Eckroat, Cummins, Wood in marquee Oklahoma Open pairing
Former collegiate rivals, Walker Cup teammates and good friends Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat will be joined by first-time professional winner and Eckroat’s former OSU teammate Hayden Wood in one of the marquee pairings for the first two rounds of this week’s Oklahoma Open at Oak Tree Country Club on the East Course.
The 54-hole tournament carries at $65,000 purse. It begins Thursday and the field is cut to the low 40 and ties after Friday’s second round. The final round is Saturday with the leaders going off close to 10 a.m.
Eckroat has played a mixed schedule of PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour events since the conclusion of the NCAA Championship. He has played in five PGA Tour events since turning professional, making three cuts and earning $133,827. He has made the cut in all three Korn Ferry Tour events in which he has participated with one top-10 finish and an additional $35,248. He has Korn Ferry Tour status through 2022 by dint of finishing top five in the PGA Tour University.
Cummins has been playing on Forme Tour, formerly the Mackenzie Tour. The top five on that tour earn status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2022 but he will also have an opportunity to play his way onto that tour through qualifying school.
Wood, who earned his first professional victory last week on the All Pro Tour, winning the Colbert Charity Classic in Manhattan, Kan., will also be looking to earn KFT status through qualifying.
The hottest player on the All Pro Tour and certainly a favorite to contend in this event is Sam Stevens, who played with Eckroat and Wood at Oklahoma State. Stevens has won five APT events over the past two years, led the money list in 2020 and is currently second this year.
Stevens tees off at 12:40 with amateur Brock Polhill of Edmond and defending champion Andrew Hudson. The following group features legendary Edmond pro Gil Morgan, who won the Oklahoma Open in 1981 and 1997. Morgan is playing with amateurs Harley Abrams and Phillip Bryan.