Georgia Tech #ProJackets Golf Report

April 3, 2018

THE FLATS – Matt Kuchar and Larry Mize representing Georgia Tech at the Masters … Roberto Castro, working to regain his PGA Tour card, shot a course record in the final round of the Web.com Tour Savannah Championship and nearly won … Chesson Hadley briefly shares Saturday lead while Kuchar banks another top-10 finish … this and more in this week’s Georgia Tech #ProJackets Report.

Matt Kuchar and Larry Mize are the only former Yellow Jackets in the field for the 82nd edition of the Masters Tournament. Kuchar, who has had four top-10 finishes at Augusta National Golf Club, including a tie for fourth last year, is making his 12th start in the season’s first major. Mize, who won the title in 1987, has made 20 cuts in 34 all-time starts, including each of the past two years.

Kuchar, who played in the Presidents Cup for the fourth time last year, delivered some of his best performances of the season in the majors last year as well, finishing runner-up at the British Open and T4 at the Masters. He also finished T9 in the PGA Championship. Highlights this season include a T5 at Waste Management Phoenix Open, and Kuchar is 63rd on the FedEx Cup points list. He has been a member of four Ryder Cup teams.

Mize hit one of the most memorable shots in Masters history, chipping in from 140 feet on No. 11, the second playoff hole, to prevail over Greg Norman in the 1987 Masters. He has four PGA Tour victories and one Champions Tour title, and was a member of the 1987 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

PGA Tour: Kuchar prepared well for Masters week last weekend, firing rounds of 68-68-69-70 on the lightning-fast greens at the Houston Open to tie for eighth place, his third top-10 finish of the season and 97th of his career. Chesson Hadley briefly shared the lead during Saturday’s third round, but tied for 18th after rounds of 68-68-69-72. He remains Tech’s leader in FedEx Cup points, standing at 21st.

In the second round of the 2018 Houston Open, Matt Kuchar sinks a massive 64-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th hole.

The HYBRID raise. The snap.

🦅 for @ChessonHadley! #QuickHits pic.twitter.com/y2t13B6TAZ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 1, 2018

In the third round of the 2018 Houston Open, Chesson Hadley hits his 101-yard approach shot on the par-5 15th hole to 2 feet, then sinks the putt for birdie.

Hey bud. Awfully nice tweet there. I do eat @Bojangles1977 regularly. If I didn’t, I would weigh 7 lbs. 👍 https://t.co/eufmeKHxos

— Chesson Hadley (@chessonhadley) March 31, 2018

Web.com Tour: Working to regain his PGA Tour card after struggling in 2017, Roberto Castro hadn’t made much progress until last weekend at the Savannah Championship. Castro surged up the leaderboard with a course-record 64 Sunday and posted 20-under-par to take the clubhouse lead. The 32-year-old then watched greenside as Sam Burns two-putted the last to edge him out in the end.

“It’s funny,” said Castro. “My brother and I, he’s caddying for me this week. I shot 1-over the first day and Burns shot even. He’s like ‘Well you’re only one back of the guy you need to beat anyway.’ And that was literally Thursday afternoon. So, I finished one back and that’s how it goes.”

Castro leaped to 14th in earnings on the Web.com Tour, from which the top 25 earners at the end of the regular season earn PGA Tour cards for 2018-19. Seth Reeves tied for 71st place, while Anders Albertson and Nicholas Thompson missed the cut.

Champions Tour: Larry Mize is one of eight Champions Tour members in the field as former Masters champions at Augusta National. The Champions Tour resumes next weekend at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga., for the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, where Mize and former Tech All-American Charlie Rymer will compete.

MacKenzie Tour: Vincent Whaley, who graduated from Tech last spring, tied for 35th at the tour’s qualifying tournament last week in Ponte Vedra, Fla., earning conditional status on the tour for 2018. It is one of four 72-hole qualifying tournaments the tour conducts in the United States between now and the end of April. The tour schedule begins in late May.

UPCOMING EVENTS

PGA Tour: The Masters Tournament • April 5-8, 2018 • Augusta National Golf Club • Augusta, Ga. • Purse: $11,000,000 • FedExCup Points: 600
Web.com Tour: North Mississippi Classic • April 19-22, 2018 • Country Club of Oxford • Oxford, Miss. • Purse: $550,000
PGA Tour Champions: Mitsubishi Electric Classic • April 13-15, 2018 • TPC Sugarloaf • Duluth, Ga. • Purse: $1,800,000
Mackenzie Tour:qualifying tournaments in United States in March and April