Frankie Capan III came up just short of achieving even conditional status for this year’s PGA Tour season via his performance as a rookie last year.
But his late fall surge wasn’t all for naught — it’s why the North Oaks, Minn., native is in this week’s American Express field in La Quinta, Calif.
There are 156 players in this week’s tournament, which is played alongside a pro-am between three different courses. It’s also played the same week as a high-profile event on the DP World Tour, where many of the world’s top players will tee it up this week.
So while the American Express does tout many of the world’s best — Scottie Scheffler is playing — it is difficult to fill this big of a field. After going through all of the PGA Tour cardholders as well as those with conditional status, there were four spots remaining when the field was finalized Friday.
From there, the Tour turns to those just outside of last year’s top 125. Capan finished 127th, a position he climbed into last fall via a pair of top-six performances. He was the third-to-last man into this week’s field because of it.
Capan is a member of the Korn Ferry Tour — the PGA Tour’s primary feeder tour — this season. He already has played in one Korn Ferry event, where he missed the cut. He passed on the second Korn Ferry Tour event of this season in order to play in the American Express.
This is one of a few PGA Tour events Capan will get to tee it up in thanks to last year’s late surge, along with the likes of the off-field events the PGA Tour hosts on the same weekends as marquee, limited-field events.
While it’s difficult to transform your career in a weekend on a tour on which you don’t currently carry a card, a top-10 finish this weekend would earn Capan a start at next week’s Farmer’s Insurance Open in San Diego. And the ultimate dream, of course, would be to hoist the trophy on Sunday, at which point Capan would re-join the PGA Tour, where he’d automatically have a two-year exemption, and earn a trip to this year’s Masters.
Neither feat will be easy to achieve, but Capan did finish in a tie for 12th in this event a year ago — easily his best individual finish of his rookie campaign prior to the fall slate.
A rare opportunity knocks.
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