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Sunday, December 15, 2019

Thornberry, Thompson share medalist honors in Korn Ferry Q-School Final Stage at Orange County National


   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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