Tears don’t flow often on Friday afternoons on the PGA Tour and rare are the occasions of triumphs on cut day. But there was Luke Clanton on the 18th hole at PGA National trying to avert his eyes away from his father because locking eyes would make them both cry.
The emotions were there at the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., because the Florida State junior notched the rare achievement of earning his tour card in February by reaching the weekend while opening the tournament shooting 67-66 to get into a tie for 10th place. With the cut made, Clanton earned the 20th and final point he needed in the PGA Tour University Accelerated program to automatically get his card.
Clanton, ranked No. 1 in World Amateur Golf Rankings, joins Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent as the only players to earn their cards through the system, and the 21-year-old’s membership begins in May after the NCAA season ends, though he can still appear on sponsor’s exemptions before then.
A Florida native, Clanton achieved the feat with sizeable galleries following him over the first two rounds.
“It’s pretty cool to do it here,” he said. “I’ve watched this event growing up a ton, and to be on 18 walking up and seeing all the people there, it’s breathtaking. I’m just excited to kind of get this journey started and go back and win a national championship with the college team first and then get it started.”
Clanton finished second in the 2024 NCAA Division I men’s individual championship, and he collected 17 points in the Accelerated standings from June to November. He made his tour debut in the 2024 U.S. Open, and in eight total starts Clanton made seven cuts and posted four top-10s, including two runner-up finishes.
This season, with the tour card within reach, Clanton sandwiched two missed cuts around a T-19 in the Farmers Insurance Open, and he admitted that the pressure was starting to build.
“I got that question asked about 19 points a ton,” Clanton said, “and it was kind of nerve-racking, everyone saying to get your tour card, which I love, and the support has been amazing. But to finally get it done is definitely a little bit of ease for sure.”
Clanton has a chance this week to rise in another important piece of standings. He currently sits 94th in the Official World Golf Ranking, and should he record another strong finish, he’d move closer to the automatically qualifying for this year’s majors. That begins with the Masters, which invites the top 50 players in the OWGR published the week before Augusta.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
