Ohio Golf Journal September 2020

Champions & Korn Ferry Tours The PGA TOUR Champions resumed their 2020 season with the Ally Challenge in Flint, Michigan and then moved to famed Firestone Country Club in Akron for the Senior PLAYERS Championship. Jerry Kelly found fairways and made putts to earn his seventh Champions Tour title, but his first-ever major championship. With the Korn Ferry Tour’s season winding down, the Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University hosted the second of that tour’s Final Series. Normally the three-tournament playoff decides who will earn 25 PGA TOUR cards for the upcoming season. This year, however, it is only offering exemptions into the 2021 PGA TOUR’s opposite field events for the top five, plus three exemptions into the U.S Open to be held at Winged Foot in September. Curtis Luck outlasted the rest of the field in Columbus and hopefully that will give him a boost to realize the potential that was predicted when he was a top-ranked junior player. LPGA Holds Two Events in Toledo The next week, July 31-August 2, the LPGA resumed their season with two events in Toledo. The Drive ON was hastily scheduled to replace the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. The membership of the Inverness Club welcomed the LPGA to this historic site of four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships. It also gave the ladies, plus golf fans, an early look at the host venue for the 2021 Solheim Cup. The Marathon Classic, originally scheduled for July moved to August 6-9 and was held at its normal host course, Highland Meadows. Both the Drive ON and the Marathon Classic were held without fans. Danielle Kang won both events and proved she had made good use of her self-quarantine time at home. She did get an assist from Lydia Ko, who uncharacteristically blew a large lead on the final day of the Marathon Classic, but it did provide for an interesting finish to the two weeks in Toledo. Ohio Golf Journal