Florida has some spring in its step as Gators' victory in Sea Best Intercollegiate is their third straight tourney title

 

   Florida, out of a Southeastern Conference that got even stronger this season, was a three seed in the NCAA’s East Lansing Regional last spring, but was unable to advance to the NCAA Championship.

   The Gators opened the spring portion of the wraparound 2024-2025 season this week by claiming the team title in the Sea Best Intercollegiate, which wrapped up Tuesday at San Jose Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla.

   Having claimed tournament crowns in the last two events on its fall schedule, the Barbara Nicklaus Cup, a match-play event at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, and The Ally at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., the victory in the Sea Best made it three straight tourney titles for the Gators.

   Emily Glaser, the veteran Florida head coach, has a young team, but it’s obvious there is talent there and the Gators are on a roll.

   Florida opened with a 5-under-par 283 over the 6,084-yard, par-72 San Jose layout and added a 2-under 286 in the afternoon of Monday’s double round as the Gators held a one-shot lead over Illinois State heading into Tuesday’s final round.

   The Redbirds, who also earned a spot in last spring’s East Lansing after capturing the Missouri Valley Conference crown, had opened with a 3-over 291 before surging within a shot of the lead with a sparkling 9-under 279, the best team round of the tournament, in Monday afternoon’s second round.

   Florida, No. 26 in the latest Scoreboard powered by clippd rankings, matched par in Tuesday’s final round for a 7-under 857 total that left the Gators three shots clear of Illinois State.

   The Redbirds, No. 99 in the Scoreboard rankings, closed with a 2-over 290 total to end up with a 4-under 868 total. Florida and Illinois State were the only two teams to finish under par for three rounds.

   Florida was led by a pair of players, Ines Archer, a sophomore from France and No. 77 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), and Ellaine Widjaja, a freshman from Malaysia, who finished in the top seven in the individual standings. Both had a share of the lead going into Tuesday’s final round.

   Archer finished among a trio of players who were tied for fourth place at 3-under 213. After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Archer contributed a solid 4-under 68 to the Florida cause in Monday afternoon’s second round that had her tied for the individual lead before finishing up with a 1-over 73.

   Widjaja was a shot behind her teammate in a duo tied for seventh place at 2-under 214. Widjaja sparked Florida’s fast start with an opening round of 4-under 68. She matched par in Monday afternoon’s second round with a 72 to get a share of the individual lead before closing with a 2-over 74.

   Coastal Carolina, a Sun Belt Conference entry, finished another seven shots behind Illinois State in third place with a 3-over 867 total. The Chanticleers bounced back from an opening round of 7-over 295 with a 1-under 287 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a solid 3-under 285.

   South Alabama, another Sun Belt representative, was four shots behind Coastal Carolina with a 7-over 871 total. The Jaguars, behind individual co-medalist Mercedes Aldana, a freshman from Argentina, opened with a 2-over 290 and added a solid 2-under 286 in Monday afternoon’s second round before falling back a little with a 7-over 295 in the final round.

   Aldana had a share of the lead going into the final round after she added a 3-under 69 in Monday afternoon’s second round to her opening-round 71. Aldana closed with another 1-under 71 to end up tied at the top with a fellow South American, Florida Gulf Coast’s Lousiane Gauthier, a junior from Uruguay, each landing on 5-under 211.

   It was the third career individual title for Gauthier, who was two shots out of the lead after posting a pair of 1-under 71s in Monday’s double round before closing with a solid 3-under 69 to catch Aldana for a share of the individual crown.

   Host Jacksonville, out of the ASUN Conference, finished two shots behind South Alabama in fifth place with a 9-over 873 total as the Dolphins bounced back from an opening round of 10-over 298 with a 1-over 289 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a solid 2-under 286.

   Backing up Archer and Hidjaja for Florida was the pair of Paula Francisco, a sophomore from Spain, and Addison Klonowski, a redshirt freshman from Naples, Fla., as they were among the group tied for 13^th place in the individual standings, each ending up with a 1-over 217 total.

   Francisco was the low Gator in Tuesday’s final round with a 2-under 70. She added a 1-over 73 in Monday afternoon’s second round to her opening-round 74. Klonowski helped fuel Florida’s fast start with a 3-under 69 in the opening round. She added a 1-over 73 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 75.

   Rounding out the starting lineup for the Gators was Siuue Wu, a freshman from Hong Kong who finished in the group tied for 30^th place with a 7-over 223 total. Wu contributed a crucial 1-under 71 for Florida in Tuesday’s final round. She struggled a little in Monday’s double round, opening with a 3-over 75 before adding a 77 in the afternoon.

   Sophie Stevens, a sophomore from Highland, Mich., competed as an individual for Florida and was also solid, ending up in the group tied for 39^th place at 9-over 225. Stevens carded a pair of 1-over 73s in Monday’s double round before struggling in the final round with a 79.

   Glaser has another pretty good player who didn’t make the trip to Jacksonville in Karoline Tuttle, a redshirt sophomore from Lake Mary, Fla. who rolled to a five-shot victory in last month’s Women’s Dixie Amateur at Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla.

   Siuue also teed it up in the Women’s Dixie Amateur and finished in a tie for fifth place.

   The leading lady for Illinois State was Jinyoung Jun, a graduate student from Australia who finished a shot behind the co-medalists Aldana and Gauthier in third place with a 4-under 212 total.
After opening with a 2-over 74, Jun, who transferred to Illinois State from Fresno State, recorded back-to-back 3-under 69s in the final two rounds.

   Joining Florida’s Archer in the trio tied for fourth place at 3-under were Stetson’s Isaki Sakashita, a freshman from Japan, and Jacksonville’s Susana Olivares, a graduate student from Mexico.

   Sakashita erupted for the low individual round of the tournament, a sizzling 6-under 66, in the final round to make a big move up the leaderboard. Sakashita, who finished in a tie for second place in last month’s Women’s Dixie Amateur at Eagle Trace, had opened with a 3-over 75 before matching par in Monday afternoon’s second round with a 72.

   Olivares also made a big move up the leaderboard, closing with a sparkling 5-under 67. Olivares, who transferred to Jacksonville from Division II Central Oklahoma, had opened with a 2-under 74 before matching par in Monday afternoon’s second round with a 72.

   Joining Florida’s Widjaja in the tie for seventh place at 2-under 214 was Richmond’s Maya Beasley, a sophomore from Pinehurst, N.C. who signed for a pair of 1-under 71s in Monday’s double round before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   There are a couple of locals on that Richmond roster I’ll get to before this post is finished.

   Jessica Jolly, a freshman from Rockford, Mich., gave Illinois State a second top-10 finisher as she was alone in ninth place with a 1-under 215 total. Jolly had a share of the lead going into the final round as she added a 3-under 69 in Monday afternoon’s second round to her opening-round 71. Jolly struggled to a 3-over 75 in the final round.

   A couple of Coastal Carolina players, Sara Sarrion, a senior from Spain, and Aoife Devaney, a freshman from Westbury, Conn., were among a trio of players tied for 10^th place at even-par 216.

   After opening with a 3-over 75, Sarrion got it into red figures in the final two rounds, posting a 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round before finishing up with a 71. Devaney added a 1-under 71 in Monday afternoon’s second round to her opening round of 1-over 73 before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Rounding out the trio tied at even-par was South Alabama’s Katharina Schroll, a freshman from Austria, who registered a pair of 1-under 71s in Monday’s double round before closing with a 2-over 74.

   Solid showing in the Sea Best for Florida Southern senior Clare Gimpel, who starred scholastically at Mount St. Joseph and was the runnerup to Meghan Stasi in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship two summers ago at Sandy Run Country Club.

   Gimpel, who transferred to Division II Florida Southern after starting her college career at Coastal Carolina, finished in a tie for 35^th place at San Jose with an 8-over 224 total as she bounced back from an opening round of 6-over 78 with a 2-under 70 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 76.

   Florida Southern, which plays out of the Sunshine State Conference, finished in a tie for 10^th place in the 15-team field with Navy, each ending up with a 35-over 899 total.

   Two players with ties to the tri-state area, junior Hannah Lydic, who was a scholastic standout at Sussex Academy in Delaware, and senior Lauren Jones, the Inter-Ac League’s individual champion as a senior at Episcopal Academy in 2021, were in the starting lineup for Richmond, a Patriot League representative.

   Lydic matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 4-over 76 in Monday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 79 to finish among a trio tied for 46^th place with an 11-over 227 total. Jones, who plays out of Merion Golf Club, sandwiched an 80 in Monday afternoon’s second round with a pair of 5-over 77s to finish among a trio tied for 61^st place with a 234 total.

   Lydic and Jones helped the Spiders capture the Patriot League crown two springs ago, giving them an opportunity to tee it up in the NCAA Raleigh Regional.

   Richmond finished in ninth place in the team standings while opening its spring campaign in the Sea Best as the Spiders ended up with a 29-over 899 total.

   Junior Grace Smith, a member of Strath Haven’s 2019 Central League and District One Class AAA championship team, was in the lineup for Stetson and finished among a trio of players tied for 56^th place with a 231 total. Smith added a 2-over 74 in Monday afternoon’s second round to her opening-round 77 before closing with an 80.

   The Hatters, an ASUN entry, finished in seventh place in the Sea Best with a 20-over 884 total, highlighted by an even-par 288 in Monday afternoon’s second round.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smith's Walker Cup journey will come full circle when he captains the U.S. team at Cypress Point

 

   With not a lot of golf going on in the cold, dark month of January here in the Northeast, this has always been a good opportunity to take a look back at members of the United States team that captured the Walker Cup in 2009.

   I was working as a sportswriter for the Delaware County Daily Times at the time and the Walker Cup was staged at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course, which just so happens to sit inside the Ardmore section of Haverford Township in Delaware County.

   Of course, I knew that since I had grown up a few blocks from the eighth tee at the East Course and had been a looper there for 12 years as a teen and into young adulthood. Even caught a bag in the 1981 U.S. Open, carrying for Jay Cudd, an assistant pro at Scioto Country Club.

   Cudd failed to survive the 36-hole cut and, for years, I thought that second round of the ’81 Open would be my swan song as a caddy. I was wrong about that and sometime in March will be the ninth anniversary of my first loop at Stonewall, twice donning a USGA bib again in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in 2016 and in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in 2023.

   I decided to keep this blog going – it had started as a supplement to the golf stuff I did manage to jam into the pages of the Daily Times – and this time of the year always allowed me to take a trip down memory lane to that Walker Cup at Merion, an assignment I still consider one of the highlights of a 38-year journalism career.

   Mostly I’ve concentrated on the guys who turned pro in the years after that Walker Cup, including the unquestioned leader of that U.S. team at age 20, one Rickie Fowler, and Brian Harman, the first player from that Walker Cup to be crowned a major champion when he won The Open Championship two summers ago at Royal Liverpool.

   But this winter, I will start with the guy who, with the exception of a brief stab at professional golf, has remained an amateur, Nathan Smith, the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville in the Pittsburgh area.

   And in September, at another of America’s iconic golf courses, the Alister MacKenzie-Robert Hunter masterpiece that is the Cypress Point Club on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, Smith’s Walker Cup journey will come full circle when he leads the United States team as the captain in the 50^th Walker Cup Match.

   Everett Munez, who writes The Amateur Game for Global Golf Post, profiled the 46-year-old Smith in his column earlier this month and I’m echoing him in seeing this as a “full-circle” moment for Smith. Munez filled in a couple of blanks for me in Smith’s career and saved me from going down a deep rabbit hole on Smith.

   I’ve mentioned before in doing this annual look back at the 2009 Walker Cup Match that Smith was something of a surprise pick for that team. The USGA always seemed to find a spot for a top mid-amateur player on the U.S. roster, but it had been six years since Smith had captured the U.S. Mid-Amateur title as a mid-am “rookie” in 2003 at Wilmington Country Club.

   Smith had won the West Penn Amateur and Pennsylvania Amateur crowns in the summer of 2009. Maybe there was a little lobbying from the captain of that U.S. team, George “Buddy” Marucci, a Merion member who had grown up in the same neighborhood as I did, the seventh fairway at the East Course quite literally in his backyard.

   Regardless, Smith was chosen as part of the team and went 2-1 in a 16.5-9.5 victory for the U.S. at Merion.

   Smith’s victory in the 2003 U.S. Mid-Am earned him an invitation to the Masters the following spring and, in Munez’s column in the Global Golf Post, Smith recalls playing in a practice round with another western Pennsylvania native, The King, Arnold Palmer, and then ending up being paired with Arnie in the first two rounds of the tournament.

   It was Palmer’s last competitive appearance in the rite of spring at Augusta National that he had once owned for a stretch of seven years when he donned the Green jacket four times.

   In was later that year that Smith would give professional golf a try. He didn’t make it out of Q-School and decided to apply to have his amateur status reinstated. Smith got a job in the insurance business and, whether he knew it or not, started following in the footsteps of fellow Pennsylvanians Jay Sigel, owner of the most Walker Cup wins by any U.S. player ever, and Marucci, his captain at Merion.

   Maybe Marucci saw a little of himself and of his mentor Sigel in Smith. But there is little doubt that Smith’s appearance in that 2009 Walker Cup at Merion turned into the launching pad for one of the great runs in the relatively brief history of mid-am golf.

   A few weeks following the Walker Cup at Merion, Smith captured his second U.S. Mid-Am crown on the South Carolina barrier island at Kiawah. He made it two straight U.S. Mid-Am crowns and matched Sigel’s record of three overall the following year when he won at the Atlantic Golf Club on Long Island.

   In 2012, Smith made it a record fourth U.S. Mid-Am title when he won at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill.

   In between his third and fourth U.S. Mid-Am wins, Smith played on the U.S. Walker Cup team for a second time in 2011, the U.S. falling at the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club under captain Jim Holtgrieve.

   I suspect Holtgrieve lobbied hard to have Smith, now a battle-tested veteran at match-play golf, on the U.S. side in 2013 at the National Golf Links of America, the renowned C.B. Macdonald masterpiece on Long Island, and the U.S. avenged its loss at Royal Aberdeen by taking the Cup back in convincing fashion.

   So, it seemed just a matter of time before the USGA called on Smith to captain a U.S. Walker Cup side.

   Smith has turned into such a tremendous match-play player. He has won the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship six times. He teamed with Todd White, the South Carolina school teacher who captured the U.S. Senior Amateur title two summers ago, to claim the crown in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at the Olympic Club in 2015.

   When fellow Pittsburgh amateur legend Sean Knapp captured the title in his first crack at the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2017 at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minn., he made it a point to credit Smith, with whom he had tangled countless times in match play, many of them losses, with teaching him how to succeed in golf’s most inscrutable format.

   I did a post last month on the practice session for 16 players invited by the USGA’s International Team Selection Working Group to a practice session for this year’s U.S. team in the Walker Cup Match. The practice sessions were held at three clubs in golf-rich Seminole, Fla., McArthur Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club and The Bear’s Club.

   One thing I failed to mention in that post is that the Walker Cup, usually a biennial competition, is going to be contested again next year to get the event on an even-year schedule. The 2026 Walker Cup Match will be held in Ireland at Lahinch Golf Club, a course about which I’ve heard nothing but good things, and the USGA has already settled on having Smith return for a second stint as captain.

   If the top two players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), No. 1 Luke Clanton, a junior at Florida, and No. 2 Jackson Koivun, a sophomore at Auburn, can somehow manage to retain their amateur status until September, Smith might be headed to Cypress Point with as formidable a 1-2 punch as any Walker Cup captain has ever had.

   Both guys made the cut at this weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on the PGA Tour. They both were in attendance in the practice session in Jupiter last month. I suspect both want to see out their college seasons.

   Koivun and Auburn will be trying to repeat as the NCAA team champion. Clanton and the Seminoles lost to the Tigers in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match last spring at the La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.

   Pretty sure Smith was along for the ride as an observer when the U.S. rallied for a 14.5-11.5 victory over Great Britain & Ireland at the most classic venue of all, the Old Course at St. Andrews, in September of 2023 under captain Mike McCoy.

   It will be all about the golf when the U.S. and GB&I get together again in September at Cypress Point for the Walker Cup Match. But a Walker Cup is so much more than just the golf. And Smith, who will turn 47 in the weeks before the Walker Cup Match at Cypress Point, gets it.

   “You see the flag go up, the USA, the colors, there’s such a buildup to it that there’s really nothing it can compare to besides the Ryder Cup,” Smith told Global Golf Post’s Munez.

   It is a feeling Smith first experienced at Merion in 2009 and he will feel it again 16 years later at Cypress Point. I suspect it never gets old.

   Fowler delayed the start of his professional career until the end of the summer of 2009 to play for the United States in the Walker Cup Match for a second time.

   He was the only holdover from the 2007 team, also captained by Marucci, that pulled out a dramatic victory at Royal County Down Golf Club in Ireland. I was always under the impression that Fowler had given his word to Marucci that Fowler would come back and play for Marucci, knowing how much it meant to Marucci to be captaining a U.S. Walker Cup team at Merion, his home course.

   I don’t think that little bit of a late start has hurt the 36-year-old Fowler much. Fowler’s PGA Tour bio lists his career earnings in excess of $50 million. I’m quite certain he has made much, much more than that in off-the-course earnings. He remains one of golf’s most lovable figures.

   Fowler could always play. He opened his 2025 season at The American Express earlier this month and in the second round, he put together a nifty 10-birdie, no-bogey, 10-under 62 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course in the California desert.

   Fowler finished in a tie for 21^st place in what used to be the Bob Hope Desert Classic (and it used to be 90 holes, but I digress) while shaking off the rust after not playing since last fall.

   Fowler ended a four-year winless drought with a victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in 2023, his sixth win on the PGA Tour.

   Fowler was a little quiet in 2024, but he still made 17 cuts in 23 starts and earned more than $1.7 million.

   I still think he might have a major in him. It’s now been more than 10 years since his memorable 2014 season when he finished in the top five in all four major championships. In March, it will be 10 years since Fowler’s epic win in The Players Championship at the Stadium Course, still his biggest victory.

   Let’s put it this way, if Fowler found himself in contention down the stretch in a major championship, it’s not like it would unfamiliar territory. And a Fowler win in a major would be very, very popular.

   I started my review of the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team a year ago with Brian Harman finally earning the first major championship from the group with his dominating victory in the Open Championship in 2023 at Royal Liverpool.

   The 38-year-old Georgia Bulldog has been a Bulldog throughout his career on the PGA Tour. His breakout victory in the Open Championship was only the third of his career, but he entered 2025 with more than $38 million in career earnings.

   He played in both of the first two stops on the PGA Tour in Hawaii and then missed the cut in last weekend’s American Express.

   His 2024 was typically consistent as Harman made 21 cuts in 23 starts, highlighted by a tie for second place in The Players Championship. Harman bankrolled a ho-hum $5.2 million and made the FedEx Cup Playoffs for a remarkable 13^th straight season.

   Harman was one of captain Jim Furyk’s six captain’s picks for the U.S. team that continued its domination of the Presidents Cup with a victory at The Royal Montreal Golf Club.

   Every year there is another talented group of players trying to claw their way on to the PGA Tour. Harman got there more than a decade ago and has shown no signs that he plans to give up his spot in the big leagues of professional golf.

   Two members of the U.S. Walker Cup team in 2009 have taken their talents to LIV Golf.

   In the case of 35-year-old Peter Uihlein, maybe the maverick LIV Golf is right up his alley. I came away from that Walker Cup thinking Uihlein had the most pure talent on that U.S. team, an assessment he validated, at least somewhat, by capturing the U.S. Amateur crown the following summer at Chambers Bay.

   Uihlein has always taken the road less traveled as a professional, beginning his career on what then was  known as the European Tour.

   He did eventually make his way to the PGA Tour with mixed results. When LIV Golf was born, they didn’t call Uihlein, he called them. He likes to travel and see new places. He never seemed to respond all that well to the structure of the PGA Tour.

   Uihlein is part of the RangeGoats team along with two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, Ben Campbell and fellow Oklahoma State product Matthew Wolff. Maybe someday you’ll be able to see Uihlein on the PGA Tour again, but even if he’s allowed to come back, he might not.

   Cameron Tringale had the unwanted label of the PGA Tour player with the most money won without a victory, so the 37-year-old bolted for LIV Golf.

   Tringale is a member of Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers team along with fellow Georgia Tech alum Andy Ogletree, the 2019 U.S. Amateur champion at the Pinehurst Resort, and Brendan Steele.

   Looks like LIV Golf holds a match play Team Championship event in Dallas and Tringale went 5-0 for the HyFlyers in that tournament, proving he hasn’t forgotten how to succeed in match play.

   There was a third Oklahoma State player on that 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, in addition to Fowler and Uihlein, and Morgan Hoffmann, a Jersey guy, might have ultimately been the best of the three if tragedy hadn’t struck in his life.

   At least, the diagnosis of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy when Hoffmann was at the height of his powers in 2016 should classify as tragic, but the 35-year-old just refuses to let it be.

   There is no cure for the muscular dystrophy that first manifested itself when Hoffmann’s right pectoral muscle started to atrophy.

   But Hoffmann has pursued every possible alternative medical/holistic remedy he can find. Give up? As they say in Jersey, fuhgeddaboutit.

   Dan Rapaport of Golf Digest tracked down Hoffmann in a remote spot in Costa Rica, where Hoffmann was sampling a lifestyle he thought might mitigate his symptoms. It remains one of the most interesting pieces of journalism I’ve read about anything in the last five years. If you Google Hoffmann, you can still find Rapaport’s article. It’s worth a read.

   Fast forward to last September. Hoffmann needs a strong finish in the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation at the Vanderbilt Legends Club’s North Course in Franklin, Tenn. just to maintain conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2025.

   He birdies the last three holes to complete a spectacular 6-under 64 in the Korn Ferry Finals event that gives him a tie for third place, his first top-10 finish in a PGA Tour sanctioned event since February of 2017.

   Hoffmann played as much as he could on the Korn Ferry in 2024 with little success. With his future in professional tournament golf in jeopardy, Hoffmann got a tie for 24^th place in the Albertsons Boise Open, presented by Chevron, and then the tie for third at Vanderbilt to vault himself to 93^rd on the Korn Ferry Points List.

   He won’t get a lot of opportunities to play, so he’ll have to make the most of the chances he does get. I know who me, and a lot of other people, will be rooting for on the Korn Ferry in 2025.

   Bud Cauley saw his promising professional career hit a major speed bump when he was involved in a terrible car accident after missing the cut at The Memorial in Dublin, Ohio in 2018.

   The 34-year-old Alabama product probably can’t count how many operations he’s had since then to repair the damage done in that car accident and the after-effects of some of those procedures.

   Finally as healthy as he’s been since before that fateful Friday at The Memorial, Cauley made 17 starts in 2024 on a Major Medical Exemption, survived the cut 10 times and banked $638,703.

   Cauley had a solid tie for fifth place in the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Miss. during the PGA Tour’s fall schedule. And he opened his 2025 campaign by finishing in a tie for 30^th place at the Sony Open, the PGA Tour’s first full-field tournament of the year at Waialae Country Club in Hawaii.

   Cauley has made nearly $10 million in his career on the PGA Tour. He’ll have some chances to add to that total this year.

   Drew Weaver was the Virginia Tech standout who won the Royal & Ancient’s Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 2007 just weeks after one of the most horrifying days any college campus has ever seen. Weaver was on the campus in Blacksburg the day in April of 2007 when a gunman killed 32 people in one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history.

   The 37-year-old Weaver was the first American to capture the title in The Amateur Championship since Sigel accomplished the feat in 1979.

   Weaver had some success on the Korn Ferry Tour, but never quite made it to the PGA Tour on any kind of consistent basis. It appears Weaver moved on his life when he accepted a position as a financial adviser for Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in 2022.

   The final two members of that 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team were Adam Mitchell, a teammate of Harman’s at Georgia and Brendan Gielow, who starred collegiately at Wake Forest. Couldn’t really dig up anything on them after brief stints as professional golfers.

   But I’m sure they’ll all be rooting for their 2009 U.S. Walker Cup teammate Nathan Smith when he captains the U.S. team in September at Cypress Point.