Dustin Johnson is back, but SC’s PGA Tour contingent will look different in new season
The South Carolina contingent on the PGA Tour will feature a different look in the 2021-22 season that begins Thursday.
Familiar names — Dustin Johnson, Kevin Kisner and Lucas Glover — remain fixtures, but the results from the just-completed 2020-21 campaign negatively impacted several players with ties to the state.
Although the state delegation will include 16 golfers with some tour status, five will be reduced to the “former champion” category — a low priority that will limit their tournament appearances to a handful.
New faces this season include Andrew Novak, a former South Carolina Amateur champion from Mount Pleasant who played his college golf at Wofford, and Ricky Werenski, a former Georgia Tech star who recently moved to Aiken.
Novak qualified through a top-25 finish during the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular season. Werenski is fully exempt through the 2023 season thanks to his victory in the 2020 Barracuda championship.
Johnson (2020 Masters in November), Kisner (Wyndham Championship) and Glover (John Deere Classic) won tournaments in the 2020-21 season that stretched to 50 events and included two additional majors rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak. They, like Werenski, have full status.
In the most recent rankings, Johnson is No. 2 in the world, Kisner No. 35 and Glover No. 85.
With full status by virtue of finishing in the top 125 in the FedEx points standings are Doc Redman (94), Matt NeSmith (115) and Kyle Stanley (117). Wesley Bryan and William McGirt will play on major medical extensions. Both competed in 11 events in the just-completed season with Bryan’s comeback from shoulder surgery ending with a wrist injury that required surgery.
Bill Haas, a former FedEx Cup champion, finished 197th in the 2021 standings and will play in the category reserved for one-time use among the top 50 in career earnings. Otherwise, Haas, who owns six career PGA Tour tournaments wins, would fall into the “past champions” classification.
In that “past champions” grouping will be Scott Brown, Jonathan Byrd, Tommy Gainey, Ben Martin and D.J. Trahan. Brown fell to 160 in the 2020-21 standings with Martin at 177, Trahan at 190, Byrd at 206 and Gainey at 245. They will have the opportunity to seek sponsor exemptions and to compete for one of four spots available at each tournament in Monday qualifying.
The season begins Thursday with the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California. After a week off for the Ryder Cup, the Tour resumes with eight more pre-Thanksgiving events scheduled.
After staging three tournaments in 2020, the only PGA Tour stop in South Carolina in the new season is the RBC Heritage, set for April 14-17 at Hilton Head Island the week after the Masters.
In addition to the Heritage, the Palmetto State hosted the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island and replaced the canceled Canadian Open with the Palmetto Championship at Congaree at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland last season.
The Presidents Cup will be held in September at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. The Wells Fargo Championship, usually played at Quail Hollow in May, moves to Potomac, Maryland this year.
The regular season ends after the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina on Aug. 7. The top 125 qualify for the playoff tournaments that will be played in Memphis, Wilmington, Delaware and Atlanta.
Chip shots. Steve Libeler (Irmo) and Rick Crout (Mount Pleasant) captured the SCGA’s Senior Better Ball title by three strokes at Santee Cooper CC in Santee. ... In the Solheim Cup in Toledo, Ohio, won by the European team 15-13, Seneca’s Austin Ernst compiled a 1-2-1 record for the U.S. and former USC player Nanna Koertz Madsen, a native of Denmark, posted a 1-1-1 mark for the Europeans. The luck of the draw paired the two with South Carolina connections in singles, and they played to a draw. ... USC’s women open the season Monday in the Annkia Intercollegiate in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Although losing four of their top six players from 2020-21 powerhouse, the Gamecocks are ranked 12th in Golfweek’s preseason poll.