After falling just short of making the cut at the WM Phoenix Open – and earning a PGA Tour card in the process – earlier this month, Luke Clanton repeated the same line in several interviews:
“My time will come.”
That time could be next week, as Clanton was announced as a sponsor invite into his hometown PGA Tour event, the Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Clanton, a Florida State junior who grew up in Hialeah just outside of Miami, has been chasing PGA Tour membership via the PGA Tour University’s Accelerated program for months. His historic play in PGA Tour events – two runners-up and three other top-15s since last summer – has helped push him to 19 Accelerated points, one shy of being able to join the PGA Tour after the NCAA Championship this June. Clanton, the world’s top-ranked amateur and 93rd-ranked pro, also is into the Valspar Championship next month courtesy of his win at last year’s Valspar Collegiate.
Of course, Clanton’s quest nearly ended at TPC Scottsdale, where he birdied four of his last seven holes before missing a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would’ve moved him inside the cut line. Had Clanton made that putt, it’s possible he would’ve bypassed the Cognizant in favor of teeing it up in Florida State’s next event, the Cabo Collegiate, which starts the Sunday of Cognizant week. The Valspar ends the day before the start of this spring’s Valspar Collegiate, so Clanton could theoretically still play both.
Currently, Clanton is competing in his first college tournament of the spring, the Watersound Invitational in Panama City, Florida. He shot 1-over 73 in Monday’s first round, good for T-28 on the leaderboard.
