Oklahoma contingent to battle for Web.com Tour status this week
A field of 150-plus aspiring Web.com Tour players, including a host of players with Oklahoma ties, is set to compete Thursday through Sunday at Final Stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament in Winter Garden, Florida, in hopes of securing strong Web.com Tour status for the 2017 season.
After spending the past three years at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the all-important Final Stage will relocate to the Orlando suburbs for this year’s 72-hole event, with participants playing 36 holes each at Orange County National Golf Club’s Crooked Cat and Panther Lake courses.
Orange County National has hosted PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournaments in the past, and is sure to provide a fitting arena for players who strive to finish inside the top 45 and ties at Final Stage in order to secure guaranteed starts for the first portion of the 2017 Web.com Tour season.
The medalist at Final Stage will receive fully exempt status on the 2017 Web.com Tour.
Among the players with Oklahoma ties are five former University of Oklahoma Sooners Abraham Ancer, Charlie Saxon from Tulsa, Michael Gellerman, Will Kropp of Edmond and Michael Schoolcraft. Also in the field, former University of Tulsa player and Enid native Chris Worrell of Jenks, former Arkansas star Taylor Moore of Edmond, Southern Nazarene University graduate Blake Trimble and former Oklahoma State golfer Kevin Dougherty.
Saxon, Kropp, Worrell, Moore and Gooch are hoping to eventually swell the number of players who grew up primarily in Oklahoma on the PGA Tour, a group that now includes Robert Streb, Kevin Tway and Tag Ridings.
Click here for the full field.