Twenty-Two (22) eGolf Tour Players Inside the Top 125 for Start of PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs


The par-4 18th at Bethpage Black

By Stewart Moore

Farmingdale, NY – The PGA TOUR’s Playoffs for the FedExCup get underway tomorrow on the arduous Black Course at Bethpage State Park with The Barclays – the first of four tournaments to decide the winner and $10 million dollar champion in the season-long points race. With 22 eGolf Tour alums inside the top 125, there is a good chance that some familiar faces will be onsite for the fourth and final event – The Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Leading the way at No. 8 on the points list is recent WGC-Bridgestone Invitational winner and former eGolf Tour player Keegan Bradley. A PGA TOUR rookie in 2011, Bradley burst onto the golf scene with a win at the HP Byron Nelson Championship and an unlikely playoff victory at the PGA Championship that allowed the former St. John’s golfer to run away with “Rookie of the Year” honors. The 26-year-old has three top-3 finishes thus far in 2012, including the win, a playoff loss at the Northern Trust Open, and a T3 in his title defense at the PGA Championship.

Brendon de Jonge (No. 41), Matt Every (No. 53) and Cameron Tringale (No. 56) round out the tour’s representation inside the top 60, which is the eventual cut-off number for the BMW Championship.

William McGirtWilliam McGirt

Former eGolf Tour winners William McGirt (2007 Cabarrus Classic) and Blake Adams (2008 Columbia Open) sit at Nos. 74 and 75, respectively, on the FedExCup points list.

McGirt, one of the eGolf Tour’s longest-tenured members, is in his sophomore campaign on the PGA TOUR after going back to Q-School following a solid rookie year in 2011 in which he made it through two of the four events in the Playoffs for the FedExCup.

The former Wofford College star was on the outside looking in for the majority of 2012 in relation to the FedExCup standings. Back-to-back missed cuts at the Greenbrier Classic and the John Deere Classic in July did little to help his cause, but a then-career-best T5 finish at the True South Classic the following week boosted McGirt’s stock and gave him a shot at the top 125.

At the RBC Canadian Open the following week, McGirt posted rounds of 63-66-66-69—264 en route to a T2 finish – falling one shot shy of winner Scott Piercy. The back-to-back top-5 finishes vaulted McGirt inside the top 75, and gave him a good chance at playing his way into the BMW Championship, if not further, this fall.

Brian HarmanBrian Harman

McGirt was a veritable ATM machine on the eGolf Tour from 2004 through 2009, collecting over 40 top-10s and a win at the 2007 Cabarrus Classic. He earned $532,933 in his rookie year on the PGA TOUR after a breakthrough year on the 2010 Nationwide Tour in which he finished 34th on the money list with earnings of $173,444.

Tom Gillis and Brian Harman each combined for three career titles on the eGolf Tour, and are firmly entrenched at Nos. 92 and 97, respectively, on the FedExCup points list entering the week at Bethpage Black.

Harman, a two-time member of the U.S. Walker Cup team, played the eGolf Tour full time in 2010 and 2011, collecting eight top-5 finishes and his first professional win at The Manor Classic in September of 2010. In 2012, his rookie year on the PGA TOUR, Harman exploded onto the national scene with a course-record-shattering 61 in the second round of the Honda Classic, which in turn gave way to a T12 finish. The former University of Georgia star missed four consecutive cuts in May and June, but righted the ship with five consecutive made cuts between the Travelers Championship and the RBC Canadian Open – a streak which included four top-25 finishes.

Roberto CastroRoberto Castro

Five-time eGolf Tour winner Roberto Castro, a rookie on the 2012 PGA TOUR, comes in at No. 100 on the points list entering The Barclays. Castro, a former Byron Nelson Award winner at Georgia Tech, burst onto the eGolf Tour scene with a win at the 2007 Spring Creek Classic, and followed that up with four more wins before playing his way onto the Web.com Tour full-time in 2010. That year, Castro used a runner-up finish at the tour’s Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open to secure his status for the remainder of the year. In just 12 starts, Castro managed to earn $106,756 to finish 62nd on the money list – a finish that set him up for a 2011 run at the PGA TOUR.

In 2011, the Alpharetta, GA native collected 13 top-25 finishes in 25 starts on the Web.com Tour to accumulate $186,563 in earnings for a 23rd-place finish on the season-ending money list. That top-25 effort secured Castro’s spot on the PGA TOUR this season, where he has notched four top-25 finishes and $623,968 in earnings. At the Greenbrier Classic in July, the former Yellow Jacket star closed with a 7-under 63 to post his first career PGA TOUR top-10 finish, a T7.

Four-time eGolf Tour winner Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey (No. 102), Kevin Chappell (No. 104), Gary Christian (No. 111) and Jason Bohn (No. 125) are all currently on the outside looking in for the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, but can make up a lot of ground with a made cut and a good finish this week at Bethpage.

The 22 eGolf Tour veterans, and their starting positions for the Playoffs for the FedExCup, are listed below:

No. 8 – Keegan Bradley

No. 41 – Brendon de Jonge

No. 53 – Matt Every

No. 56 – Cameron Tringale

No. 61 – Ted Potter Jr.

No. 66 – Michael Thompson

No. 74 – William McGirt

No. 75 – Blake Adams

No. 80 – Chris Kirk

No. 83 – Daniel Summerhays

No. 85 – Martin Flores

No. 86 – Scott Stallings

No. 88 – John Mallinger

No. 89 – Will Claxton

No. 92 – Tom Gillis

No. 94 – Josh Teater

No. 97 – Brian Harman

No. 100 – Roberto Castro

No. 102 – Tommy Gainey

No. 104 – Kevin Chappell

No. 111 – Gary Christian

No. 125 – Jason Bohn

For complete results from The Barclays on pgatour.com, please click here.