Solid Play Has BC's Stuart Macdonald Climbing Points Ladder On Korn Ferry Tour
Stuart Macdonald Is A Proud Member Of Point Grey Golf Club In Vancouver - Image Courtesy Stuart Macdonald/Twitter @stuart_mac_golf
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Golf is a numbers game and on the Korn Ferry Tour two very important numbers are 25 and 75.
Finish inside the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, where Surrey’s Adam Svensson currently resides, and you earn yourself a promotion to the PGA TOUR.
Right now, Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald is focused on that other number: 75.
Players finishing the season inside the top 75 are guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour status for the following year. And they also get to participate in three post-season events where 25 more PGA TOUR cards are up for grabs.
“I would say 75 is the ultimate goal for me, especially after having conditional status,” says Macdonald. “I think 75 would be great. It’s a number that is definitely on my mind. But obviously it’s not something I am thinking about during the rounds or anything like that.”
Macdonald entered this week’s Evans Scholar Invitational in suburban Chicago at No. 99 on the points list. That’s up about 30 spots from where he was before a recent run of nice play. Macdonald had his first Korn Ferry top-10 in mid-May when he tied for seventh at the Visit Knoxville Open in Tennessee.
He followed that up with a tie for 26th at last week’s AdventHealth Championship in Kansas City. But even after that solid finish in Kansas City, Macdonald dropped two spots on the points list. “You just need better finishes to move up,” Macdonald says.
“It’s not discouraging. It’s just something you know is there, especially after playing two seasons (the 2020 and 2021 seasons have been combined as one).
Image Courtesy Stuart Macdonald/Twitter @stuart_mac_golf
Macdonald (R) And Victoria's Lawren Rowe (L) Represented British Columbia Golf In Fine Fashion Winning The Team Title And Coming In 1st And 3rd Individually At The 2017 Peruvian International Amateur Championship
“The guys just have a lot of points. I am just a little behind the eight-ball. The top-10s and even the top-15s are the ones that really make a difference, so we need some top-10s and top-5s. Or a win would go a long way, too.”
Macdonald knows he doesn’t have the luxury of taking any time off. He has to play every tournament. There are 10 regular-season events remaining. “I am going to play every week until we get a week off after the Maine event (in late June). I think that will put me at 11 in a row, which is a lot of golf.”
Macdonald says he must try to pace himself during tournament weeks and get as much rest as possible. “It is important for me to take the breaks when I can. Like this week I didn’t play on Monday. Just played nine on Tuesday and will play nine today (Wednesday). That’s maybe a little less preparation than I would like to play a new golf course, but at the same time I think it is important to stay as fresh as possible and mentally rested for a full week.”
Macdonald credits some serious work he did on his swing during a break earlier this year with helping achieve some better results of late. “My swing toward the end of last year just got to a place where it was hard for me to hit a lot of greens and give myself a lot of opportunities,” he said.
“My path just got way too far to the right. I was hitting really big draws. During that break I spent a lot of hours just getting super technical and trying to get the swing to where I wanted it and I was a little more neutral. I was able to do that.
When I was making those changes I definitely sacrificed the ability to score a little bit, but obviously it is paying off in the longer run. My swing is in a better spot now and it is definitely showing. I am hitting more greens and giving myself more opportunities for birdies.”
CHIP SHOTS: Macdonald has made $79,613 in 23 events this season. . .Svensson, who is currently 18th on the Korn Ferry points list, returns to action at the Evans Scholar Invitational after taking last week off.