The golf journeys of Braden Thornberry, the 2017 NCAA
individual champion as a junior at Mississippi, and Curtis Thompson, older brother of LPGA
star Lexi Thompson, intersected on the 18th green at Orange County
National’s Crooked Cat Course in Winter Garden, Fla. Sunday as the annual
gathering of professional golfers known as the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying
School’s Final Stage came to a conclusion.
The 22-year-old Thornberry’s been one of those can’t-miss
kind of guys ever since he dominated the field to take the NCAA crown at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. in the spring of 2017.
Thompson, who turned 27 Friday, had a couple of solid years on the Korn Ferry
Tour, the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit, in 2015 and 2016 before his
game started to go off the rails.
Both know where they’re headed in 2020 after Thompson
dropped a birdie putt on the 18th hole at Crooked Cat to end up in a
tie for medalist honors with his playing partner Thornberry, each playing a
solid final round to land on 21-under-par 265.
As co-medalists, Thornberry and Thompson are fully exempt
for the entire 2020 Korn Ferry season. The ultimate goal is to ride some
momentum from the Korn Ferry right to the Big Show, the PGA Tour.
But at least they’ll have that opportunity. So many talented
players didn’t even make it to Orange County National for the Q-School Final
Stage and will spend 2020 wandering in the wilderness of one of the PGA Tour’s
other developmental circuits in Canada, Latin America and Asia, maybe taking a
stab at the occasional Korn Ferry or PGA Tour Monday qualifier, the mini-tours,
state Opens, whatever, wherever. Chasing the dream. Always chasing the dream.
Thornberry, one of the many stars on a really talented 2017
U.S. Walker Cup team that rolled Great Britain & Ireland at Los Angeles
Country Club, really got it going on the front nine at Crooked Cat Sunday,
making seven birdies, including six in a row to close out the outgoing nine, for
a 29. He cooled off on the back nine with a bogey at the 11th hole
before a birdie at the 17th hole got him back to 21-under for the
tournament.
It added up to a 7-under 65 at the par-72 Crooked Cat
Course, which had seemed to play tougher than the par-71 Panther Lakes layout
did Saturday, but yielded quite a few low scores in Sunday’s final round.
“I got about as hot as you can get,” Thornberry told the PGA
Tour website. “I think I made four or five putts over 20 feet on the front nine
alone.
“I think I made a seven-footer early and a birdie on the
par-5, but other than that, every birdie on the front nine was 15 to 30 feet
and they all were going right in the middle of the cup with perfect speed. That
was very nice to see.”
You could tell when Thornberry made the announcement about
this time last year that he was going to pass up the spring portion of his
senior season at Old Miss to turn pro that he hated leaving his fellow Rebels
behind. But it was time.
Thornberry had no real status on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019,
but still managed to make 14 starts, surviving the cut six times and gaining
enough experience to let his talent carry him to next level at Orange County
National.
Thompson carried a one-shot lead over Thornberry and five
other players going into Sunday’s final round. Like Thornberry, Thompson got it
going on the front nine at Crooked Cat Sunday with birdies at the first,
fourth, fifth and ninth holes. Another birdie at the 10th hole got
him to 20-under for the tournament.
Thompson dropped a shot with a bogey at the 15th
hole, but the grittier player he has become matched Thornberry’s birdie at the
17th hole to trail by just one going to the 18th hole. A
birdie at the last gave Thompson a 6-under 66 and enabled him to join
Thornberry at 21-under 265.
Thompson admitted he was about give up on the dream when he
failed to advance out of Stage I of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School a year ago.
“After First Stage last year, I shot 14-under and missed and
I was ready to be done,” Thompson told the PGA Tour website. “There’s been a
lot of downs in the last two years. About six months ago though, I knew this
was possible and here I am.”
Nine other players finished from tied for third to tied for
seventh and will be exempt for the first 12 events on the Korn Ferry Tour in
2020. After that players who finished through 40th place and ties
will be exempt for the first eight events. The rest of the field enters 2020
with at least some status on the Korn Ferry Tour.
And every last one of them has a story worth telling. The
collection of talent at Orange County National this week, many of them young,
but not all of them, makes you appreciate how tough it is to make it to the PGA
Tour.
Steve Lewton, a 36-year-old Asian Tour veteran from Europe,
finished four solid days in his first Q-School Final Stage appearance with a
6-under 66 at Crooked Cat to finish a shot behind the co-medalists in a tie for
third with Tom Whitney in a tie for third at 20-under 266.
Lewton, who had the lead at the halfway point of the
Q-School Final Stage following an 8-under 63 at Panther Lakes, played college
golf at North Carolina State.
The 30-year-old Whitney played college golf at Air Force and
had four years of active duty before embarking on his professional golf
journey. A solid season on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica was highlighted by a
victory in the Abierto OSDE del Centro in Argentina. Whitney lit up Crooked Cat
with an 8-under 64 in Sunday’s final round to finish in a tie for third with
Lewton.
Nick Hardy, who capped a brilliant career at Illinois by
winning the 2018 Big Ten individual crown at Baltimore Country Club’s Five
Farms East Course, closed with a solid 5-under 67 at Crooked Cat to finish in a
tie for fifth with former Liberty standout Mickey DeMorat at 19-under 267.
The 23-year-old Hardy was there at Rich Harvest Farms in the
spring of 2017, helping the Fighting Illini reach the semifinals of the NCAA
Championship before falling to eventual champion Oklahoma.
DeMorat, who made the cut and played the weekend in the 2018
U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, finished up with a 6-under 66 at Crooked Cat to
get his share of fifth place. DeMorat made the most of his limited
opportunities on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, making four cuts in five starts.
Greyson Sieg, a 24-year-old product of the powerful Georgia
program, headed a group of five players who finished in a tie for seventh place
at 18-under 268. Sieg, who fired just the second sub-60 score in the history of
the Mackenzie PGA Tour Canada with a 59 at the GolfBC Championship last summer,
finished up with a 4-under 68 at Crooked Cat Sunday.
Also landing on 18-under was Mark Blakefield, a 36-year-old
who was a teammate of J.B. Holmes at Kentucky. Blakefield, who was hanging
around near the top of the leaderboard all weekend, matched Sieg’s final-round
68 at Crooked Cat.
A couple of guys who closed with outstanding 7-under 65s at
Crooked Cat Sunday, Stephen Franken, who finished up an outstanding career at
N.C. State last spring, and former Lipscomb standout Dawson Armstrong, also
finished in the group tied for seventh at 268.
The 22-year-old Franken made five cuts in 10 starts on the
Mackenzie PGA Tour Canada. The 24-year-old Armstrong was a winner on the
Mackenzie PGA Tour Canada, capturing the Windsor Championship in July.
Rounding out the group tied for seventh place and thus
exempt for the first 12 events on the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour was 23-year-old
former Florida Southern standout John VanDerLaan, who wrapped up a solid week
at Orange County National with a sparkling 5-under 67 at Crooked Cat.
VanDerLaan, winner of the 2018 Jack Nicklaus Award as the
NCAA Division II Player of the Year, made two cuts in six starts on the
Mackenzie PGA Tour Canada this year. VanDerLaan capped his college career at
Florida Southern by claiming the NCAA Division II individual title last spring
at The Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, W.Va.
A guy who caught my eye as I followed the Q-School Final
Stage, Jordan Niebrugge, a product of the powerhouse Oklahoma State program,
closed with a solid 5-under 67 at Crooked Cat Sunday to head a group of eight
players tied for 13th place at 15-under 271.
Niebrugge, a member of the 2013 and 2015 U.S. Walker Cup
teams, was the low amateur in The Open Championship in 2015 at the Old Course
at St. Andrews. He finished tied for sixth at 11-under 277, the lowest total
ever by an amateur in the long history of that event.
Niebrugge has had his share of adversity trying to turn that
potential into performance at the pro level. But he leaves Orange County
National with a solid jumping-off point for 2020. It’s really all you can ask
for.
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