian, among others. He sank an eagle at No 17 to take a one-stroke lead heading into the final round...which was cancelled due to rain and unplayable conditions. On the PGA Tour, they would have tried to play the final round and would've extended it to Monday if necessary. On developmental circuits, though, where the players are often stuck for money, the threshold for Monday finishes is stricter. Since so few were able to start that Sunday, the tournament was curtailed on 54-hole scores, which sufficed for Longbella to secure the win.
Last week, Erik van Rooyen secured Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honours for the first time since the Masters Tournament with his tie for fourth at the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic. It was his third finish in the top ten on the PGA Tour this year. (For the record, the tourney was won by Chris Gotterup, who had previously been in the reshuffle but earned a trip to this past week's PGA Championship as a result.)
The next post deals with various tidbits on the week that was in tour golf, including (but NOT limited to) the second major of the year.
In my last post, I mentioned in passing that Zach Johnson is an Umcee who also happens to be a former Masters champion. Back in 2007, he won the green jacket despite struggling to a +1/289--good enough to beat Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini and Tiger Woods by two strokes. Conditions were so horrible that any of the 97 participants that year would've been entitled to laugh at Jon Rahm's complaints about this year's Friday conditions.
But that was then. Fast-forward seventeen years later and ZJ got into trouble for cussing at a crucial juncture. He missed the cut by one stroke (+7/151 after two rounds) and, barring open qualification or other merits for this June's U.S. Open at Pinehurst in North Carolina, we won't see him in another major until the Open at Royal Troon in July. Needless to say, the best of times is behind the two-time major winner. But there was an Umcee who did make the cut at Augusta...
(PGA Tour)
Erik van Rooyen.
You would think that a guy who struggled on all but one day--Thursday's -1/71 opening round--en route to a T55 finish, dropped three places in the FedEx Cup and slipped a spot in the OWGR would not merit to be Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, but there are a couple good reasons for my selecting EVR for the honour. Firstly, that he made the cut at all is a milestone--van Rooyen withdrew after a single round in 2020 due to injury and MC in 2022 on his last visit. Moreover, the ten (even) FedEx Cup points he earned enabled him to pip Grayson Murray (winner of this year's Sony Open) to the final Next 10 place in this week's RBC Heritage. Though to be fair, Nicolai Hojgaard's collapse on the weekend helped as well!
This week features all three PGA Tour circuits in action for the first time this year. The Heritage, in addition to van Rooyen and 67 others (yes, they fell short of seventy again, which means they need to consider adding alternates in 2025 and beyond), Tom Hoge returns from a fortnightly hiatus. Part of it was voluntary, but it made the other part required, as Hoge's decision to skip the Texas Open despite not qualifying for the Masters rendered last week an off week for him. On top of the signature event at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, the Corales Punta-Cana Resort Championship takes a side stage in the Dominican Republic. Although ZJ won't be in the Umcee contingent, Troy Merritt returns to action, and he'll be joined by former Minnesota Gopher Thomas Longbella, who won the Monday qualifier to make the event for the second straight year. The way in was last week to allow for travel plans, as with most overseas events on the PGA Tour.
Beyond the big tour, the Korn Ferry Tour holds the LECOM Suncoast Classic. North Oaks, Minnesota's Frankie Capan III will be there, and conditional member Van Holmgren of Plymouth, Minnesota will join him in an effort to gain full access to the following four events via the reshuffle. Lastly, the other four Umcees in action this week will be playing the Brazilian Open on the PGA Tour Americas. Derek Hitchner of Minneapolis will be looking to build on his last start, which resulted in a T3 at the Totalplay Championship three weeks ago and got him Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honours, and he'll be joined by George Kneiser, Harrison Ott and Matthew Walker, among others. For the second straight year, dating back to the PGA Tour Latinoamerica last year, the host course will be the same that hosted the 2016 Olympic golf tourney--the first such event since 1904 in St Louis.
By now, you would expect a piece like this to be published two days from now, as I typically need time to account for the Monday qualifiers for the following collection of events and any late withdrawals. This ensures my preview portion of each such post will include all Umcees participating in a given week and omit any who drop out. However, I don't expect (barring an injury, of course) that either of the two Umcees participating in this week's Masters Tournament will drop, and the Monday qualifier for next week's event in the Dominican Republic has already been decided. More on those matters later.
Anyway, last week was the last chance to qualify for "glory's first shot" at the Valero Texas Open. There was a full field of 156 players. Three of them--Erik van Rooyen, Zach Johnson and Troy Merritt--are Umcees, but only Merritt had yet to qualify for this year's Masters. Van Rooyen won in Cabo for his invite last November, while Johnson, of course, took the maillot vert in 2007, entitling him to tonight's Champions' Dinner in the clubhouse at Augusta National for the 17th year running. Meanwhile, on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Club Car Championship in Savannah, Georgia--down the river Savannah from Augusta--involved 156 more players trying to get to the PGA Tour. Only one Umcee, Frankie Capan III, was among them.
(FGCU Athletics)
As it turns out, the Umcee contingent at TPC San Antonio wiped out--the two Umcees already qualified for this week's major were closest to the cut, finishing round 2 at +2/146 overall--but Capan got his first top-ten finish of 2024, finishing T9! His only poor round was a +2/74 Saturday, and he shot -2/70 or better the other three days, including -5/67 both Friday and Sunday. This performance moved him to #49 in the points list and a new career best of #324 in the OWGR.
This week, as I mentioned above, the Masters Tournament takes centre stage in the world of golf. I called it "glory's first shot" in reference to the fact that, when it was the last major of the season, the PGA Championship was referred to as "glory's last shot." I don't expect ZJ to don the green jacket for the second time or EVR to do so either. But if either can make the cut, I will be satisfied.
Meanwhile, today (Monday, 8 April) was the open qualifier for next week's Corales Punta-Cana Resort Championship in the Dominican Republic. Three Umcees--two former Minnesota Gophers (Angus Flanagan and Thomas Longbella) and a former Iowa Hawkeye (Alex Schaake) --were among the sixty golfers participating. Schaake fell short by four strokes and Flanagan by two. But Longbella won the qualifier, making his second straight trip to the DR to play on the PGA Tour. He missed the cut last year but hopes to improve significantly this year. Of course, he won't be in that week's Brazilian Open at the site of the 2016 Olympic golf tournament won by Justin Rose. I still think it's a desirable tradeoff.
With one-quarter of 2024 in the books, I thought I would release an All-Umcee Team based on the first three months of the year. Unlike the year-end All-Umcee team, there won't be a second team. The same goes for the midyear team, which will be released around the anniversary of the blog (early July), though that will feature honourable mentions. Furthermore, those named to the quarterly All-Umcee teams will be given with shortened criteria as to why they were named. With that said, here is my All-Umcee Team for the first quarter of 2024:
Erik van Rooyen. Heading into this week's Texas Open, van Rooyen had missed the cut just twice in three months. He earned three Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honours for his efforts this quarter at the Sentry, the Mexico Open and (especially) the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches (all PGA Tour). He was also Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for January.
Tom Hoge. The Upper Midwest Connection of Q1 for 2024 and also of the Month for February, Hoge got his first UMCOW honour at the American Express, then followed it up with back-to-back plaudits at Pebble Beach and the Phoenix Open. As if that weren't enough, Hoge also did well at the first two signature events of the year with a cut, although the week of the Genesis featured too few Umcees to warrant an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, while maintaining strong iron play.
Kim Kaufman. The only female golfer on this All-Umcee Team and Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for March after two top-ten finishes on the Epson Tour (the women's Korn Ferry Tour). On both occasions, she was Upper Midwest Connection of the Week. So far in 2024, she is off to a much better start than a year ago as she strives to make it back to the LPGA Tour for 2025.
Tom Hoge is my Upper Midwest Connection of Q1 for 2024. (AP)
Derek Hitchner. The Minneapolis Blake School alumnus and former Pepperdine Wave has moonlighted on the Korn Ferry Tour, but it's on the third-tier PGA Tour Americas that he has made his biggest impact. The final Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for Q1 of 2024, who earned his plaudits by way of the Totalplay Championship in Guadalajara, Mexico, is off to an 11th-place start in the Fortinet Cup standings--the tour's points-based order of merit.
Thomas Longbella. Between the former Minnesota Gopher from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota, who competes on the Korn Ferry Tour, it was a pretty tough decision as to whom to include and whom to leave out. In the end, FCIII's three MCs in four mainland Latin American starts were too much to overcome. Meanwhile, Longbella has quietly built a 17th-place start in the Fortinet Cup. While his performance at the aforementioned Totalplay Championship was overshadowed among Umcees by Hitchner's showing, it's expected that if Longbella keeps it up, he'll get to skip the first stage at Q-school this fall.
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!
Firstly, I'd like to apologize for being a day late. There's been an overload of work at my job of late and I couldn't get around to working on the blog since my daytime work took precedence. Now that the load is lightening, I can resume with my usual blog duties.
Anyway, I finally got the prehistory of the Devilish Rake up and running earlier this week. It explains what led up to the blog's creation last July. As my "What to Expect This Year" post had incorrectly predicted, I had intended to publish it earlier, around January or early February, but it never works out that way since I had THREE rounds of FA Cup picks to disseminate and Upper Midwest Connection of the Week and Month honours to designate. The next general page will be the glossary of terms, which you can expect to see the first entries for later this spring. As for the Patreon, I plan to set aside whatever I get from my tax refund to set that up and maybe support content creators I like.
But back to the golf. As I foretold last week, it was a busy four days from Thursday through Sunday for Umcees in tour golf. Firstly, let's consider the Korn Ferry Tour's Astara-Chile Classic, which involved the five Umcees who made Q-school finals last December: Frankie Capan III, Van Holmgren, Thomas Longbella, Andre Metzger and Alex Schaake. Unfortunately, four missed the cut; the only exception was, of all of them, Metzger. "Dakotas Dre" is, as the epithet I confer on him indicates, a legend on the Dakotas Tour, which is my favourite minitour in North American golf. He finished T44, good to enter the KFT points list at #139. Probably not enough to get very many starts, but it's a start.
The other developmental tour with OWGR or Rolex Ranking points to involve Umcees last week was, of course, the Korn Ferry's women's equivalent--the Epson Tour, which kicked off its season with the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. This year, the tour has switched to a points-based system for its order of merit, which means I will no longer regularly quote paychecks of prize money earned for applicable golfers. That aside, Kim Kaufman fared significantly better than Kate Smith-Stroh, especially in the last two rounds. Kaufman had a -5/67 Saturday to highlight her weekend, collecting 81 2/3 points in the Race for the Card. This year, there will be a further five cards awarded, bringing the total to fifteen spots on the 2025 LPGA Tour.
On the PGA Tour, though, there were two events! That's because last week had a signature event in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and an opposite event in the Puerto Rico Open. Of the three Umcees who participated on the Tour last week, only Troy Merritt was unfortunate to miss out on Bay Hill. He did an okay job in Puerto Rico, finishing T23 and climbing to #119 in the FedEx Cup. Back on the mainland, Scottie Scheffler's performance clearly overshadowed the rest of the field, winning by five strokes. Even so, Erik van Rooyen mustered a T25 and inched up to #18 on the points list. The big winner among Umcees, though, was...
Tom Hoge.
I was tempted to put Kaufman atop the Umcees for the week, what with her top-ten finish. But Hoge saved his best for last. Though he still has some work to do to reach this year's Masters, which would require a win in any of the remaining PGA Tour events beforehand (yes, all of them are full field) or a top fifty showing after the Houston Open in the OWGR, he took an important step towards a third straight appearance with his T12, which enabled him to crawl up to #56 in the world rankings. He also jumped to #12 in the FedEx Cup standings, putting him well on his way to the playoffs yet again. Lastly, he is now up to #15 in the Presidents Cup standings for Team USA thanks to yet another top-fifteen showing. I suppose his progress has Jim Furyk on notice by now, especially with this week being the week of the Players Championship.
Speaking of which, this week brings the big three Umcees together with 140 others as of this writing. (Tom Kim of South Korea was the 144th player, but he withdrew due to illness eight holes in.) After one round, Hoge was on his way to an UMCOW repeat, two strokes off the -7/65 lead at -5/67. Van Rooyen was less lucky, finishing -1/71 for his opening round, but was on the right side of the cutline for now. The same can't be said for Merritt, though, as he was +1/73 to start his Players.
As for the Korn Ferry Tour, it goes back into hibernation after the Southern Fortnight until the Club Car Championship in Savannah, Georgia at the start of April. I say Southern Fortnight because this is the first time that the Argentine Open and Astara-Chile Classic were contested as consecutive yet isolated KFT events, and both are in the Southern Hemisphere--the only two such KFT tourneys. But that doesn't mean that the developmental scene has run dry for Umcees. Instead, Kaufman and Smith-Stroh will contest the IOA Golf Classic on the Epson Tour, and they will be joined by Emily Lauterbach of Hartfield, Wisconsin.
Lastly, the inaugural PGA Tour Americas season launches next week with the Bupa Championship in Tulum, Mexico. As a result of the Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational getting scrapped due to economic strife in Argentina, it's part of a Mexican fortnight to open the season this year. Plenty of Umcees are expected to populate leaderboards during these two events such as Holmgren and Longbella, but also Derek Hitchner, Andre Metzger and a hopefully contrite Justin Doeden.
It was a busy week not only for Umcees in tour golf, but also for sports in general. The NFL Scouting Combine again took up residence at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, and two Minnesota Gophers--safety Tyler Nubin and tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford--were among the participants. Even though he didn't do much in the way of workouts after his Senior Bowl injury, I expect Nubin to be a second-round selection, perhaps the first safety off the board who isn't primarily a cornerback. If that's not a teaser for next month's Draft Day Party Hangover blog, I don't know what is.
But back to golf. This past batch of events involved seven Umcees playing two events on the PGA Tour pyramid, as the Korn Ferry Tour commenced a brief resumption of activity with the Argentine Open. The winner, Mason Andersen, got a trip to play the Open Championship at Royal Troon this July. Meanwhile, back in the States, the event formerly known as the Honda Classic and now as the Cognizant Classic again took over PGA National. Compared with recent years, the course was relatively easygoing, even with the Bear Trap of holes 15-17. With these two events in mind, how did the seven Umcees fare?
Three of them played in Argentina. It's well-known that the election of Javier Milei as president of Argentina has anticipated austerity measures, which have sparked protests throughout the country. Incidentally, this led the PGA Tour Americas to cancel the Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational and replace it with an event at Atlas Country Club in Guadalajara, Mexico. It also gave reason for pause to many KFT players, who may have been uncertain about their safety and ability to get accommodations they could afford. Two Umcees, Dakotas Tour legend Andre Metzger and former Iowa Hawkeye Alex Schaake, may have pulled out over these concerns despite being invited. They have both joined Frankie Capan III, Van Holmgren and Thomas Longbella--all of whom did participate in the Argentine Open--in Chile this week for the Astara Classic.
Of the actual participants, two--FCIII and Longbella--missed the cut, but Holmgren excelled. He was -16/194 with one round to play and leading, but then disaster struck with two bogeys in his first three holes Sunday. Perhaps the pressure got to him, and he couldn't get back to par for the day. Still, he tied for fifth, which was an excellent showing for a second cap on the Korn Ferry Tour, and he should get more starts going forward.
As for the Cognizant Classic, all four Umcees--reigning UMCOW Erik van Rooyen, reigning Upper Midwest Connection of the Month Tom Hoge, Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson--made the weekend. Merritt, as usual, barely registered, finishing T47. At least he cracked the top fifty. Tom Hoge also missed the top 25, albeit by just one stroke (-9/275). Zach Johnson reached the top 25 but failed to convert the tricky closing par-5 for a par breaker, settling for T21. It's clear who was the top Umcee last week...
Erik van Rooyen.
Heading into Sunday, it didn't seem like anybody other than Holmgren would win Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honours. But van Rooyen rattled off six straight birdies to open his final round, along with two more in the next five holes and no bogeys and taking a one-shot lead. That's when Mother Nature decided to intervene, leading to a rain delay of three and a half hours. Van Rooyen did finish his round where he had resumed it--on -8/63 for the day and -14/270 for the tournament. Meanwhile, as mentioned before, Holmgren lost his mojo in Argentina. In the end, PGA Tour sophomore Austin Eckroat prevailed by three strokes, but van Rooyen finished jointly second with Aussie phenom Min Woo Lee (Minjee's little brother). For EVR, the implications were massive, as he jumped to #59 in the OWGR and #19 in the FedEx Cup. He's also #15 in the Presidents Cup standings for the International Team and is the top-rated South African in the OWGR, meaning he's on track for the Paris Olympics after narrowly missing out on Tokyo three years ago.
This week features TEN Umcees! In addition to van Rooyen, Hoge and Merritt, the number of KFT Umcees, as mentioned above, grows to five in Chile. Lastly, the Epson Tour--the women's Korn Ferry Tour equivalent--tees off Friday at the Florida's Natural Charity Classic, and two more Umcees--Kate Smith-Stroh (yes, she got married in the offseason) and Kim Kaufman will figure there.
Before I get to my Upper Midwest Connection of the Week post for the batch of events that concluded Monday with the rain-interrupted Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, an Upper Midwest Connection of the Month must be recognized.
Whereas consistency won the day for Erik van Rooyen as to January's plaudits, February focused on high finishes. Van Rooyen, though, was dinged for missing the cut at the Phoenix Open. This opened the door for Tom Hoge, who had finished in the top ten at the weather-shortened Pebble Beach Pro-Am, to seize an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week repeat. Furthermore, although it didn't count towards an UMCOW honour for lack of Umcee competition, Hoge added a second top ten at the Genesis Invitational before taking the Mexico Open off ahead of the Florida Swing.
It was a quiet week for the PGA Tour to conclude the West Coast Swing. After seven weeks of generally good-to-great fields, the Mexico Open (in its third year as a Tour event--though as the national open of Mexico, it's a lot older than that, dating to 1944) lacked for star power. This wasn't surprising, as top players were coming off what I regard as a tumultuous string of big-time events--two in Hawai'i, four in California and one in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. Most bigwigs on the Tour will forego the event formerly known as the Honda Classic, preparing for next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, as that is a signature event (if not the Players Championship the week after). After all, even the best need to rest.
This opened a door for Umcees to show what they were made of. However, Tom Hoge is one of the aforementioned top players, at least based on his performances last year, which entitle him to automatic exemption into this year's signature events. Hence, he opted to skip the Mexico Open and stay stateside. Still, the field had a third Umcee in addition to Erik van Rooyen and Troy Merritt, as Ben Sigel of Deephaven, Minnesota successfully passed through 36-plus holes of open qualifying to make it to the Vidanta Vallarta complex. I say plus because he needed to get through an odd-one-out playoff at the final qualifier ten days beforehand against three others. That's right, it took place the week before to allow for travel planning on the part of the qualified players.
Though I can only assume Sigel enjoyed his experience in Mexico, he failed to make the cut. Fortunately to avoid a default-winner situation for this week's Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honour, Troy Merritt cleared the cutline by two strokes. He didn't do diddly-squat after that, though, finishing T58. You want to know who did fare well at Vidanta?
Erik van Rooyen.
He did so well Thursday that he finished the day as first-round leader. Admittedly, his contention was pretty much gone by the end of round 3 Saturday, as he struggled to break par during the last three rounds, but he still secured his first top-ten finish of the year. It's also his first top ten since winning the World Wide Technology Championship, also held on Mexican soil. He especially impressed in off-the-tee play, but his biggest success may have been at the par-5 No 6, where he smacked an iron 260+ yards and came within 22" of 3-under on that hole alone. That alone was the difference between settling for merely top twenty yet again and where he finished the week. It was good enough to bump him up three spots in the FedEx Cup to #42 and for him to jump to #83 in the OWGR. The latter feat enabled him to knock Thriston Lawrence out of the top two South Africans (Christiaan Bezuidenhout tops that list) according to the world rankings, which is where he'll need to be in mid-June or so to qualify for his first Olympics in Paris. Let me tell you, I will be singing the Minnesota Rouser every time he makes a good play at the Olympics if he makes it there. Lastly, he jumped to #19 in the Presidents Cup standings, though he still has work to do to make the team.
This week, as mentioned above, is marked by the event formerly known as the Honda Classic. It's now the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, and all the big three Umcees will be there, as Hoge would probably use the tourney to tune up for consecutive bigwig events over the next fortnight. However, I would also like to cast light upon the Korn Ferry Tour's awakening from early-year hibernation. After playing for four consecutive weeks from mid-January to early-to-mid-February, the richest developmental circuit in world golf took the following couple weeks off. Now, though, the Argentine Open marks the start of a brief resumption of activity on that tour, with the Chile Classic next week. It will see another three Umcees participate, only one of whom--Frankie Capan III--is a full member of the tour. The other two--Van Holmgren of Plymouth, Minnesota (former North Dakota State Bison, though he finished his college career at Florida Gulf Coast) and Thomas Longbella of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin (and former Minnesota Gopher) --became eligible to play the event via their placement at last year's Q-school finals. Two other Umcees--Dakotas Tour icon Andre Metzger, who lives part of the year in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Alex Schaake, former Iowa Hawkeye--were offered places but declined for whatever reason. That's still a trio of Umcees competing for a potential invite to the Open Championship this summer in Scotland at Royal Troon!
As for the Cognizant Classic, this is the final major checkpoint for qualification for the Players. The top ten in the FedEx Cup get in if they aren't already exempt, along with everybody eligible from the OWGR top 50. If there are fewer than 142 exempt at that point, the remaining slots are filled by either the winners of the Arnold Palmer and the Puerto Rico Open (held opposite the API) or via the post-Cognizant FedEx Cup standings. All of the big three Umcees are in the field, with van Rooyen having won the WWT and Hoge and Merritt getting in on account of last year's FedEx Cup Fall final list of eligibles.
Preface: Because only one Umcee, Tom Hoge, competed last week (at the Genesis Invitational), I opted to not award an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honour for the week. Hence, the present post concerns the upcoming week's action, rather than the one before.
Last week's Genesis Invitational was thrilling with Hideki Matsuyama's comeback from six strokes adrift of Patrick Cantlay, at least for those fans who follow the sport enough. But as is well known, the week was marred by Tiger Woods' illness and Jordan Spieth's disqualification for an incorrect scorecard. The good news from an Upper Midwestern perspective is that the one Umcee to make the field--Tom Hoge--not only made the cut but finished solo eighth. The finish lifted him six places to #15 in the FedEx Cup but was only good enough to bump him up one spot (#56 to #55) in the OWGR. Funny how those things work out, I guess.
This week, the West Coast Swing is over after five weeks. It featured five longshot winners, including Matsuyama, who hadn't won since the 2022 Sony Open; two head-to-head situations with LIV Golf; and the last three such events being afflicted by an act of God (Pebble Beach), acts of man (Genesis) and acts of both God and man (Phoenix Open). In its place is a low-key third successive trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for that country's national open. First played in 1944, it became a PGA Tour event in 2022 and was won by then-U.S. Open holder Jon Rahm. Last year, it was won by Tony Finau, who returns to defend his title.
The 132 players in Mexico this week do not include Hoge, who (I assume) is prepping for the next signature event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational next month, held the week before the Players. However, there are three other Umcees involved in the proceedings. Erik van Rooyen and Troy Merritt both return from a week's absence from competition, simply because neither of them qualified for the Genesis. Both are coming off missed cuts in Phoenix, but van Rooyen won last November just across the Sea of Cortez at El Cardonal in Cabo San Lucas, taking the World Wide Technology Championship on behalf of his dying homie and Minnesota Gophers teammate Jon Trasamar. Last year, van Rooyen was attacked by a swarm of bees during the first round of his appearance at this event:
Like van Rooyen, Troy Merritt heads into the Mexico Open off a missed cut at TPC Scottsdale. Unlike EVR, Merritt has had little luck since the Sony Open (deja vu from 2023, anyone?) and may struggle here as well. Lastly, the open qualifier for the Mexico Open was held last week. Four players, including Minnetonka (MN) High School alumnus Ben Sigel, were involved in a playoff for the last three open spots, and Sigel avoided being the odd one out. However he fares, I expect he'll take some positive points away from the experience of playing with the big boys.
There is the possibility of a fourth Umcee in the cards for this week on the other side of the pond. O.J. Farrell is from England but went to the University of Wisconsin, and he is currently 12th alternate for the Challenge Tour's Nelson Mandela Bay Championship in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour). This reflects making DP World Tour Q-School finals but failing to make the cut once there. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Anyway, that's all for this week until Sunday, when I plan to release my fifth-round picks for the FA Cup. The next Upper Midwest Connection of the Week will be named within the following few days.
Another week, another longshot winner on the PGA Tour, as Nick Taylor beat fellow-underdog Charley Hoffman in two playoff holes with five daylight minutes to go in the Phoenix Open, thereby avoiding a Monday finish. It's Taylor's second extra-holes win in less than eight months, having defeated Tommy Fleetwood in four holes to please a home-soil Canadian crowd at the Canadian Open. But Hoffman can't be too grumpy with his finish, as it garnered him enough FedEx Cup points to secure a trip to this week's Genesis Invitational, reduced to seventy or so players from the 120 of recent years as a signature event via the "Swing Five."
That's not what this article is about, of course. It's about the six Umcees who played last week on tour, all on circuits that are part of the PGA Tour pyramid. Four of them--Tom Hoge, Erik van Rooyen, Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson--played the Phoenix Open. The other two--Frankie Capan III and Van Holmgren--both played the Korn Ferry Tour's Astara Bogota Championship. Incidentally, Holmgren was making his KFT debut, having earned conditional status via Q-school last December. So, how did each of these guys do?
Unfortunately for the newbie, it didn't go according to plan. Holmgren missed the Astara cut by six strokes (E). However, FCIII made it with three to spare and eventually tied for 20th (-14). Meanwhile, the Phoenix Open saw a seeming bazillion acts of God that followed from the previous week's Pebble Beach debacle, which meant that van Rooyen saw the weekend, only to miss out on the cut by one stroke (-1/141 after two rounds). Merritt was even worse, and Johnson wasn't much better, though he did pick up a few valuable FedEx Cup points. I was tempted to anoint FCIII the Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, and I might have done so but for our returning UMCOW...
Tom Hoge.
For the first time this year, we have a repeat honoree! Hoge figures to have nailed down Upper Midwest Connection of the Month honours for February, as he again cracked the top 20 in the desert. His final score of -10/274 was good for T17 and lifted him to #56 in the OWGR and #21 in the FedEx Cup. Remember, one of the last categories to be invoked for the Masters Tournament before the "tradition unlike any other" goes down anew is top 50 in the world rankings (such as they are) after the penultimate event preceding the first major of the year. With the tragic passing of the WGC Match Play after last year, this year's checkpoint is the Houston Open.
This week, there won't be an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, unless Hoge wins the Genesis Invitational. That's because he's the only Umcee in the field for this signature event, and the Korn Ferry Tour is on a fortnightly hiatus between the Astara of Colombia and the Argentine Open. The winner of the Genesis Collegiate Showcase isn't an Umcee, and that event's exemption now doesn't take effect until July's Scottish Open due to this week's signature status.
However, it may be noted in passing that the Mexico Open qualifier took place the other day. As with all open qualifiers for PGA Tour and KFT events held outside the United States, it was held a week early to allow for travel planning in Richmond, Texas. When the dust settled on regulation, five players were among the top four and ties, including Minnetonka (Minnesota) High School alumnus Ben Sigel. However, only Preston Stanley of Katy, Texas made it outright, leaving the other four to contest an odd-man-out playoff. Fortunately, Sigel made it, so expect multiple Umcees to participate in next week's Mexico Open, allowing for honours after the event (provided at least one such player makes the cut, of course).
Good riddance to multi-course setups! After three straight weeks of only partial shot-level data, we now hit a stretch of PGA Tour full-field events through the Texas Open at the start of April where we can fully grasp how players are doing. (And yes, this includes the Mexican Open. It's one of the few non-U.S. events that has strokes-gained data, along with the Canadian and Scottish Opens.)
But the multiple courses at Pebble Beach comprised only one reason we got only two rounds of advanced stats for the second time in three weeks. The other reason we were so limited, of course, was Mother Nature. Despite being a signature event, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was cut to 54 holes (three rounds, two on Pebble Beach Links) with an atmospheric river coming in this past Sunday and scuttling play. It didn't even permit a Monday finish, so great was the damage to the links that Wyndham Clark, who had taken the 54-hole lead, was awarded his third win in less than a year. I bet Thomas Detry of Belgium is FUMING right now.
This is why the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was cut short (LA Times).
So, with all that out of the way, how did the Umcee contingent do across the board? For the most part, I'd say that, considering there were only three Umcees in action last week, it was a good if not great showing. Granted, Frankie Capan III missed his first cut of the Korn Ferry Tour season, dropping to #51 on the points list. But the two Umcees involved at Pebble Beach both finished top-20 (and ties). Van Rooyen finally mustered his first such finish since his WWT win last November anywhere in the world and climbed to #79 in the OWGR. That said, this week's honours go to none other than Tom Hoge, who becomes the first two-time laureate in 2024. Having won on the Monterey Peninsula for what remains his sole triumph on the PGA Tour in 2022, Hoge slogged through a -1/71 at Spyglass Hill (the other course used in the event) before turning on the jets with back-to-back -6/66's on the main links. As usual, his strengths lay in his irons and putter, ranking sixth in strokes gained with the former and eighth with the latter, averaging over 1.5 SG with each category per Pebble Beach Links round.
This week, Troy Merritt will once again seek to reestablish momentum post-Hawai'i, as he hasn't made a cut since the Sony Open. He joins the two Umcees who were at Pebble Beach at TPC Scottsdale near Phoenix for the Super Bowl week tradition that is the Phoenix Open. Additionally, FCIII will look to get back on track in the Andes at the Astara Bogota Championship, and he'll be joined by a fifth Umcee in Van Holmgren. Holmgren was the truest Umcee beneficiary of last year's Q-school, earning a PGA Tour Americas card, but he won't get to use it until next month when the season begins. That he was able to get in, let alone without a sponsor's exemption, speaks to how far he's come.
The debate over who was the top Upper Midwest connection in January 2024, for me, revolves around one factor above all: consistency. There were four leading contenders for the Upper Midwest Connection of the Month honour, but one is not like the others.
Frankie Capan III made some waves in the Bahamas and passed his cut-making test in both cases, but he failed in Panama last week. Troy Merritt was Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for his Sony Open in Hawai'i efforts, but he hasn't had a payday since. Tom Hoge was more compelling, posting a quality showing at the Amex, but he didn't show up at his other two cut-making events--the Sentry, where a payday is guaranteed to all who finish 72 holes, and the Farmers Insurance Open--and he embarrassingly missed the cut at Waialae. This left one clear-cut winner for the first Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for 2024:
Erik van Rooyen.
The former Minnesota Gopher made all but one cut, and the one he didn't make--the Farmers Insurance Open--was the event he skipped in January, as he had enough points from the FedEx Cup Fall to make it to Pebble Beach last week. Furthermore, van Rooyen has finished inside the top 25 in all but one of his starts, including Pebble Beach (which was not factored in for these purposes, as it took place in February). Currently, EVR sits #79 in the world rankings and #34 in the FedEx Cup after last week. Was it enough to get him Upper Midwest Connection of the Week in addition? Stay tuned.
The last time I posted, I had just begun to develop a cold from hanging out with friends in the Twin Cities. You see, part of our escapades involved a brief stroll in subzero temps, and I wasn't particularly bundled up, thinking the genes on my dad's side sufficient to bear the cold. That totally backfired, and I had to go to urgent care yesterday to make sure nothing serious was afoot. (Verdict: I tested negative. Woohoo!) I still have a hoarse voice, but I'm doing what I can to not push myself too vigorously. As a result of the upheaval, I will be posting twice today with any luck, as FA Cup Proper Round 4 is upon us as well.
One of the Korn Ferry Tour's early-season quirks is to hold its first two events of the year, both in the Bahamas, on a Sunday-Wednesday basis. Because of this, I will usually post my Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for the previous week on the Tuesday of a KFT Bahamas week. The same goes for the Tuesday after the Farmers Insurance Open, which tees off today (Wednesday), but for the different reason of that event's Wednesday-Saturday format (adopted to accommodate the NFL's semifinals). However, the disruption, coupled with the long day yesterday, forced me to delay posting to today. The regular schedule will really start in two weeks after the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Even if only one Umcee (Tom Hoge) is able to participate--it's a signature event now--there are other events like the Panama Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour that will feature at least one such player.
With scheduling out of the way, let's examine how last week's six UMCOW candidates fared. Troy Merritt is out, seeing as how he didn't make the cut at the Amex, missing by one lousy stroke. Of those who did make the cut, the weakest case belongs to Frankie Capan III. About all that can be said in his favour is that he at least made the cut in the KFT season opener this time, getting his quest for a PGA Tour card for 2025 off to a better start than a year ago. Eduardo Galdos had a better showing at the Latin American Amateur Championship. The University of Minnesota junior made the cut on his third attempt in this event and finished T35 despite a ruinous opening +12/82. Fortunately, much of the field struggled to keep scores low, enabling Galdos to make the cut with his best round of the week the next day, a -1/69. (For the record, Santiago de la Fuente of Mexico won the LAAC, suffering only one bogey en route to a -10/270 on the week. He sealed it with back-to-back birdies and gets to play the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship this year if he stays amateur.)
That leaves three candidates, all playing the Amex alongside Merritt and (unlike Merritt) making the cut. For a time, it seemed like Erik van Rooyen wouldn't make the cut, but the former Minnesota Gophers captain birdied his last two Saturday to make it on -14/202 with but one stroke to spare. That's right, the cut was -13, which I absolutely do NOT like! He ultimately finished T25 and moved up one spot to #27 in the FedEx Cup standings. Moreover, he inched up to #84 in the world rankings, although he dropped to fourth among South Africans, as Christiaan Bezuidenhout was the top pro in the Coachella Valley, losing only to Alabama Crimson Tide sophomore Nick Dunlap, holder of the U.S. Amateur. He didn't do quite as well as he had done last year, but he was still pretty good. Also among those tying for 25th was Zach Johnson, formerly of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and twice major winner (2007 Masters and 2015 Open). He jumped to #249 in the world rankings and debuted at #81 in the FedEx Cup. Lastly, Tom Hoge was the top Umcee performer in the field, carding consecutive -7/65s to finish T17. It wasn't enough to budge his world ranking of #63, but he did move to #45 in the FedEx Cup.
It was a difficult decision, one that came down to the three Umcees who made the cut at the Amex. In the end, Tom Hoge took the cake with his strong finish, first to make the cut, then to finish in the top 20. I almost picked Johnson, who would have won UMCOW with so much as a 68 or 69 the final day. Instead, he settled for 70 and tied with van Rooyen and seven others. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good week for Umcees.
This week is a bit quieter, as only three Umcees are competing. As this UMCOW report is going to publication, FCIII is enjoying his week at the Great Abaco Classic in the Bahamas. Again, as with last week's Great Exuma Classic, this week's KFT event concludes today (Wednesday). With FCIII making the cut with ease and continuing to do well thereafter, don't be surprised to see him become Upper Midwest Connection of the Week when that's revealed next week, tentatively Tuesday. Further suppressing the noise is the fact that van Rooyen, perhaps feeling confident that his FedEx Cup Fall performance will get him selected to the Pebble Beach Pro-Am next week by virtue of the alternates' list (he's fifth right now), isn't playing this week, which rules out his hopes of making it via the Swing Five. However, Hoge will have a chance to defend his UMCOW crown and perhaps earn Upper Midwest Connection of the Month honours. Meanwhile, Merritt will get a shot at redemption after missing the Amex cut. Hopefully this isn't the start of another cut drought for him!
What you see below is a screenshot of the data table I created in Excel to help me follow the PGA Tour's eligibility for signature events among those not otherwise exempt. Each player is listed with his country code as assigned by the International Olympic Committee and the FedEx Cup points he's accrued over various PGA Tour events. This table is limited to members who haven't won in 2024 on the Tour or otherwise failed to crack last year's BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. From an Upper Midwestern perspective, the latter restriction explains why Tom Hoge isn't on the list, as he made the BMW yet again last August. On the other hand, finishers 51-60 on the FedEx Cup Fall points list are given for now with asterisks, signifying their automatic qualification to both Pebble Beach and the Genesis. The particular screenshot is arranged by "Swing Five" standing and is limited to the top thirty in this regard with ties broken by overall FedEx Cup points. Not shown, but very much on the table, is Luke List, who is automatically eligible for both Pebble Beach and the Genesis for his "next ten" performance across the FedEx Cup Fall, highlighted by his playoff win at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi in October.
I bring up this table because this past week marked the beginning of the first "swing" for signature event eligibility purposes. The Sony Open in Hawai'i was the first of three events counting toward the interval for this year's Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a stretch that continues with this week's American Express and wraps up at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. More on that below.
Anyway, three Umcees competed at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Unlike the vast, hilly Kapalua Resort, Waialae is a flat, compact track that checks in as a par-70. As you might've guessed, the Umcees involved were Hoge and reigning Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Erik van Rooyen, joined by Troy Merritt. Merritt would have been last among the exempt but for Jon Rahm's defection to LIV, leaving that honour to Carl Yuan of China.
Hoge struggled and missed the cut. Van Rooyen fared better and made the cut by two strokes, though it would have been by just one if Joel Dahmen had made an easy birdie putt at the last on Friday. By the back nine Sunday, though, the Minnesota Gophers alumnus had petered out and would suffer three bogeys to give back his front-nine progress before getting up and down for a closing birdie to salvage a breach of 70 for the fourth day running and seventh day on the trot dating to Kapalua round 2.
The Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, then, is Troy Merritt. Like van Rooyen, he struggled Sunday, settling for even par. Before then, though, the Spring Lake Park (Minnesota) alumnus had registered successive 66s in the middle rounds to get into contention to some degree. As the screenshot above indicates, he is T11 in the opening standings for the "swing five."
This week, as mentioned before, the American Express takes over the Coachella Valley of California. The big three Umcees will again be there, with Merritt and van Rooyen jockeying for spots at Pebble Beach. Furthermore, once the three-event swing is complete at Torrey Pines next week (a day early to accommodate NFL conference championships), the swing standings will be frozen throughout the signature event they helped fill and will be supplemented with the Phoenix Open in its traditional Super Bowl week slot to help fill the Genesis.
However, Hoge, Merritt and EVR aren't the only Umcees in action. Frankie Capan III helped commence the Korn Ferry Tour season in the Bahamas at the Great Exuma Classic on the same day the Sony Open wrapped up the Hawai'i swing. Although the reckoning has been delayed to Tuesday because of darkness, FCIII is mathematically assured of making the cut, as of the 14 players yet to complete their rounds, only nine are tied for 55th with him or otherwise behind him and within mathematical reach. He made the cut despite a disastrous +3/75 Monday.
Nor is the Umcee action limited to tour pros for once. This week also features the Latin American Amateur Championship, with University of Minnesota junior Eduardo Galdos of Peru in the field. Galdos missed the cut the first two years he made the LAAC, but he came close to making the weekend last year and might break through this year. The winner qualifies for all three open majors--the Masters, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know.
Normally my Upper Midwest Connection of the Week feature would be published on Wednesday, as I like to be able to process the outcomes for Umcees the previous week, as well as lead in to the action the following week. For the first three such features of 2024, though, I will be publishing on Tuesday for a reason that I'll get to below.
On 8 August 2023, when the Devilish Rake was little more than a month old, the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui burnt to the ground, claiming over 100 lives. It was the greatest loss of life in any U.S. wildfire since 1918, when Cloquet in my home state of Minnesota had seen 450 or so killed. What broke my heart the most, though, was the destruction of the historic centre of Lahaina and many of its monuments and artefacts, both natural and man-made. Now, I've never been to any part of Hawai'i in my life, but I'm a firm believer in the preservation of genuine history. That's why the fires rent my heart so much, similar to how many must have felt when the earthquakes and barbarian conquests shut down the Great Library of antiquity. It begged the question: Would the Sentry, which has raised the curtain on the year in professional golf since its inception as the Tournament of Champions in 1953 and been held at the Plantation Course in nearby Kapalua since 1999, go on?
Well, you know what they say...
Queen/Freddie Mercury deathbed reference aside, the Sentry found fortitude in the name of its sponsor, Sentry Insurance--which, incidentally, is an Upper Midwestern company, based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It could also be argued that the cutting out of the words "Tournament of Champions" after decades in the title serves two purposes: It's not only not just for champions from last year. The very name--"the Sentry"--implies a commitment to guard, govern and protect Maui until she be rebuilt.
When the RSM Classic concluded, 61 golfers were eligible to play the Sentry either by winning in 2023 or by finishing in the top 50 among eligible players in the FedEx Cup playoffs. That number shrank to 60 when Jon Rahm signed with LIV. Even then, as has usually been the case, one holdout was noticed among the remaining threescore. Rory McIlroy, the top-ranked European who was eligible, sat out for the fourth year running due to his commitment to DP World Tour events in Dubai. I guess you can do that when you're a winner on both the PGA and DP World tours. For instance, Tommy Fleetwood, who is known to own a place in Dubai, has yet to win on the PGA Tour.
That still left 59 players to contest the Sentry, including two Umcees. Tom Hoge, who qualified as one of the top fifty FedEx Cup finishers despite failing to get victory no 2 on the PGA Tour, got off to a bright start with a -6/67 on day one. Unfortunately, a lack of firepower off the tee held him back the rest of the way, as he was the only player without a single drive of 400 yards. His longest tee shot was 397, which came at No 12 in the third round, as he slogged to a -2/71. Even on a difficult scoring Saturday, it was a pittance by Kapalua standards. Overall, Hoge's -17/275 failed to budge him in the OWGR. However, the other Umcee in the field finished four strokes lower and mustered a T22, which was good enough for a four-place improvement in the world rankings.
Erik van Rooyen, who earned his way into the field with his World Wide Technologies Championship victory and is the reigning Upper Midwest Connection of the Year, started out slowly, with a -1/72 opening round reflecting horrors in his short game bailed out by his putting stroke. However, he turned things around starting in round two with a -8/65 Friday, although his irons were curiously a liability. Even on Saturday, van Rooyen managed to break 70 (-4/69) thanks to some strong driving, with several 400-yarders on the course. He then inched up to a second top-25 finish in as many trips to Kapalua with another -8/65. At present, he is tied for second in the Next 10 on 85 FedEx Cup points, which is one way for players not otherwise exempt to signature events to get in to such tournaments.
This week, the number of Umcees increases to three. Troy Merritt, who was one of the last players in the FedEx Cup Fall to successfully defend his card, starts his season in Honolulu at Waialae Country Club, and both Hoge and van Rooyen will cross to Oahu to join him at the Sony Open. It's just too bad so many Korn Ferry Tour grads were unable to partake of the festivities, as the 144-strong field was swamped by fully exempt members, including the three Umcees I have mentioned.
Finally, I started this feature by noting that I decided to post today rather than Wednesday. The reason is the timing of the first two KFT events of 2024 in the Bahamas. With no Monday qualification needed for either the Great Exuma or the Great Abaco, the PGA Tour's Triple-A circuit has elected to move each event up four days. Since the Great Exuma doesn't count toward the same week as the Sony Open for world-ranking purposes, I decided to classify that event as counting toward the same weekly feature as the American Express on the PGA Tour. Likewise, the Great Abaco is the same calendar week as the Farmers Insurance Open, so it just makes sense to move things up a bit in both cases, as the latter ends on Saturday, 27 January (my birthday, incidentally). This was enacted a couple years ago to accommodate both the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and avoid clashing with NFL conference championships.
It'll be a hectic week leading up to my birthday for the Devilish Rake, as not only will I be doing my usual Upper Midwest Connection of the Week feature, but I will be issuing FA Cup fourth-round picks as well. It's also the deadline for the "Swing Five," which will earn the top five NOX performers in the three events from the Sony Open through the Farmers a tee time at Pebble Beach.
On a related note, several Umcees are playing Monday qualifiers for the international swing of the Korn Ferry Tour. None of them joined Frankie Capan III in Panama, but the Astara of Bogota has its Monday qualifier Wednesday. Five Umcees are involved in it, but only four places are available, unlike the stateside quota of eight for Mondays.
