2016 PGA TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
March 17-20 Arnold Palmer Invitational
April 7-10 Masters
May 12-15 Players Championship
June 2-5 Memorial Tournament
June 16-19 U.S. Open
July 14-17 British Open
July 28-31 PGA Championship
Sept. 22-25 Tour Championship
Chris Haack has never made it easy for his golfers at the University of Georgia. Neither has Bruce Heppler at Georgia Tech. That may help explain why players from those two schools have elbowed their way into prominence on the PGA Tour’s money list.
Both Hall of Fame coaches require their players to compete against other and qualify for the right to represent their schools in each tournament. That meant three-time All-American Chris Kirk had to earn his place each week at Georgia. And while that U.S. Amateur trophy looked good in Matt Kuchar’s dorm room at Tech, he had to play hard each week just to keep his spot in the starting lineup.
So by the time the players from Tech and Georgia and reach the PGA Tour, they’ve grown accustomed to the weekly pressure. Only now they are playing for big money rather than simply being on the team’s flight to an event in Puerto Rico.
The approach must be working. Entering this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, roughly one-quarter through the PGA Tour’s wrap-around season, there are 13 players from the two schools — eight from Georgia, five from Tech — among the top 130 on the FedEx Cup points list. There were seven Bulldogs and six Yellow Jackets among the top 125 who qualified for the 2015 playoffs.
“It’s not an exact science, but we don’t give them anything,” Haack said. “I don’t protect them. They’ve got to earn their spot.”
In 20 years that Haack has been at Georgia, only three players have qualified for each tournament during their four-year career — Kevin Kisner, Brian Harman and Russell Henley. PGA Tour winners such as Kirk, Harris English and Brendon Todd each spent time watching. And Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champion, couldn’t even crack the starting lineup and left school.
Heppler took the same approach. Kuchar and four-time All-American Bryce Molder played against each other every day in practice. Same thing for Cameron Tringale, Roberto Castro and Chesson Hadley, three current Tour players who were on the 2007 team. It’s the same at both places: Play well or stay home.
“A lot of guys have been able to leave school and get through Qualifying School because they’ve learned how to deal with stuff here,” Heppler said. “When you’re playing against good players every day, they push each other and it forces them to work harder.”
The No. 1 player on the current FedEx Cup standings is Kisner, who was part of the 2005 NCAA Championship team that included Todd and Kirk. Kisner was a four-time All-American at Georgia, but never won a college tournament.
Kisner earned his PGA Tour card in 2011, but did little to distinguish himself until he broke through in 2015. Last season Kisner had three second-place finishes, climbed to 21st in the standings and qualified for the Tour Championship.
Kisner carried the momentum into the new season and won for the first time at Sea Island, where he finished the RSM Classic with weekend rounds of 64-64. Although Kisner missed the cut last week at the Phoenix Open, he had been no worse than ninth in his previous four starts.
“He was always doing something good, hanging around and you knew that once he got over the hump, he would take off,” Haack said.
Other Bulldogs currently among the top 130 are English (No. 25), Hudson Swafford (No. 40), Harman (No. 41), Henley (No. 57), Watson (No. 96), Kirk (No. 107) and Erik Compton (No. 125).
Tech players are Tringale (No. 36), Molder (No. 70), Castro (No. 88), Kuchar (No. 113) and Stewart Cink (No. 129).
More guys are on the Web.com Tour. Some are trying to get to the PGA Tour for the first time, such as Ollie Schniederjans, Anders Albertson and Richard Werenski from Tech and Keith Mitchell, Adam Mitchell and Bryden Macpherson from Georgia. Others, such as Troy Matteson and Nicholas Thompson from Tech, are trying to reclaim their cards.
“It’s made watching golf on the weekend even more enjoyable,” Haack said.
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