Umcee Success Stories on the Longest Day of Golf

 As mentioned in my last post, the "Longest Day in Golf" went down yesterday. Ten of the thirteen final qualifying sites, each a 36-hole test sending a given number of top finishers to the U.S. Open, contributed 44 places in this year's event at Pinehurst No 2 in North Carolina. Among those trying their luck at a spot were numerous Umcees. While not all qualified or earned alternate places (each site designates two), three earned their way into the season's penultimate men's major and its most masochistic, just as last week's women's edition was for women's golf. Below, I provide a recap of the three.

Frankie Capan III won his U.S. Open qualifier (St Paul Pioneer Press).

Frankie Capan III (Duke University Golf Club, Durham, NC, medallist, -6/134)

Capan was the most impressive of the three Umcees who qualified via open qualifying (as opposed to exemptions). He was already exempt from local qualifying due to his top-500 OWGR standing at the time of application that he has maintained. FCIII beat Brian Campbell and former U.S. Amateur Sam Bennett to win the medal by one stroke, and Chesson Hadley and Webb Simpson qualified without any questions as well. That left two places to be determined among seven players, along with both alternate places, in a sudden-death playoff. Carter Jenkins and Harry Higgs--the latter of whom beat Capan in another playoff at the Korn Ferry Tour's Visit Knoxville Open--prevailed, while Spencer Oxendine and Matt McCarty were first and second alternates, respectively.

Gunnar Broin (amateur, Ohio State University Golf Club, Scarlet Course, Columbus, OH, 4-way T3 and won in odd-one-out playoff, -9/133)

The sole amateur on the list, Broin just completed his fourth year at the University of Kansas and is intending to play one more season of college golf before turning pro. He missed out on the medallist honours by one stroke, as Justin Lower and Seamus Power shared them at -10. Since there were only five places available and he was in a four-way tie for third, Broin had to undergo a playoff, whose loser would be first alternate. As it turned out, he did just enough to make Pinehurst, along with Brendon Todd and Chris Naegel, while Otto Black missed out. In a separate, seven-way playoff, Joshua Lee won second-alternate status.

Carson Schaake (Springfield Country Club, Springfield, OH, T2, -8/132)

The third and final Umcee to qualify tied for second with Beau Hossler. Only Zac Blair beat them, finishing -9. Schaake sealed his trip to Pinehurst with a birdie on No 17, enabling him to avoid a playoff with Aussie stars Cam Davis and Adam Scott. (Even now, I can't believe that neither has qualified his way into the U.S. Open!) As it is, both went to one, and it made headlines. Scott failed to match Davis' second playoff hole birdie, putting his streak of 91 straight major appearances in jeopardy. Equally heartbreaking--even more so from an Upper Midwest perspective--though not totally unexpected was Troy Merritt's loss to Maxwell Moldovan of Ohio St in a playoff for second alternate. Otherwise, I would have given Merritt an honourable mention.

One more thing: Speaking of qualifiers, PGA Tour Q-School applications dropped today, so in a post later this week, I will be examining the differences (if any) between Q-school last year and this year. For now, look for me to announce the Upper Midwest Connection of the Week tomorrow (5 June).

Canadian Open et al. Recap

 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.

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 26 May 2024

 Although all five Umcees made the cut at their respective events, three--Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson at the Charles Schwab Challenge and Van Holmgren at the KFT Visit Knoxville Open--may be safely removed from the board as a result of their poor performances after making the weekend. That left two of them for this week's poll.

For the second straight week, the televote was overridden by the expert jury. I received two votes, and both went to Tom Hoge, who won the honours last week after a good performance at the PGA Championship. However, I don't see how a tie for 17th, as much as that matches his personal best at the Schwab Challenge, lifts Hoge to Upper Midwest Connection of the Week. Not when the Visit Knoxville Open went to a sudden-death, two-hole playoff involving...

(PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Tour)

Frankie Capan III.

Heading into Sunday's final round, FCIII had a one-stroke lead. The North Oaks, Minnesota product has never won an OWGR-sanctioned event but already had matched his top-ten finish total coming into the week with three on the season. Capan, though, was charged down by Harry Higgs, who is a former PGA Tour member seeking to get back his card. Higgs came to the final hole leading by one himself until FCIII birdied the last and Higgs settled for par, triggering a playoff.

Normally a birdie-birdie playoff showing would hand a given player the win, but on the second hole of the playoff--both holes were replays of No 18--Higgs drilled a 37-foot eagle putt for the win and Capan missed his from a third of the distance by seventeen inches. Even so, FCIII got to reap great rewards in his own right with 300 KFT points, lifting him to within some reach of the PGA Tour at #7 on the points list, as he is closing in on 700 total. (Higgs, along with Swedish hotshot Tim Widing, already is thought to have enough points to graduate back to the big Tour with over 1100 so far.) Furthermore, Capan jumped to #172 in the OWGR.

This week's action revolves around two foci. On the men's side, the big event is the RBC Canadian Open. Hoge won't be playing the event, but the other two Umcees from last week's Schwab Challenge will be joined by the well-rested Erik van Rooyen, who tied for 20th at the exact same course in Hamilton, Ontario five years ago. Of course, the place has since undergone a renovation, so course history may not be that relevant for handicapping. There are multiple extra incentives for success. Firstly, the Presidents Cup is being held at Royal Montreal this fall; and as an International Team-eligible player, van Rooyen will want to impress Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champ who hails from Canada and is captaining the team, this week. Secondly, the Canadian Open is an Open Qualifying Series event, which means that a certain number of top finishers who aren't otherwise exempt get into next month's 152nd Open at Royal Troon in Scotland. In this case, three spots are available; and unlike previous OQS stops, this and subsequent such events fall after the deadline for Open entries (30 May this year), so the bids are nontransferable. 

Meanwhile, the Korn Ferry Tour features three more Umcees, as Capan and Holmgren are joined for once by conditional member Andre Metzger. Metzger is legendary on the Dakotas Tour, which is one of my favourite minitours in golf. Not only does it conduct events in the Upper Midwest (except Wisconsin), but it partners with locals to quarter cash-strapped players and distributes prize money with great efficiency. Anyway, Metzger makes some residence in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, especially during the Dakotas Tour season.

As for women's golf, the U.S. Women's Open goes down at Lancaster Country Club in the Pennsylvania Deutsch Country (and yes, the Amish historically spoke German, not Dutch--hence the spelling). Earlier in the spring, Kim Kaufman of Clark, South Dakota won an open qualifier to make this women's major, giving her a playing opportunity while the Epson Tour is on another hiatus. At some point during the tournament or afterward, I might also comment on Lexi Thompson's retirement, which she announced at the event this week.

Facere pro Qui Non Possunt.

Edward the Scop

Post 100: Charles Schwab Challenge and Other Events Recap

 Lost amid the tragic backdrop at Colonial National was the actual playing of golf. But at the Devilish Rake, the show must go on, and this past week's events followed that rule, at times magnificently. I mentioned in the above-linked post that most felt it's what Grayson Murray would have wanted.

Anyway, just like last week's PGA Championship, this week's Charles Schwab Challenge featured three Umcees. While Erik van Rooyen sat out an event at which he's never done well (0-for-3 in cuts made), Troy Merritt and Zach Johnson came back to action after missing out on the season's second major. All three made the cut, but Merritt and Johnson both finished +2/282 for the week. Johnson had an especially ugly final round, carding +3/73 to lose four places in the FedEx Cup. He is teetering closer to the threshold for so much as conditional status retention, as it's clear his day has come and gone. Merritt is in a somewhat more favourable position, but he is also on track to fall to the conditional category, slipping a place in the list.

Tom Hoge, though, saved his best for last. After struggling in the odd rounds (with a -1/69 in between Friday), he showed up to finish under par (-2/278 overall, -3/67 Sunday). Hoge only suffered one bogey Sunday, and his efforts propelled him to #20 in the FedEx Cup and #59 in the OWGR. While the latter wasn't good enough to make it to the Open Championship yet, there is still time for him to secure his place at Royal Troon this July.

While the Schwab Challenge was won comfortably by Davis Riley, who polished off Scottie Scheffler and Keegan Bradley by five shots each (-14/266), there was considerable drama on the Korn Ferry Tour at the Visit Knoxville Open. Last week's people's choice as Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, Van Holmgren, made the cut for the second straight week but stumbled with a +3/73 final round, tying him for dead last among the 75 who made the cut in Knoxville, Tennessee. At the other extreme was Frankie Capan III. After a phenomenal -8/62 third round Saturday, FCIII matched veteran Harry Higgs' -19/261 regulation finish with a birdie at the last, followed by two more at No 18 in the playoff. Which would have won Capan his first KFT title...except Higgs sank a 37-foot eagle putt on the last playing of the hole to win by one. Even so, Capan is up to seventh on the KFT points list and is arithmetically on track to be PGA Tour-bound by the time the KFT finals roll around in the fall. He also has a personal-best four top-ten finishes on tour, and even in playoff defeat, this is his best KFT finish ever.

I will ask it again: Whom do you think was the best Upper Midwest connection of the past week in tour golf? I pose this question again to both this blog and YouTube, so answer away!

Edward the Scop

Facere pro Qui Non Possunt

Update on the Blog and Kindred Activities

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.

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 7 April 2024

 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.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 3 (actually 4) March 2024

 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.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 11 February 2023

 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).

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 7 February 2024

 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).

This seemed a brilliant situation for LIV Golf down in Mayakoba, which itself hosted the World Wide Technology Championship for many years...on the PGA Tour. You know, the event that former Minnesota Gopher Erik van Rooyen won last fall, albeit in Cabo rather than Yucatan. Won by Joaquin Niemann, who led the expansion Legion XIII to victory alongside Jon "Benedict Arnold" Rahm and two others, the LIV opener enjoyed good ratings, but these were still far below the Pebble Beach ratings, even with LIV having Sunday to itself.

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.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Month for January 2024

 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.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 28 January 2024

Last fall, when I was reporting on various Q-schools, there was one glaring omission I made concerning Umcees involved. You see, former University of Minnesota star Angus Flanagan, whom I had named to my All-Umcee Second Team for registering greater consistency in tour golf in 2023, had struggled at DP World Tour Q-School, missing out on Second Stage, and had also missed Final Stage at PGA Tour Q-School. Unbeknownst to me, though, he had entered Asian Tour Q-School and made it to Final Stage, finishing 40th. While only 35 get Asian Tour cards, Flanagan should have general access to the Asian Developmental Tour and might even sneak into an Asian Tour event or two. I will say I hope he avoids the LIV temptation if he becomes big enough, though if he falls for it, it won't deter me from giving him Upper Midwest Connection of the Week, etc. or All-Umcee consideration.

But back to last week. My last name, Genereux, is of French origin, reflecting much of the heritage on my late dad's side. (He died in 2015.) As such, I was right delighted to see Matthieu Pavon of Toulouse, France win the Farmers Insurance Open, becoming the first-ever Frenchman to win a true PGA Tour event. The way I will always describe his win, Pavon had already beaten one Hojgaard twin in Rasmus, denying him the right to play at the Farmers (or most PGA Tour events, for that matter) with a late surge at the DP World Tour Championship last November in Dubai. Now, with a nearly eight-foot winner for birdie at Torrey Pines South Course #18, he has defeated Rasmus' brother Nicolai without needing a playoff. Still, it was a pretty good week for Danes, with Rasmus finishing second only to the Hojgaards' countryman Thorbjorn Olesen at the Ras Al-Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates on the DP World Tour.

European euphoria--Europhoria?--is refreshing to see in an increasingly U.S.-centred traditional ecosystem being challenged by the Saudis. And I say that as an American, lest xenophobic thoughts give me a bad reputation against the arguments that the PIF is only trying to grow the game globally. But oh yeah, we're here to talk the performances of the three Umcees in action last week, not to wax poetic about countering the sportswashing spectre.

Unlike the week before, when at least six Umcees had been involved across tour golf and the Latin America Amateur Championship, there were only three such players. Zach Johnson is winding down his Hall of Fame-worthy career, and Erik van Rooyen was confident (and rightly so) that he would get into this week's Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the merits of his FedEx Cup Fall alternate standing. Of the three competing across the Farmers and the Korn Ferry Tour early-week event in the Bahamas, only Troy Merritt missed the cut. However, Tom Hoge also underwhelmed, carding a -1/287 for the week. Though to be fair, when he won at Pebble Beach two years ago, he had missed the cut at the Farmers. This leaves only one clear choice for Upper Midwest Connection of the Week...

Frankie Capan III.

Well, it looks like January's race for Upper Midwest Connection of the Month can't be decided on UMCOW honours alone! Heading into last week, FC3 was coming off a so-so performance in the Great Exuma Classic in the Bahamas. But he had at least made the cut, and it fuelled a good performance at the Great Abaco Classic, also in the Bahamas, as he finished T20. This marked some improvement on last year's Bahamian excursion for the North Oaks, Minnesota native, as he is now #36 on the KFT points list. His best round was Wednesday, 24 January, as he carded a -2/70 in difficult conditions, finishing on -1/287 for the week. But the fact that four different Umcees were tops for their respective weekly contingents means I'll need to apply tiebreakers to determine an Upper Midwest Connection of the Month. This shouldn't be too hard to do, though.

Looking ahead to this week's action, there will once more be but three Umcees in action, as the PGA Tour observes its second signature event at Pebble Beach. After years of struggling to attract players, what with the Phoenix Open enjoying a Super Bowl-sized lead-in since the 1970s and the Genesis Invitational (formerly Los Angeles Open) the next week, the foul weather often seen around this time off the Monterrey Peninsula and--perhaps most importantly--the insufferable proliferation of has-been celebs like Bill Murray making futile attempts to play with the best, expect the fourscore golfers to represent a return to the good times for the tournament. Even with only eighty players this year as a signature event, the field is so strong that over 72 OWGR points are on tap for winning. Two Umcees are among this elite. In addition to van Rooyen, who got in via the alternates list stemming from the FedEx Cup Fall, Hoge finished in the top 50 a year ago, so he gets into every signature event in 2024.

As for FC3, he tees it up at the Panama Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. This week's field is the strongest on that circuit so far this year, according to OWGR, with 13+ points available to the winner. If a winner from the last 52 weeks prevails in either, though, he'll get another four winner's points to apply to his rating. (It's technically 60 to 70 per cent, but it's also capped at 4pt/win for multiple wins within a year.) Only EVR would qualify for this bonus among Umcees, having won at the World Wide Technology Championship last November. I don't see him getting PGA Tour win No 3 here, but we'll see.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 21 January 2024

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!

Edward the Scop

Top Ten Upper Midwest Connections of 2023: #4

 Happy Boxing Day to all who celebrate! (I'm sure there are some fellow-Americans of mine who know what Boxing Day is...) Yesterday, we kicked off the player-a-day reveal of the All-Umcee First Team for 2023 with Troy Merritt and his survival to another year on the PGA Tour by the skin o' his teeth. For the next two days, we return to the developmental scene, beginning with...

Number 4: Frankie Capan III, North Oaks, Minnesota

Capan with his mother on the bag at this year's 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota.

Starting OWGR: N/A

Current OWGR: #358

Final Korn Ferry Tour Points List: #51

Wins: 0

Top 10s: 3

Top 25s: 7

Majors: U.S. Open, MC

Cuts made: 14/22 on KFT; 1/1 on PGA Tour (3M Open)

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week titles: 4 (including retroactive)

When Frankie Capan III stepped into an obscure Q-school prequalifying tee box sixteen months ago, he had made a conscious decision to leave the Alabama Crimson Tide (Justin Thomas' alma mater, in case you didn't know) and risk his future prospects as a golfer. Go pro, young man. Those words might well have rung false for anybody not bearing Capan's name, but like a football player taking stock of his talents and sensing himself ready to leave university for the NFL--or, for that matter, a basketballer knowing he was too good to need university in the first place--FCIII not only tested those KFT Q-school waters, but cruised across them. And he had a secret weapon: his mother as caddie. Thus armed, FCIII tied for third at prequalifying, then secured medallist honours at both First and Second Stage and T9'd at finals--good enough for twelve guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023.

The waters got choppier once on tour, and FCIII hasn't won a KFT event yet. Furthermore, he can't ask his mother when he needs a reading, as he changed caddies during the season. Sometimes, you need to let go of the security blanket and enter in to the deep. Despite these considerations, his rookie year on tour was quite good to great. He flirted with a PGA Tour card at times before fading down the stretch and made his major debut as the only Umcee to qualify for the U.S. Open (excluding Tom Hoge, who was already exempt). He missed the cut at L.A. Country Club but made the 3M Open cut back home in the Twin Cities. His three top-ten finishes, coupled with four lesser top-25 showings, helped him secure a return to Final Stage of Q-school, this time with PGA Tour cards on the line. Although he failed to improve his status, he now has full KFT membership, freeing him from worries about the reshuffle, which he had to face during his first season. Maybe that relief will help him get that PGA Tour card, no Q-school needed, for 2025. In that case, if Hoge and Merritt retain their cards (Erik van Rooyen, the other member of the "big three" Umcees, has a winner's exemption from his World Wide Technologies triumph last month that guarantees survival to next season), the big three Umcees would become a big four in men's tour golf. Good luck to Frankie Capan III in 2024!!!

Tomorrow we hit the medal stand with the top woman Umcee in tour golf this year.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 18 December 2023*

The year 2023 in golf, which began this past 5 January with the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, concluded (for all intents and purposes) last Monday, 18 December at the first true PGA Tour Q-School since 2012. As with that year's medallist, the 2023 Q-school champion is eligible for the Presidents Cup Internationals, as Harrison Endycott of Australia beat his nearest challenger, American Trace Crowe, by four strokes (-15 to -11). Raul Pereda of Mexico, who is also International-eligible, was also among the five recipients of PGA Tour cards for 2024,. He tied with Hayden Springer on -8 over what turned out to be five days, as Sunday's action was moved to Monday due to rain at the Sawgrass complex (hence the asterisk in the title). The only other player to earn a PGA Tour card was Blaine Hale Jr, who finished third on -9.

But PGA Tour status wasn't the only incentive on the line. The next forty and ties among those who finished the 72 holes would receive Korn Ferry Tour starts; there were 48 such players. Exactly two-thirds of them--32 in all--earned two reprieves from the reshuffle, which is based primarily on the points list. The remaining sixteen earned one reprieve. This, of course, assumes that a given player in this range hadn't already earned full status on the KFT for 2024.

The third tier of incentives awarded the top 20 and ties after that PGA Tour Americas exempt status for the Latin American segment, which will consist of six events in spring 2024. Twenty-eight players finished in this tier, including two Umcees. However, one of them--Frankie Capan III--already has a full KFT ride for 2024 after finishing #51 this year on the points list. That leaves an obvious choice for the final Upper Midwest Connection of the Week for Anno Domini 2023...

Van Holmgren.

The Plymouth, Minnesota product who went to Wayzata High School and played at North Dakota State for two-plus years before transferring to Florida Gulf Coast on the other side of the Sunshine State made his first trip to Q-school finals somewhat remunerative. In his pro career so far, Holmgren has had some heartache. Two years ago, a putt lipped out or he would've made KFT Q-School finals. Then he had status on last year's PGA Tour Canada but only finished 64th in the Fortinet Cup, narrowly missing out on retaining his card with three MCs. Undeterred, Holmgren grinded his way through two stages of this year's PGA Tour Q-School and got back his card on the number (+3). It's not the Korn Ferry Tour yet, but he is one step closer to that goal. Hopefully he does well enough in 2024 to retain PGA Tour Americas privileges into the Canadian segment and even upgrades, perhaps, to tours higher up.

Only one golfing matter remains for 2023, and that is the Top Ten Upper Midwest Connections of the Year. Look for it by the time the Sentry's field is preliminarily announced on 29 December, if not sooner.

Edward the Scop

Umcees at PGA Tour Q-School Final Stage 2023

We are now just two days away from the last serious PGA Tour-related event of 2023. The finals of the PGA Tour Q-School consist of four rounds of no-cut golf at the Sawgrass complex in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Each of those who've made it--whether they started in prequalifying or progressed straight to the finals--will play two rounds at each of TPC Sawgrass' Dye's Valley Course (6850yd) and Sawgrass Country Club's East-West Course (7054yd), both of which are par-70 courses. The lack of a cut puts this Q-school in contrast to LPGA Q-Series or the DP World Tour Q-School finals, both of which have six rounds totalling 108 holes, with a cut after 72 (four rounds). This was also the format used by the PGA Tour in the previous life of its Q-school from 1982 through 2012. In my opinion, that's how it ought to be done, with maybe the Stadium Course as a third site for the last two rounds. It would be a huge tie-in to the Players Championship, which uses that course and has since 1982, succeeding...the East-West Course, which had hosted the five previous editions!

Dye's Valley.

But that's enough soapboxing. As mentioned a couple times in this blog, the 168 golfers participating in Q-school finals (Shad Tuten and Carl Yuan were apparently replaced by alternates) include five Umcees. I list them with a short capsule in alphabetical order by last name, with tee times and course and hole assignments for the first two rounds (all times Eastern), as well as BetMGM odds to grab a PGA Tour card as of this writing:

Frankie Capan III, North Oaks, Minnesota. FC3 is arguably the leading Umcee among those who've made it this far. Having finished just outside the top 50 of the Korn Ferry Tour points list (#51 to be exact), he has risen into the top 400 of the world rankings. Even if LIV events provided OWGR points, that wouldn't change. Last year, when The Landings near Savannah, Georgia hosted Q-school finals for KFT privileges only, FC3 soared all the way from prequalifying to a top-ten finish. He might need an even better performance to secure PGA Tour privileges for 2024--without his mother on the bag, of course--but has shown his capabilities of doing so. (9:02 at DV #10/10:15 at EW #1; 16-1)

Van Holmgren, Plymouth, Minnesota. In eight starts on the PGA Tour Canada, he's made five cuts. One reason for pause might be the lack of playing opportunities in the circuit's final season of operations, as Holmgren only played once, though he did make the cut at the Windsor Championship. However, he turned it on when Q-school rolled around and was Upper Midwest Connection of the Week four weeks ago. Could he do what FC3 did last year and convert a Q-school epiphany into KFT or even PGA Tour playing time? (8:41 at DV 1/9:54 at EW 10; 70-1)

Thomas Longbella, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. This University of Minnesota product (class of 2021) is the second-most-successful player among the Umcees at Q-school finals this season. Though not quite as successful on the PGA Tour Canada this year as last year, he did one better where it mattered, finishing second at his Second Stage site to earn the first Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honour of December. Perhaps he will become the long-awaited successor apparent to Erik van Rooyen whom Gopher Nation's golf arm has sought. (8:51 at EW #10/9:54 at DV #1; 60-1)

Andre Metzger, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (part-time resident). The Dakotas Tour folk hero returns to Final Stage with more on the line than a year ago. He has lacked staying power in the PGA Tour pyramid but did flirt with some lasting status a couple years ago on the Korn Ferry Tour, shortly after Covid-19 had forced the 2020 and 2021 seasons on that circuit to be merged into a single points list. The question remains, though: Will he be able to translate minitour success into a lasting career so that he can give up his side gig as a pizza deliveryman? (8:41 at CC #1/9:54 at DV #10; 60-1)

Alex Schaake, Omaha, Nebraska/University of Iowa. Like Metzger, Schaake has never made it big on the PGA Tour pyramid, but has made some noise on minitours, especially the Asher Tour (formerly the Outlaw Golf Tour). This past season, he pocketed $7K, which helped fund his Q-school run, and he supplemented it with a couple grand from the PGA Tour Canada. He had a successful college career at Iowa, and hopes to pay off what I assume would be great debt from his travels. (9:12 at CC #1/10:26 at DV #10; 60-1)

If I were to rank these guys' chances, I would put Capan III first, which is a no-brainer since he has some experience making big-time waves. I would put Longbella and Metzger tied for second among the five Umcees, as Longbella's momentum and head-to-head edge over Metzger is likely to be offset by the fact that the latter was here last year and is much more experienced overall. Schaake edges out Holmgren for fourth on account of minitour form. Only FC3 seems to have much of a chance to get a PGA Tour card, but the other four also have a puncher's chance of improved status in 2024, whether on the Korn Ferry Tour or the PGA Tour Americas. Good luck to all the players who've made it this far!!!

Edward the Scop

Q-School Primer 2023: Final Stage Criteria with Commentary

 Well, this is it. We've made it to the final serious week of golf for Anno Domini 2023. In case you're living under a rock, it's PGA Tour Q-School Final Stage Week!!!

When I reported the Second Stage criteria, I made a mistake. I reported that all Final Stage entrants would get to start on next year's PGA Tour Americas Latin American phase, no questions asked. It turns out the minimum reward is only conditional PGA Tour Americas membership, which may warrant participation in Monday qualifiers for such events. The potential to get to Korn Ferry Tour and even PGA Tour events via Mondays remains, though.

Of the 166 players still entered into the event, five--Frankie Capan III, Van Holmgren, Thomas Longbella, Andre Metzger and Alex Schaake--qualify as Umcees in some capacity, with FC3 already having done well enough this past KFT season to advance directly to Final Stage. As mentioned in earlier posts, the top five and ties will receive low-level PGA Tour exemptions, comparable to the top ten DP World Tour players who weren't otherwise exempt or the top thirty KFT finishers. The next forty and ties will receive Korn Ferry Tour status, with anybody finishing in the top 25 and ties among those finishers garnering twelve guaranteed KFT starts and the rest having eight to start the season. Finally, the twenty and ties after that will receive guaranteed starts throughout the PGA Tour Americas' Latin American portion. In total, a minimum of 65 participants will receive some starts in the pyramid of the PGA Tour, and the number is often more than that.

Normally, qualifying consists of 168 players, so where did two go? Shad Tuten, whose two-stroke penalty at the KFT Championship in southern Indiana cost him a PGA Tour card, had to withdraw because of a heart condition. As for Chinese riser Carl Yuan, he benefited from Jon Rahm getting banned from the PGA Tour for defecting to LIV Golf.

So, how did the field get here? Seventy-nine golfers qualified from earlier stages of Q-school. Of these, only Caleb Hicks and Wes Homan participated in prequalifying back in September. Hicks, a former UT-Arlington star, finished T9 in Gunter, Texas, while Homan went T6 in Chardon in his home state of Ohio. The remaining 77 had some sort of exemption, including all four Umcees who had to qualify for Final Stage. (They all started in First Stage in October.) It will be interesting to see if any of those six or their 73 cohorts can beat out the 87 players who met one or more of these exemption criteria:

1. The top forty eligible golfers in the 2022-23 FedEx Cup (including FedEx Cup Fall) among the top 200 but not top 125. The aside above shows an example of what can happen if a bigwig player like Rahm becomes ineligible for, say, LIVing it up. In that case, any player who moves into the leading 125 eligible PGA Tour golfers can drop out of Q-school and keep his card. (39 players from Henrik Norlander of Sweden to Kevin Chappell)
2. Nonmembers equivalent to the top 150 on said list but not top 125. Unlike members who fail to keep top-125 placement but stay in the top 150, nonmembers who crack the top 150 but not top 125 don't have the safety net of conditional status for the 2024 PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour status, unless they already had KFT membership beforehand. The only way to gain any exemptions is via a sufficient finish at Final Stage. (Ryan Gerard, Peter Kuest)
3. The second thirty on the KFT points list. Straightforward Nos 31-60 on the Korn Ferry Tour order of merit. (28 players, including one Umcee, Frankie Capan III; Curtis Luck of Australia sitting out)
4. The top five PGA Tour University Class of 2023 finishers. As with Second Stage exempt entries, this is based on a metric derived from the WAGR. (Fred Biondi of Brazil, Ross Steelman and Sam Bennett; Adrien Dumont de Chassart opted out, while Ludvig Aberg was already exempt via his RSM Classic win this year)
5. Top five Totalplay Cup finishers. This year's order of merit for the PGA Tour Latinoamerica was the last before the PGA Tour Americas era commences next year. (Chandler Blanchet, Myles Creighton of Canada, Walker Lee, Austin Hitt and Daniel Hillier of New Zealand)
6. Top five Fortinet Cup finishers. The final order of merit in PGA Tour Canada history will give its name to next year's PGA Tour Americas point list. (Hayden Springer, Sam Choi, Davis Lamb, Etienne Papineau of Canada and Cao Yi of China)
7. Top five PGA Tour of Australasia OOM finishers. This is based on the 2022-23 list since the 2023-24 edition hasn't been finalized yet. (David Micheluzzi, Tom Power Horan and John Lyras, all of Australia; Andrew Martin of Australia and Michael Hendry of New Zealand sitting out)
8. Top finisher in each of the Japan Golf Tour and KPGA orders of merit. You would think that the biggest tour would take more players from Japan, but the JGTO has a partnership with the DP World Tour, with the top three JGTO players making the following year's Old World circuit. Hence, only Keita Nakajima, who had already clinched the title before the season-closing JT Cup, is awarded a Final Stage exemption via JGTO qualifications. The same may be said of Ham Jeong-woo of South Korea, who won the KPGA OOM title for 2023.

As for where it goes down, it's the same complex as the Players Championship has occupied since 1982--the Sawgrass area in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Only, they won't use the Stadium Course used by the Players, but Dye's Valley and Sawgrass Country Club. Good luck to the 166 players who are competing this week and weekend!!!

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 3 December 2023

 The so-called "challenge season" is upon us in PGA Tour golf. It's also known as the "silly season," with the only such event offering official rewards being last week's Hero World Challenge, which has long offered OWGR points (such as the system is). Most of the stateside rank and file will hang it up until January, when two events in Hawai'i--the Sentry, which is limited to last calendar year's winners and top-50 finishers in last year's FedEx Cup Playoffs; and the Sony Open, which is the first full-field event of the calendar year--will awaken the cycle from its annual one-month slumber. The only Umcee participating in the challenge season is Tom Hoge, who won the QBE Shootout alongside Sahith Theegala last year; as defending champions of what has been reimagined as the Grant Thornton Invitational for mixed-gender teams of PGA Tour and LPGA Tour golfers, both were invited to the first edition of that incarnation. The only event that follows is the PNC Championship, which I regard even less serious than the Grant Thornton.

But in the Southern Hemisphere, it's a different matter. Already, four events have been played on the 2024 DP World Tour season--two each in South Africa and Australia, with one event in each country each of the last two weeks in concurrent fashion. Although no Umcees were involved in any of these events, it's worth noting the stakes at play. Dean Burmester, having taken his talents to the blood megabucks of LIV Golf, garnered some serious OWGR points by his standards by winning both the Joburg Open and the South African Open. His fellow defector, Joaquin Niemann of Chile, won the golf Aussie Open last week, and I tried to watch to the end Saturday night (Twin Cities time). Unfortunately, technical difficulties emerged on Golf Channel, and I turned my fake T.V. off. (I have YouTube TV for my subscription T.V. service.) Four others who hadn't already made next year's Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland also qualified via Joburg and the Aussie Open.

And it's not just overseas golf that was serious last week. The final week of eliminations for Q-school transpired as well. When the dust had settled, 79 golfers took their place alongside 89 others who were already exempt to Final Stage. The latter category includes one Umcee, Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota, who doubled as last year's Q-school darling by making the Korn Ferry Tour with guaranteed starts despite starting in prequalifying. Three other Umcees--Van Holmgren, Andre Metzger and Alex Schaake--earned their way to Final Stage in mid-November, and five more had a chance to join the quartet. Four of them, though, fell short of Final Stage, including Matthew Walker, who had won a medal in First Stage to guarantee PGA Tour Americas starts. The most painful shortfall, however, belonged to Derek Hitchner of Minneapolis. The Blake School grad and Pepperdine Waves star, who had helped lead his team to the NCAA meet in May, fell a single stroke short of qualifying out of Valencia, California despite a -4 final round. One fewer bogey and he would have joined nineteen others making it to TPC Sawgrass next week for Q-school finals, including this week's Upper Midwest Connection of the Week...

Thomas Longbella.

The former Minnesota Gopher from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin finished joint-second only to Jeffrey Kang at the same site. It seemed he wouldn't make Final Stage either, but he turned it around in the last thirty holes, doing more than enough to comfortably advance to finals on -8/280. If all else fails, he will at least have PGA Tour Americas status next year.

This week's Upper Midwest Connection of the Week has (for now) two finalists, as Kim Kaufman missed the cut at LPGA Q-Series, while Kate Smith made it. In addition, Erik van Rooyen tees it up for the first time since losing his BFF Jon Trasamar to melanoma. At the funeral mass last Friday, van Rooyen read the lesson from I Thessalonians about the Second Coming. The stream was on the funeral home's website. Now, he is refocusing for the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his native South Africa, and he tees off at 11pm tonight Central (10pm Mountain). I hope he wins another or otherwise kicks ass for his "Gipper."

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 8 October 2023 + Q-School Update

 After a fortnight dedicated to USA v Europe team events (it's a miracle I didn't harm myself, even in a benign way, as a result of the outcomes of both!) in which little action took place in tour golf or even in Q-school, the latter two concerns picked up again last week. I was going to name an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week last week for the week before based on the results of the Epson Tour's Tuscaloosa-Toyota Classic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Both reigning UMCOW (as I shall hereafter abbreviate the honour in conjunction with its full name) Kim Kaufman of Clark, South Dakota, and Kate Smith of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, were due to play the event. But sometime during the week of the event, Kaufman decided to be done for the Epson Tour season and focus on Stage II of LPGA Q-School in an effort to reclaim her card on the LPGA Tour. My next choice was to include former Wisconsin Badger Chris Meyer in the running, as long as he advanced to First Stage of PGA Tour Q-School (from prequalifying, of course). That didn't happen, although he still can look forward to Second Stage of Q-school in Europe for the DP World Tour. With only Smith making the event (though she made the cut as usual), it wasn't worth it to name an UMCOW.

Well, last week offered more options. For the first time since the FedEx Cup Regular Season ended in August, all of the big three Umcees were in the same PGA Tour event--namely, the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. Smith participated in the Epson Tour Championship, and Frankie Capan III contested the Korn Ferry Tour Championship for a shot at one of thirty cards on next year's PGA Tour. Let's break it down.

FCIII needed nothing short of a three-way share of bronze at the KFT Championship to get a PGA Tour card. Unfortunately, a ruinous 78 Thursday put him stumbling out of the gate, and he had no traction Friday either, settling for even par. His only quality round was a Saturday 66 (-6), and he gave half that progress back with a final-round +3/75 Sunday. Despite these struggles, which kept him from the top 40, Capan didn't slide any more than he had two weeks earlier at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship. he gets direct entry into Final Stage of Q-school for a top-60 points list finish and, of course, full membership on the Korn Ferry Tour for next year just for making it to the event.

Remaining on the developmental-tour note, Smith fared far better in the Epson Tour Championship. While she was unable to grab the victory she would have needed to grab an LPGA Tour card in all likelihood, she finished par or better in all four rounds, breaking 70--nay, 69--in three of them. Smith's best round was arguably Thursday's bogey free -7/65. She had another flawless round Sunday, though she mustered only -4/68. Her paycheck of $5786 enabled her to finish #19 on the money list, not only ensuring her full membership on the Epson Tour for next year but granting her guaranteed access to the finals of LPGA Q-School, branded as Q-Series. Nor will she have to worry about using two sites over two weeks, as the LPGA reduced Q-Series to a single site of six rounds. The cut of 70 and ties after round four still applies, though.

This brings us to the big tour. As alluded above, Erik van Rooyen, Troy Merritt and Tom Hoge were all involved in the FedEx Cup Fall's second event. Hoge had the least to get out of the event, as his top-50 finish in the playoffs means he'll have access to all non-major events, including the Players Championship. Even so, he was under par all four rounds, as he cracked the top 25 at the event for the first time. He also moved up one spot to #49 in the OWGR. This will loom large for qualifying for the Masters, as one criterion is to finish the year in the top 50 of the world, according to the ranking.

Van Rooyen had much more to gain. Of the three Umcees in action in Jackson, he was the only one outside the top 125 eligibility threshold, so he needed a good showing to move in. Mission accomplished with three breaches of 70, although he struggled Sunday on an even-par showing. He now occupies the last spot for full membership on account of points and also moved back into the OWGR top 200, checking in at #198 this week. It's his third-highest ranking since midyear or so. However, the UMCOW honours belong most clearly to him who has helped take the FedEx Cup Fall by storm, especially from an Upper Midwestern perspective. And that guy is...

Troy Merritt.

Like Hoge, Merritt broke par all four rounds, and like van Rooyen, he broke 70 in three rounds. The guy was some front-nine trouble away from making the deciding playoff a six-man affair, as he finished just two strokes shy of the -18 he would have needed. Indeed, had he gone bogey-free and all else had remained equal, Merritt would have won his third PGA Tour title. As it is, he moved to #177 in the OWGR and #115 in the fall rankings, though he remains among the antepenultimate five survivors. (His last winner's exemption expired in August 2021.) Definitely one to look out for this fall.

Tomorrow as of this writing, the Shriners Children's Open tees off in Las Vegas, and First Stage of Q-School is underway as we speak. One Umcee, Tripp Kinney of Des Moines, Iowa, leads the site in Lincoln, Nebraska, on -12. If he holds on to win the medal, he'll get PGA Tour Americas membership for the first half of its inaugural 2024 season, held in Latin America.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 24 September 2023

 Last week's tour golf was, of course, the first to take place in astronomical fall in the Northern Hemisphere, at least in part. With the Solheim Cup taking up much of the attention of the golf world for that week and the Ryder Cup taking up seemingly all the rest, there were slim pickings for the tours the bigwigs of the United States and Europe left behind them. After the previous week had at least seen the Fortinet Championship on the PGA Tour and (especially) the BMW PGA Championship, flagship event on the DP World Tour--to say naught of the Simmons Bank Open on the Korn Ferry Tour, part of its Finals--this week's biggest affairs were merely the Cazoo Open de France at le Golf National, which hosted the Ryder Cup in 2018, and the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship. The latter was played on the Scarlet Course near Ohio State University, the most masochistic track on the KFT, bar none. The winner, Norman Xiong, carded a mere -10 after going -4 Sunday to secure his PGA Tour card for next year.

The men's tours featured a grand total of one Umcee, and that was Frankie Capan III of North Oaks, Minnesota. FCIII came into the event having missed his last two cuts and three of six, all while failing to record a single top 45 finish. He put both droughts to bed with a -2 week, which sufficed to move him to #355 in the OWGR. Unfortunately, a first Upper Midwest Connection of the Week honour will continue to elude him, as he actually lost a spot in the points list, slipping to #50 because of strong showings by Xiong and three other players who passed Capan with top-four finishes. This ensures Capan will need at least a three-way T3 to secure his PGA Tour card or finish in the top five and ties at Final Stage of Q-school this December. He may even have to start a stage earlier if he does poorly enough at the KFT Championship in Newburgh, Indiana, next week. But just for making the final of the Finals, Capan won't have to worry about going to Q-school just to get his privileges for next year, nor about the reshuffle at any point in 2024.

Meanwhile, the Epson Tour carried on to El Dorado, Arkansas, at the Murphy USA Shootout. Kate Smith started out well, carding a -4 with 68 Friday. Unfortunately, she stumbled the last two days with delays galore and recorded back to back 75s, which incurred +3 for both rounds. Even so, she did just well enough to maintain a ranking of #20 on the money list, though as with Capan, her sex's Q-school finals--namely, LPGA Q-Series--is her most likely next stop after the Epson Tour Championship. She would need to gain at least $23 grand on Nataliya Guseva to secure her card via the tour money list. That leaves one Umcee to garner the weekly honour for the second time...

Kim Kaufman.

The South Dakota native rose from #71 to #67 on the money list as a result of her T13 at the event. She had a rocky middle portion, but a -3 Sunday made it all the more worthwhile and brings her closer to securing full membership on next year's Epson Tour. Remember, only the top eighty on the money list secure their cards for next year. One more made cut should get Kaufman over the top and into 2024 as a result of her efforts before she faces Second Stage of LPGA Q-School as a lesser finisher within the top 125 of the money list, most likely.

This week features slim pickings again. Smith and Kaufman are the only two Umcees participating in tour golf through Sunday, but look for things to pick up again next week with Troy Merritt and Erik van Rooyen resuming their quest to retain membership on the PGA Tour at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi; Capan at the KFT Championship; and, of course, the Epson Tour Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Edward the Scop

Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 17 September 2023

 After the closing three-week stretch on the PGA Tour Canada, both for its season and its existence, last week was a relatively quiet week for Umcees in tour golf. Only six competed during the week that I know of, but there were still plenty of storylines with the Korn Ferry Finals resuming for a fortnight, the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour (that circuit's flagship event, akin to the Players on the PGA Tour), the opening of the FedEx Cup Fall and the Epson Tour's Race for the Card all involving Umcees. Let's break it down and name an Upper Midwest Connection of the Week.

Firstly, there was the non-starter in Frankie Capan III. FCIII has yet to secure a single point in the KFT Finals, and he has slipped from the top thirty to just inside the top fifty on the points list, as what was for so long a promising Korn Ferry Tour season is crumbling. It seemed he might get paid last week at the Simmons Bank Open in College Grove, Tennessee, as he followed up an even-par opening round with a -2 Friday. Indeed, at the time he bore off the course, he was on track to make the cut of 65 and ties. Unfortunately, the field as a whole did so well, the cut tightened to -3, and Capan missed out by a single stroke. Even so, I expect him to make it this week at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, and get at least guaranteed entry into Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School.

My attention then shifted to the Epson Tour, as the Guardian Championship went down in Prattville, Alabama. Following a promising first round of -3/69, Kim Kaufman failed to break 70 either of the last two rounds and finished T50 with three others. More promising was Kate Smith. She has been something of a force to be reckoned with this season on the Epson Tour and, buoyed by successive -5 rounds, finished T11 with four others, moving from #22 to #20 on the money list. With three events left on the schedule, starting with this week's Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout in Arkansas, Smith should, as with Capan, have no trouble getting into her sex's Q-school finals, AKA Q-Series.

That leaves the main tours to consider. The PGA Tour, as mentioned above, opened its reimagined fall series in Napa Valley (as with the previous three falls) at the Fortinet Championship. Unlike previous seasons, which took on a "wraparound" character, fall events from this year will primarily be for lesser-performing golfers, including those who failed to advance to the BMW Championship in last month's FedEx Cup Playoffs. Players who did advance that far aren't allowed to collect points for various exemption perks since they have those in tow anyway (such as entry into all signature events other than majors). As for the DP World Tour, it held its aforementioned flagship event in England at the BMW PGA Championship (no relation to the FedEx Cup Playoff event). Having failed to qualify for the playoffs and needing a good fall showing as a result, Troy Merritt and Erik van Rooyen both played the Fortinet. Tom Hoge, who not only did qualify but reached the (FEC) BMW Championship, had the opportunity to play the (DPWT) BMW PGA Championship as part of a fortnightly British Isles swing.

Van Rooyen was first to show promise, going from -1 to -6 Friday and easily making the cut in Napa Valley. Unfortunately, he stumbled Saturday with a +1 73 and failed to break 70 the next day as well, reaching that number on the dot. Even so, it was a third straight made cut worldwide, and it was van Rooyen's first top-30 finish in a full field PGA Tour event since March's Valspar Championship, as he tied on the number. This shifted my money to Hoge, who tied for 14th in Surrey on the impetus of consecutive -4 rounds. Alas, Hoge slipped to 50th in the world rankings for his trouble. The problem is that the OWGR only counts a maximum of one's last 52 events, and his appearance at the DPWT flagship pushed his runner-up finish from last year's Amex on the PGA Tour off of consideration, costing him some valuable points. His next event will be the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas next month. Only one male Umcee moved up in the OWGR after involvement in an approved event last week...

Troy Merritt.

For the first time, the Devilish Rake comes full circle! Having missed thirteen successive cuts in the regular season after the Sony Open, the future for the blood-clot survivor on tour seemed bleak, but he has shown up often the last couple months. He seemed headed for yet another MC after a +2 Thursday, but he scrambled to a -5 Friday to make the cut by the narrowest of margins--one of only 67 players to do so (van Rooyen being another). He then doubled his distance under par Saturday before going wild at the last with a -7 in 65 strokes. Not only did he return to the top 200 of the OWGR, but more importantly, he jumped from #133 to #118 in the FedEx Cup standings, putting him on track to survive to another season on the PGA Tour. At this rate, he might just crack a signature event or two!

This week will be barely audible in tour golf. FCIII is the only male golfer in tour golf this week or next, as the game revolves around the Solheim Cup (women) this week and Ryder Cup (men) next week, both of which pit Americans against Europeans. Expect more noise to kick off October, when the PGA Tour has its Sanderson Farms Championship and both the Korn Ferry and Epson tours have their finales. In the meantime, though, don't hesitate to stay tuned for Q-school news, as PGA Tour prequalifying began last week and continues through next week's Texas site, while the DPWT Q-School runs its first stage through early October. Already one Umcee, Kaylor Steger of Wisconsin, has progressed to Second Stage in Europe.

Edward the Scop