THE FLATS – Four of five Yellow Jackets made the cut last weekend in the first of two events at Muirfield Village Golf Club … Stewart Cink posts highest finish of 2020 while Richy Werenski continues to improve since play resumed … Paul Haley II and Ollie Schniederjans continue solid play on Korn Ferry Tour … More details below in this week’s Georgia Tech #ProJackets Report.
*****
REMAINING PGA TOUR EVENTS TO BE PLAYED WITHOUT FANS
Facing the reality of the current spike in coronavirus cases, the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake announced Monday it would stage the September tournament without fans present. An event that featured the rousing moment of a huge gallery overrunning the fairway to trail Tiger Woods up No. 18 during his 2018 victory will host the PGA Tour’s top 30 in FedEx Cup points on a vacant course. READ MORE
Further, the PGA Tour announced that it will conduct all of its remaining 2020 season events without spectators or pro-am events. The PGA previously announced that the PGA Championship (Aug. 6-9 in San Francisco) would be played without fans. The remaining two majors of the year, the U.S. Open (Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot) and the Masters (Nov. 12-15 at Augusta National) fall outside of the current season. Neither the USGA nor Augusta National has announced a decision about allowing fans. READ MORE
*****
CREATING TWO EXPERIENCES AT SAME GOLF COURSE
For the first time since 1957, one course will host TOUR events in consecutive weeks, this time at Nicklaus’ famed Muirfield Village Golf Club. The brand-new Workday Charity Open made a one-time appearance last week, while Nicklaus’ annual Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide takes center stage this week. One of the goals, of course, is to provide the players in both fields distinctive challenges each week. Steve Rintoul is among the TOUR rules officials charged with setting up Muirfield Village so that the playing experience at the Workday Charity Open isn’t exactly the same as at the Memorial. READ MORE
*****
JACKETS AT WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN
With his tie for 17th place, Stewart Cink posted his best finish since his tie for ninth at the Houston Open during the fall portion of the schedule, negotiating the Muirfield Village Golf Club for rounds of 69-70 on the weekend for a 9-under-par total of 279. Cink now stands 129th in FedEx Cup points.
Richy Werenski continues to play consistent golf, tying for 35th place at the Workday Charity Open with a 5-under-par 283 to lift himself a couple of spots to 90th in FedEx Cup points. Werenski is 4-for-4 in cuts made since the return to play with a high finish of T21 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Matt Kuchar logged a solid tie for 39th place after a week off and a tie for 41st at the RBC Heritage, and sits 55th in FedEx Cup points, while Chesson Hadley tied for 52nd place and surpassed the $8 million mark in career earnings.
The Tour remains at Muirfield Villege Golf Club this week for The Memorial Tournament, as will Cink and 2013 champion Kuchar. Tech graduate Andy Ogletree is in the field as an amateur on a sponsor exemption, and Hadley is an alternate (as of Monday).
*****
JACKETS AT TPC SAN ANTONIO CHALLENGE
Paul Haley II and Ollie Schniederjans both began the Korn Ferry Tour season with limited status, but their performances since the Covid-19 shutdown have given them regular work as the season progresses.
Haley has sandwiched a pair of top-5 finishes around a missed cut after tying for third place last weekend at the TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons, firing a closing 8-under-par 64 to post a tournament total of 268 (-20). That score might be good enough to win many weeks, but in this case was five strokes shy of the winning total. The result, however, did vault Haley inside the top 25 in Korn Ferry Tour points as he tries to rebound from a couple of lean years.
Schniederjans also has played strong golf since the shutdown, tying for eighth last weekend for his second top-10 finish in four events. Since the shutdown, Schniederjans has posted finishes of T32, T5, T17 and T8 in succession and risen from No. 93 to No. 30 in Korn Ferry points.
Four other Yellow Jackets – Anders Albertson, J.T. Griffin, Seth Reeves and Nicholas Thompson – missed the cut in the event last weekend, but all of them remain in San Antonio for this week’s TPC San Antonio Championship event at the TPC property’s Oaks course.
