Day: September 11, 2021

The First Look: Fortinet ChampionshipThe First Look: Fortinet Championship

September 11, 2021September 11, 2021| 23:00

The PGA TOUR season begins anew with its annual stop in Napa, California, for the Fortinet Championship. After a spectacular season, Jon Rahm gets going right away in 2021-22, leading the field at Silverado Resort and Spa. FIELD NOTES: Jon Rahm, who finished runner-up in the FedExCup, leads the way in California. Rahm, who won the U.S. Open and is currently the No. 1 player in the world, notched a TOUR-high 15 top-10 finishes in just 22 events last season… Will Zalatoris will make his debut as an official PGA TOUR member… Rahm is joined by two other major winners from last season: Phil Mickelson and Hideki Matsuyama… Cameron Champ, the 2019 champion is in the field. He won the 3M Open earlier this year, giving him a victory in each of his first three seasons on the PGA TOUR. Brendan Steele, winner at Silverado in 2016 and 2017, also is in the field… Plenty of California connections this week including Cal alum Max Homa and former Stanford star Maverick McNealy, as well as Champ, who is a Northern California native… Lots of PGA TOUR rookies will make their debuts after graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour, including Greyson Sigg, Taylor Pendrith, Davis Riley, Justin Lower, and 39-year-old David Skinns (after an emotional triumph at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Regular Season finale in August)… Sponsor exemptions include former collegiate standouts John Augenstein, Turk Pettit, Trevor Werbylo, and Kevin Yu. Yu finished fourth in the 2021 PGA TOUR U ranking, and translated that Korn Ferry Tour status into five top-25s in eight starts, including a runner-up and T5. Werbylo, who was ninth in the 2021 PGA TOUR U standings, was this year’s Forme Tour Player of the Year. For winning that circuit’s points race, he is exempt onto the Korn Ferry Tour next year. Pettit won this year’s NCAA individual title, then won in just his third start on the Forme Tour… Among the players making the commute from last week’s BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event on the European Tour, to the PGA TOUR season opener in Napa are Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Aaron Rai, who both earned their TOUR cards via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, as well as former Masters champion Danny Willett. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Silverado Resort and Spa (North), par 72, 7,123 yards. The course opened in 1955 and was redesigned by Robert Trent Jones Jr. when the resort added the South course. Multi-time TOUR winner Johnny Miller freshened up the layouts about a decade ago. This year marks the sixth playing of the Fortinet Championship at Silverado. Located in the heart of California’s wine country, the layout boasts undulating tree-pinched fairways, challenging greens, and meanders through mature trees. STORYLINES: It’s the start of another race to the FedExCup. After the previous campaign on TOUR – a Super Season that contained 50 events – the upcoming 2021-22 season won’t be as robust but will certainly not be void of drama. It all gets started in Napa… Plenty of guys will be looking to continue their momentum from the Korn Ferry Tour into the PGA TOUR. Stephan Jaeger, Greyson Sigg, Davis Riley, and Adam Svensson were all two-time winners, Joseph Bramlett won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship (and led the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points List), while Mito Pereira won three times to earn an immediate promotion to the PGA TOUR this summer, where he had two top-6 finishes before finishing T4 in the Olympics. 72-HOLE RECORD: 262, Cameron Beckman (2008 at Grayhawk GC), Kevin Sutherland (2008 at Grayhawk GC), Troy Matteson (2009 at Grayhawk GC), Rickie Fowler (2009 at Grayhawk GC), Jamie Lovemark (2009 at Grayhawk GC). Silverado record: 267, Stewart Cink (2020) 18-HOLE RECORD: 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Mark Hensby (2nd round, 2007 at Grayhawk GC), Kevin Stadler (2nd round, 2008 at Grayhawk GC), Troy Matteson (2rd & 3rd rounds, 2009 at Grayhawk GC), Mike Weir (4th round, 2009 at Grayhawk GC), Chesson Hadley (2nd round, 2017 at Silverado). LAST TIME: Stewart Cink won for the first time since his Open Championship triumph in 2009 at last season’s Fortinet Championship in Napa. His win came at 47 years old and in the process he became the oldest winner on TOUR since Phil Mickelson’s Pebble Beach victory in February 2019 (Mickelson was 48). Cink closed with a 7-under 65 (his second-straight 65 on the weekend) and a finishing-hole birdie to top Harry Higgs by two. Higgs missed a 10-foot birdie try on 17 and parred 18 to fall just short of Cink’s winning total. Cink had his son, Reagan, as his caddie, and the father-son duo would go on to win once more in 2020-21 (RBC Heritage). Doc Redman, Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman, and Brian Stuard finished a shot further back at 18-under, and tied for third. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Sunday: 6 p.m.-9 p.m. ET (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (Featured Groups) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 3 p.m.-9 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 4 p.m.-9 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

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Joshua Creel fired up for first start as TOUR memberJoshua Creel fired up for first start as TOUR member

September 11, 2021September 11, 2021| 17:32

As Joshua Creel finished a five-week stretch on the road with a PGA TOUR card in hand for the first time, all he wanted to do this week was head back home, sleep in his own bed and see his wife and dog. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans. His wife, Alex, was supposed to head to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance to watch him play for the weekend but she found out someone in her office had contracted COVID, so she went to get tested before leaving. Positive. Plans spoiled. Not only could she not go to see her husband get a TOUR card, but he also couldn’t return home either when the tournament ended. “I’m in the city I live in, and I can’t even go to my house,” Creel said with a laugh. Initially instead of flying home, Creel flew to Fulton, Mississippi, this week and spent a couple days with his close buddy, Chad Ramey, who is also preparing for his first start as a PGA TOUR member at next week’s Fortinet Championship. After a couple days practicing and hanging out, Creel headed back to Edmond, Oklahoma, and is staying with a buddy this week and practicing at his home club while his wife, who is expecting their first child, a baby boy named Colt in January, quarantines at their home. “I went and talked to her through the front window, but that’s as close as we’ve gotten to each other, so that’s frustrating,” Creel said. “I haven’t slept in my own bed for six weeks, so I was looking forward to that. And it was a pretty big bummer that she wasn’t able to be out there Sunday and celebrate with my parents and myself. So, it’s been frustrating, but it is what it is, so I’ll go to work next week then come back and enjoy her and my dog.” Despite the inconveniences to his preparation this week and the disappointment that his wife can’t head with him to Napa, Creel, who turned pro in 2012, is fired up to have the opportunity to get back to work next week as a TOUR member. “Obviously a dream come true to be teeing it up on the PGA TOUR as a member. I’m excited,” Creel said. “Going to keep doing what we’ve been doing the last couple months and pick good targets, get good numbers and see what happens. But the game feels good. I’ve been playing well now for a while.” As far as momentum goes, Creel has about as much as any TOUR rookie will heading into the TOUR’s season-opener. In mid-June, he was outside the top 100 in the Korn Ferry Tour Points Standings and looking up fall Q-School information. Now, he’s a Korn Ferry Tour winner and heading to the big show after finishing the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with back-to-back top-10s. “I laugh with my friends because it’s been a wild ride, I’ll tell you what,” Creel said. “The emotions from looking into Q-School to locking up a Korn Ferry Tour card for next year to going on and winning and then ultimately getting my PGA TOUR card. It’s been something else, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” It’s the journey to get here that has made it all the sweeter. After leaving Central Oklahoma as the 2012 NCAA Division II Player of the Year, Creel struggled to breakthrough. He finally made it to final stage of Q-School in 2016 for the first time but finished T131, which was only good conditional membership and four starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017. He was playing mini tours mostly and never lost the faith in his game or that he could make it, but his bank account was starting to. “There was one time in 2017 where my dad said, ‘Hey dude, your bank account is running real thin,” Creel recalled. “Just point blank you’re either going to have to play better or find something else to do, and I ended up winning a mini-tour event the next week to give myself a little bit of a cushion. But, yeah, never wanted to quit because I was upset about how I was playing but there were a couple times where financially there it was getting tough.” That period proved critical. He not only improved his course management out on the mini tours, but he learned to win. In 2019, he got fully exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time and now the Cheyenne, Wyoming, native will tee it up next week as only the second TOUR member ever from Wyoming. “I’m not one to ever get down about much and I was never really discouraged at all about where my game was or where I was going to have to play over the years,” Creel said. “So, yeah, just steadily improved and parlayed that into a PGA TOUR card.”

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