Austin

Eckroat

Eckroat was lost with the putter for the first 54 holes this week but flipped that script today. He gained 2.8 strokes putting on the front nine then slowed his pace on his way into the clubhouse. “It was really a struggle with the putter coming into today. I think I was second to last in putting of guys who made the cut. Just made a few adjustments on the setup and I got off to a good start.” Eckroat twirled a career-best, runner-up finish just three starts ago, followed that up with back-to-back top 30s, and now has his first top 10 in a major. It was his first time making the cut in a major.

Eckroat was sleeping on his first share of a lead after any round on the PGA TOUR. It would have been easy for him to feel the nerves and drop a few shots out of the gate but he showed no sign of that, turning in a blemish-free round today. “Slept good last night, really surprised myself with how I felt. When I came out and birdied the first hole, it really settled the nerves a little bit. Everything was solid, and I really felt like I played well enough to win. It’s just hard to beat a guy that goes out and shoots 9-under. A lot of positives to build off of.” Eckroat has been known as a golfer whose talent exceeds his results for the last few years but this could be the big finish he needed to really catapult his career. This is just his second career top 10 and it jumps him from 137th to 77th in the FedExCup race.

The 24-year-old arrived on the heels of six straight missed cuts but reveresed course this week in the Dominican Republic. The highlight of his week was a front-nine 28 on Saturday which tied the low 9 score on the season (Davis Thompson/The American Express). Eckroat racked up three eagles on the week which was tied for the best in the field this week. This will go in the books as his first top 10 on the PGA TOUR. His previous best finishes were a T12 at Mayakoba and T12 at the Sony Open. It would appear that he likes the coastal venues.

The young Oklahoma State alum has flashed lots of potential already on the big stage but now he’ll have a home on the highest level. He started the week just 64th on the Finals 25 list so a big finish was required and that’s exactly what he delivered at Victory National. He sprinkled 22 birdies and an eagle to erase three bogeys and a double. His ball-striking stats didn’t leap off the page (54th in driving accuracy and 33rd in GIR) but he found a way to score. Eckroat has three top 25s in 12 career starts on the PGA TOUR and it wouldn’t be surprising if he doubled that tally before the calendar flips to 2023.

The 23-year-old, who played college golf at Oklahoma State, began the season with conditional status and gained entry into just two of the first 12 events. But since Monday qualifying for the AdventHealth Championship in mid-May, Eckroat posted a string of solid finishes -- T23-T23-T25-T25 – to continue earning starts, and he eventually climbed the priority ranking to ensure starts for the rest of the season. In his last two starts, Eckroat finished solo second at the Memorial Health and T-8 at the Price Cutter Charity Championship and has gone from zero points and no standing on the KFT regular-season points list to No. 37.

Eckroat opened with rounds of 65-63 in Springfield, Ill., to take the outride lead after 36 holes, and he carded a 64 in the third round to hold a share of the 54-hole lead. The runner-up finish vaulted Eckroat ahead 45 spots on the points list, and he now sits No. 39 with three regular season events remaining. The 23-year-old, who hails from Edmond, Okla., turned professional in 2021 after playing four seasons at Oklahoma State University, where he was a four-time All-America honoree and helped the Cowboys win the 2018 NCAA title. He finished No. 3 in the inaugural PGA Tour University presented by Velocity Global Class of 2021. On the season, he’s made eight cuts in 10 KFT starts, and he’s also made four starts on the PGA Tour, making three cuts with a best finish of T-22 at the Bermuda Championship in October.

The 23-year-old Oklahoma native, who played college golf at Oklahoma State, carded four rounds in the 60s at the NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank in Glenview, Ill., finishing T-23 at 11-under 273 and earning a start in this week’s REX Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C. Eckroat Monday qualified into last week’s AdventHealth Championship, where he also finished T-23 for a spot in NV5 field. Eckroat, who’s also missed two KFT cuts this season, finished No. 3 in the inaugural PGA Tour University presented by Velocity Global Class of 2021 and made three starts last season, highlighted by two finishes inside the top 13, including a solo seventh at the 2021 BMW Charity Pro-Am. Eckroat has made four PGA Tour starts this season, making three cuts and finishing T-22 at the Bermuda Championship last October.

The Oklahoma State alum is making his tourney debut and overall, his 11th TOUR start, eighth as a pro. It’s his second straight event on the main stage on a sponsor invite, checking in off a missed cut by two at last week’s Farmers on 1-under 143 (71-72). The 23-year-old’s best finish thus far among three top 25s is T12 at last season’s Mayakoba, where he was T20 after R1 (69-69-67-65). On 12 (of 13) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, he was 6-under thru seven, circling 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16, before playing his final 11 in 1-over, outbalancing a sixth and final birdie at 5 with bogeys at 17 and 7. Eckroat will move over to Pebble Beach Golf Links for R2. See link below to post-round comments.

The youngster out of Oklahoma State is still lacking status on the PGA TOUR but played well in his most recent TOUR start. That came in the fall at the Bermuda Championship where he was T10 after day one and went on to post a T22 by week’s end. Eckroat now has three top 25s in nine career starts on the PGA TOUR. The 23-year-old is arriving fresh off a missed cut at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic but will look to get back on track at Torrey Pines. Eckroat has beaten the field average driving distance by three yards per drive over the course of his short career. It’s good to know he has that distance in his tool bag since two of his three top 25s have come on short, coastal courses. He’ll see another coastal course this week but it’s anything but short.

Playing on a sponsor’s invite this week, the 22-year-old kicked off his week with nine (of 14) fairways hit and 12 greens landed in regulation. Both of those figures currently rank inside of the top 40 due to the extreme winds that the morning wave had to face. For Eckroat, he played the trio of par 5s at just even-par but still managed six birdies to offset a trio of bogeys. The youngster is still trying to kickstart his career and has never positioned himself inside of the top 10 after any of his PGA TOUR rounds (his closest being T12 after final round of the 2020-21 Mayakoba Golf Classic). The Oklahoma State product has been piling up consistent rounds but this may finally be the low round he needed to get himself into contention on the big stage.