PGA Tour University was designed to streamline the process for college players to advance to the professional level, and two weeks ago the inaugural class was announced.
This week the five players who earned Korn Ferry Tour membership through the end of the regular season made their professional debuts, with three players competing in the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am and two at the PGA Tour’s Palmetto Championship. Next week the 10 players who earned Forme Tour membership will begin their pro careers at the L&J Golf Championship.
Here’s how each of the five players fared in their professional debuts.
John Pak
The 2021 Haskins Award winner from Florida State missed the cut at the Palmetto Championship, firing rounds of 79-71 to finish at 8 over.
Davis Thompson
Thompson had the performance of the week in South Carolina. The SEC Player of the Year from Georgia finished T-35 at the Palmetto after a strong week of 71-69-71-70.
Austin Eckroat
Eckroat disagrees with the above statement. The Oklahoma State product earned a top-10 finish at the BMW Charity Pro-Am at 18 under thanks to just seven bogeys over the four sub-70 rounds.
Early bird gets the worm.@AustinEckroat is ready for his @KornFerryTour debut. pic.twitter.com/8Iw7SxVQUr
— PGA TOUR University (@PGATOURU) June 7, 2021
Chun An Yu
Yu, a three-time winner at Arizona State, also made the cut at the BMW, finishing T-20 after a consistent week of 66-66-69-69 to finish at 15 under.
Garett Reband
Reband wasn’t as successful, missing the BMW cut by six strokes. That said, the Oklahoma Sooner improved on his first-round 73 with a Friday 70 to get back to even par.
