PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) – Good play brings tough decisions for former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein. Uihlein worked hard to return his swing to where it needed to be, and the results were encouraging. He won on the Korn Ferry Tour two weeks ago in Las Vegas, and then last week, he teamed with Richy Werenski to finish third in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Now for the hard part: where to play.
With his victory in Las Vegas, Uihlein moved into the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list. But his third-place finish in New Orleans moved him up 44 spots to No. 148 in the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour. The top 25 earn total PGA Tour cards for next season.
Uihlein chose the Valspar Championship this week over a Korn Ferry Tour event in Alabama. Is it best to stay on the Korn Ferry Tour and try to sew up a spot in the top 25? Or should he take his game to the PGA Tour, where more good play – perhaps even a victory – could get him into the postseason?
“It’s a good question. Honestly, I don’t have the answer to it,” Uihlein said Tuesday. “I’m in limbo. But it’s a good limbo.” He said his intentions for the Zurich Classic were to play the following two weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour. But the third-place finish changed his perspective. Uihlein should be able to get into AT&T; Byron Nelson in two weeks. And then, a week after the PGA Championship, he was exempt from the Charles Schwab Challenge based on a top 15 at Colonial last year.
He plans to play in Nashville, Tennessee, on the Korn Ferry Tour next week unless he gets into the PGA Tour event at Quail Hollow through a top-10 finish. Otherwise, he plans to go to the two Texas events on the PGA Tour and reassess. The Korn Ferry Tour also has an event opposite the PGA Championship, but that sounds like a good week to take a break.
After Colonial, will be 12 events on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule.
Decisions aside, Uihlein is happy to have his swing in order. He says it got too steep and took time to get it back to where it was. He is swinging better, driving the ball better, leading to better scoring. It sounds simple, even if it was anything but that. “It’s a tough process when you get so extreme that even getting back to neutral feels extreme the other way,” he said.
VIRUS TESTING
The PGA Tour is extending its coronavirus testing operation through the end of the season.
In a memo to players last week, the tour had said that they would not have to be tested if they are vaccinated and that those who aren’t would have to pay for their tests. The target date to end the tour-funded testing program was loosely set for the end of June.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was to inform players this week the plan was being pushed back until after the season-ending Tour Championship ends on Sept. 5, according to two people informed of the decision. They spoke to The Associated Press’s condition of anonymity because it had not been announced.
The tour strongly encouraged players to get vaccinated, stopping short of saying it would require vaccination as a condition of competition.
Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel has taken one vaccine shot and said he did it for ease of travel, especially when he wants to go home to South Africa. But he expressed skepticism about the tour plan, conceding testing cost the tour plenty of money.
“I don’t know how fair it is if they’re taking the testing away because you are forcing people to take the vaccination and then telling them, ‘Well, you got to go pay for it yourself if you want to play.’ I suppose it’s a Catch-22 on that one,” he said. “From my side, I’m going to take the vaccination and get this thing done.”
TOUR DEBUT
Michael Visacki has spent nearly a decade trying to play in a PGA Tour event. That much was evident when he holed a 20-foot putt on the second playoff hole to qualify for the Valspar Championship.
“Pops was emotional; never seen him cry so much,” Vicki said. “We’re not very much of a crying family, but this is the first time in a long time I think that we all cried because we knew how much work and effort, blood, sweat, and tears had gone into me trying to make it. And to finally be able to do it, it’s a dream come true.” Vicki, 27, plays between 30 and 45 mini-tour events each year to keep the dream alive. He has tried a half-dozen times to qualify for the PGA Tour on Monday and made it into a Korn Ferry Tour event. One year, he also narrowly missed out on Korn Ferry Tour status when he lost a ball in a tree on the 71st hole and missed by one shot.
