The Ascendant Korn Ferry Tour Monday Qualifier

My first ever Korn Ferry Tour Monday qualifier was for the Ascendant championship in Erie, Colorado. At this point in my career, getting into a Korn Ferry Tour event would be huge. I have quite a few friends who are playing on it or have graduated to the PGA tour from there. It’s commonly referred to as “The Tour everyone wants to get to, yet nobody wants to stay on”. This couldn’t be more true. While it’s a real accomplishment to be there, we all have eyes set on competing with the Victor Hovlands of the world.

This qualifier is open to any level professional and amateurs of 0.0 handicap or lower. This promotes high quality competition and tends to weed out the filler names. The event was split between two venues; Colorado National and The Broadlands club. I was selected for Colorado National. The practice round would take place the day before.

This course is beautiful! In a secluded neighborhood in Erie, you’ll find a panoramic view of the Rockies in the background. To the north, there is a massive thunderstorm growing. But it’s miles away right!?. As it turns out, clouds travel miles quickly. Winds began howling to 50+ mph while temperatures dropped from 85 to 45 in. On the 7th hole, we began to feel the rain fall. By the eighth, it was full on thunder lightning and ping pong ball hail. Safe to safe we booked it off the course and studied the online course flyover the rest of the night.

The morning of the event, I felt really good. We drove up in my cousin’s 2023 Corvette and really felt the part. The first tee was only a few feet from the back balcony of the clubhouse. It was a long downhill tee shot to a pretty large fairway. Man did I take advantage of the adrenaline. The hole played 405 and I ripped driver down the middle to only have 66 yards left. Unfortunately, did not convert for birdie but made an easy par. Then number 2 happened .

‘Twas a really bad triple. My tee shot just rolled through the fair to the side of a slope. With the ball well below my feet, I didn’t account for enough right to left movement on it and layed up into the fescue.  Unplayable. Had to drop again in the fescue. Hacked it out to 45 yards short in right rough. The pin was back right with a high lipped bunk protecting the right side. This was just not the place to leave your 5th shot. I proceeded to hit my approach over the back and fail to get up and down. Ouch. Way too many compounded errors there.

I three putted the next hole for bogey. Geeez dude, +4 through 3?! This was not the start we were looking for. But I battled from then on. I got back to +1 for the day by hole 14. Then 15 was a weird par 5. The fairway split and got super tight with driver, so I elected to hit 3 iron which sailed down the center of the first fairway. On my layup, I hit it through the fairway into some thick rough on the left. Now I’ve been dealing with the not correctly healed shoulder tear for a while but it had been holding up well till this point. When my wedge struck that rough, a searing pain shot through my neck should and arm. To take words from Tate McRae “Uh Oh”.

On the 16th tee box, my arm was a solid 6.5/10 in pain and my left hand was going numb. Yes probably should’ve withdrawn but I’m notoriously stubborn. Considering I could barely feel my hand, it makes sense I missed the long par 3’s green by 40 yards left. It was in mangy fescue and in a poor lie. I hit a ok pitch but caught a slope and rolled off the green. Didn’t get up and down. Luckily I had taken Advil on 16’s tee box and the pain was vanishing.

17 was a drivable par 4 playing 340 over water. We had nearly a 20 minute wait for the green to clear as someone in the group in front of us was more lost than a Joe Biden speech. When It came time to hit my drive, I hit a 80% cut which landed in the middle of the green and rolled to the back fringe. This led me to a simple two putt for birdie. 18 finished with leaving a birdie putt maybe 18 inches short right on line. 74. Not super happy about it. -7 got in. An obvious answer is take away the big numbers and you’d be closer but the point remains, I have much to learn and improve on. I believe I have the ability. To attain high performance takes, effective planning, execution and time. It will happen but this wasn’t the week.