Cunningham (left) — grandson of the late Chuck Melvin, who played in six Colorado Cup matches — finished No. 2 on the Canadian money list in 2018, which earned him status on the Web.com Tour for 2019.

In Cozumel, PGA Tour Latinoamerica defeated PGA Tour Canada 11.5-8.5 on Saturday despite Cunningham going undefeated.

In Saturday’s singles, Cunninham halved with Latinoamerica’s Marcelo Rozo in a back-and-forth match in which Rozo led most of the front nine and Cunningham was 2 up after 13 holes. But after Rozo went 1 up with a birdie on No. 17, Cunningham won 18 with a par to earn the halve.

In Thursday’s four-ball, George Cunningham and Sam Fidone defeated Nicolas Echavarria and Rozo, 2 and 1, rallying after being 2 down after eight holes.

And in Friday’s foursomes, Cunningham and Zach Wright beat Austin Smotherman and Matt Gilchrest, 2 up, after winning the last two holes with pars.

For all the results from the Cozumel Cup, CLICK HERE.
 

A week after finishing third in a Symetra Tour event in Sioux Falls, S.D., Huffer chalked up another top-10 on Sunday by tying for eighth in the Garden City Charity Classic in Garden City, Kan.

Huffer (pictured in a Symetra Tour photo) remained in 17th place on the season-long Symetra Tour money list, but is now about $10,300 out of 10th place. If she can climb into the top 10 and finish there after the final four tournaments of the year, she’ll be a member of the LPGA Tour in 2019.

Sunday’s performance marked Huffer’s fourth top-11 finish of the 2018 season.

In Garden City, she posted rounds of 68-66-71 for an 11-under-par 205 total, which left the 2013 winner of the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open five strokes behind champion Allyssa Ferrell.
 

Boulder Native Cunningham in Good Shape to Earn Web.com Tour Card: Boulder native and former Louisville resident George Cunningham finished third on Sunday at the Mackenzie Investments Open in Montreal, marking his fourth top-four showing of the season on PGA Tour Canada.

Cunningham — grandson of the late Chuck Melvin, who played in six Colorado Cup matches — posted an 18-under-par 270 total, finishing a stroke out of a playoff that was won by Blake Olson. Cunningham shot rounds of 68-67-71-64 and made nine birdies on Sunday.

Cunningham, winner of the GolfBC Championship in June, is in very good position to earn a Web.com Tour card for 2019. The top five finishers on the PGA Tour Canada money list for the year after next week’s season finale will graduate to the Web circuit, and Cunningham is currently No. 3 on that list.
 

It isn’t even an every-year occurrence.

It’s fair to say it happens rarely, especially since Q-school is no longer is a direct route to the PGA Tour.

Prior to this year, the last Colorado golfer to land a PGA Tour card for the first time was Denver native Mark Hubbard, who made the grade in 2014 and played on the world’s top tour for three seasons before losing his card.

But on Sunday, another Denver native formally joined the elite group. Wyndham Clark, who grew up south of the Denver metro area and graduated from Valor Christian High School, landed his PGA Tour card by finishing in the top 25 on the Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list in 2018.

Clark — winner of the 2010 CGA Amateur and the 2017 Pac-12 individual title, both at Boulder Country Club — certainly didn’t finish the Web.com Tour season the way he wanted as he missed cuts in four of his last five events, including this weekend’s WinCo Foods Portland Open.

But the 24-year-old did the necessary work in the first six months (and one day) of the year. In his first 15 Web events of the season, Clark recorded four top-five finishes with a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth. With $187,817 for the year, he finished 16th on the Web’s regular-season money list.

“It was a tough week but an awesome year and I’m so happy to be getting my card,” Clark said to ColoradoGolf.org via text this weekend.

Clark, the 2017 Pac-12 Player of the Year at Oregon and the 2014 Big 12 Player of the Year at Oklahoma State before transferring, turned pro just 14 months ago. In addition to his Web.com Tour starts, he’s played in eight PGA Tour events in 2017 and early ’18, making two cuts and finishing as high as 17th.

“I knew and believed I could do it (earn a PGA Tour card) in one short season,” Clark texted. “I just had to stay focused and play my game and let the results take care of themselves — and they did. It’s an awesome feeling and I can’t wait to be on the Tour.”

But Clark’s Web.com Tour season isn’t quite over — just his regular season. The Web.com Tour Finals begin on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and Clark is in the field there. He’ll try to improve his 2018-19 PGA Tour status with his performances throughout the four-event Finals, which culminate with the Web.com Tour Championship Sept. 20-23 in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

The 2018-19 wraparound season for the PGA Tour begins with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., Oct. 4-7.

Joining Clark in the Web.com Tour Finals — thanks to finishing in the top 75 on the regular-season money list — will be Jim Knous of Littleton and Hubbard. That will also guarantee Knous and Hubbard full Web.com Tour status in 2019 if they don’t get PGA Tour cards through the Web Finals.

Knous, a former Colorado School of Mines golfer, finished a Web-career-best-tying fourth on Sunday at the Portland Open and 52nd on the Web regular-season money list. He shot rounds of 70-67-68-67 for a 12-under-par 272 total, which left him six strokes behind winner Sunjae Im.

It was Knous second top-four finish on the Web.com Tour since July 1.

Meanwhile, Hubbard placed 40th on Sunday in Portland, leaving him in the 72nd position on the final Web regular-season money list. Hubbard went 66-70-70-73 for a 5-under 279 total.

A local player who like Clark missed the cut at the Portland Open was at the center of an unfortunate incident during Friday’s round. ESPN reported that part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler accidentally injured a fan when he slammed an iron on the ground and against his foot and the head came loose and hit a spectator in the head. ESPN indicated that Web.com Tour rules official Orlando Pope said the fan required six stitches, being treated on site then at a hospital before being released.

“It was a very freakish accident,” Pope told ESPN. “Kevin is devastated. He had trouble trying to finish the round. He was quite worried and felt so bad.”

Saunders, Laird Advance to PGA Tour Playoffs: A year after narrowly missing qualifying for the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs, former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders made the “postseason” for the first time on Sunday.

Saunders, a grandson of Arnold Palmer. finished 45th at the regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., which left him at 120th in the FedExCup standings. The top 125 are fully exempt on the PGA Tour next season and advance to the playoffs.

Also tying for 45th place at the Wyndham and making the playoffs was former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird. He’s 113th in the FedExCup standings.

The opening playoff event is The Northern Trust in Paramus, N.J., starting Thursday. The top 100 in the FedExCup standings after that will advance to the Dell Technologies Championship.

Notable on Tour This Week: Three players with strong Colorado connections finished in the top 11 Sunday in the PGA Tour Canada’s Players Cup in Winnipeg. James Love of Denver tied for fifth, while fellow Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft and former Louisville resident George Cunningham shared 11th place. For Love, it was his best PGA Tour Canada showing in more than two years. He went 66-67-70-69 for a 16-under-par 272 total, which left him six behind champion Tyler McCumber. Schoolcraft, with his second top-11 showing of the month, and Cunningham checked in at 274. … Former University of Colorado golfer Steve Jones, who has been sidelined by knee surgery, according to the USGA, played in his first PGA Tour Champions event since mid-April, finishing 70th at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (68-80-76). Jones is best known for winning the 1996 U.S. Open.
 

Michael Schoolcraft (left) of Denver placed seventh in the event, while former University of Colorado golfer Jeremy Paul ended up 10th the week after twin brother Yannik finished fifth in another PGA Tour Canada tournament.

Schoolcraft carded rounds of 68-66-62-72 for a 16-under-par 268 total, which left him 10 strokes behind champion Corey Pereira. Schoolcraft made 10 birdies in Saturday’s 9-under-par third round. It was his third-best finish ever on PGA Tour Canada as he placed second and fourth in 2016.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Paul recorded his best showing ever on the Canadian circuit by going 64-69-69-67 for a 269 total. Paul’s previous best PGA Tour Canada showing was 23rd.

Schoolcraft moved up to 36th on the 2018 Canadian money list with $14,644, while Paul jumped up to 48th at $10,739.
 

Saunders, who needed a good finish to boost his chances of keeping his fully-exempt PGA Tour status for next season, tied for seventh on Sunday in the tournament in Reno, Nev.

That marks the third straight top-10 in this event for Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson. He finished ninth in 2016 and eighth last year.

The Barracuda Championship utilizes a modified Stableford scoring format, like The International at Castle Pines did from 1986 through 2006. In that format, a birdie and a bogey are worth more than two pars.

Saunders (pictured) had a bad day on Sunday, accumalating a minus-1 point, but finished with 34 points for the week, 13 fewer than champion Andrew Putnam.

It was Saunders’ fourth top 10 showing of the 2017-18 PGA Tour season.

Elsewhere in major professional tour golf:

Two players with strong Colorado ties — former Louisville resident George Cunningham and former University of Colorado golfer Yannik Paul — posted top-five finishes Sunday in the PGA Tour Canada’s Syncrude Oil Country Championship in Edmonton, Alberta.

Cunningham — grandson of the late Chuck Melvin, who played in six Colorado Cup matches — placed third and Paul fifth.

Cunningham, who won a PGA Tour Canada event in June, posted rounds of 67-64-72-65 for a 16-under-par 268 total, which left him five strokes behind champion Tyler McCumber.

Paul shared the lead going into Sunday but dropped four spots on the scoreboard with a final-day 70, a round during which he was stung by a wasp. He went 70-64-66-700 for a 270 total.
 

The senior (pictured), who owns CU’s top stroke average this season (70.19), was named the program’s first men’s first-team All-Pac-12 selection earlier this week even as he was trying to set himself up for his first summer as a pro.

On Friday, Paul finished up play at the final PGA Tour Canada Q-school event of the year, in Courtenay, B.C., Canada. And, like his twin brother Jeremy last month, Yannik Paul earned conditional status for PGA Tour Canada in 2018.

After struggling in the final round on Friday, Yannik placed 30th out of a 132-man field in the four-day event. Paul went 71-64-73-76 for a 4-under-par 284 total.

The top 16 finishers — no ties — gained at least some exempt status for 2018, while those in the 17th through 40th positions received conditional status. 

Left for Paul at CU before he turns pro are the NCAA Regionals and, if he or the Buffs qualify, the NCAA Finals.Ӭ

In previous PGA Tour Canada Q-school events this year, Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft earned some exempt status, while brother Beau Schoolcraft, Jeremy Paul, former Colorado State University golfer Blake Cannon and A.J. Morris of Aspen landed conditional spots.

The 2018 PGA Tour Canada season will begin on May 31.

Here are the round-by-round scores for both of this week’s PGA Tour Canada Q-school competitors with strong Colorado ties:

30. CU senior Yannik Paul 71-64-73-76–284
Failed to Qualify
43. CSU senior Colton Yates 74-70-71-72–287

(Updated May 5 from Golden State Tour): Meanwhile, former University of Denver golfer Chris Gilman rallied in Saturday’s final round to finish second Saturday in the Golden State Tour’s Avondale Open in Palm Desert, Calif.

Gilman fired a 6-under-65 to post a 15-under 198 total, which left him one stroke behind winner Matt Hansen of Los Osos, Calif. 

Gilman eagled the par-4 12th hole and added six birdies on Saturday, but a bogey on the 17th proved costly as Hansen birdied No. 18.

Gilman has won once on the Golden State Tour in 2018, while recording two second-place finishes and one third.

On Friday, A.J. Morris of Aspen added his name to the list by landing conditional status for 2018 by finishing 27th out of 132 players in a Q-school event in Lakeland, Fla.

Morris (pictured), who made three cuts in 10 PGA Tour Canada events last year, carded scores of 69-69-71-70 for a 9-under-par 279 total.

American Brad Miller earned medalist honors on Friday, finishing at 267.

The top 16 finishers — no ties — gained at least some exempt status for 2018, while those in the 17th through 40th positions received conditional status. 

In previous PGA Tour Canada Q-school events this year, Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft earned some exempt status, while brother Beau Schoolcraft, fellow former University of Colorado golfer Jeremy Paul and former Colorado State University golfer Blake Cannon landed conditional spots.

The 2018 PGA Tour Canada season will begin on May 31.
 

The former University of Colorado golfer, who’s been a pro less than a year, played a dozen events on the Web.com Tour last year as a rookie. Then earlier this year, the German earned conditional status on PGA Tour Latinoamerica, where he finished ninth in the season opener last month. And on Friday, Paul landed conditional status on PGA Tour Canada.

Paul (pictured) finished tied for 16th place out of 132 players on Friday in the third of five PGA Tour Canada Q-school tournaments, this one in Litchfield Park, Ariz. He posted rounds of 73-68-75-70 for a 2-under-par 286 total. He birdied two of his last four holes in the final round.

The top 16 finishers — no ties — earned at least some exempt status for 2018, while those in the 17th through 40th positions received conditional status. So only one of the seven golfers knotted at 286 — Jere Pelletier — gained an exempt spot for at least the first four events of the season.

Paul, who owns the best career scoring average in CU golf history (71.7), posted his first professional victory in January, winning the Pro Golf Tour’s Red Sea Ain Sokhna Classic in Egypt. The Pro Golf Tour is a satellite circuit that feeds the European Challenge Tour.

In previous PGA Tour Canada Q-school events this year, Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft earned some exempt status, while brother Beau Schoolcraft and former Colorado State University golfer Blake Cannon landed conditional spots.

The 2018 PGA Tour Canada season will begin on May 31.

Here are the scores for all the local players who competed this week in Litchfield Park:

16. Former CU golfer Jeremy Paul 73-68-75-70–286
FAILED TO QUALIFY
75. Former CU golfer Bob Kalinowski 74-77-72-73–296
117. Former CU golfer Drew Trujillo 82-78-76-74–310
 

The showing will make Schoolcraft exempt through at least the first four tournaments of the 2018 season.

Schoolcraft (pictured) was a regular on PGA Tour Canada in 2016 and posted three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up, and ended up ninth on the money list. Last year, he competed in one PGA Tour event and three on the Web.com Tour.

The medalist on Friday — Sam Fidone — will be exempt through the entire 2018 PGA Tour Canada season, while the second through fifth finishers will be exempt for at least the first eight events.

Schoolcraft carded rounds of 69-73-72-70 for a 4-under-par 284 total. That left him eight strokes behind Fidone. The Coloradan made five birdies, a bogey and a double bogey on Friday.

Meanwhile, Schoolcraft’s brother, Beau, and former Colorado State University golfer Blake Cannon earned conditional status for 2018 by finishing in the 17-40 range. In their case, they tied for 27th place at 2-over-par 290.

This week marked the first of five PGA Tour Canada Q-school tournaments that will be held leading up to the 2018 season.

Here are the scores for all the players with strong Colorado ties who competed this week in Santee:

7. Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft 69-73-72-70–284
27. Coloradan Beau Schoolcraft 74-72-72-72–290
27. Former CSU golfer Blake Cannon 70-75-72-73–290
FAILED TO QUALIFY
84. Coloradan Jimmy Makloski 78-72-75-76–301
91. Former CU golfer Kevin Kring 72-76-79-79–306

Edens Runner-Up Twice on Dreamchasers Tour: Parker Edens of Greeley recorded his second top-five finish this month on the Dreamchasers Tour with a runner-up showing on Friday in the Moon Valley Championship in Phoenix.
   
The former Colorado State University golfer posted scores of 65-68-70 for a 13-under-par 203 total at Moon Valley Country Club. That left him three strokes behind champion Joel Dahmen of Scottsdale, with whom Edens was tied for the lead going into the final round of the 52-man tournament.

Edens, a two-time CGA Match Play runner-up, placed fifth in the Dreamchasers East Valley Championship on March 1.

(March 22 Update: Edens also finished second at a Dreamchasers tournament that ended on March 22. At the Southeast Valley Championship in Chandler, Ariz., the Coloradan was runner-up out of 17 players, earning $1,900. He went 67-71-67 for an 8-under-par 205 total, which put him two strokes behind winner Zach Wright of Queen Creek, Ariz.) 

Morris (pictured) posted a stellar final round in a Q-school event in Sebring, Fla. — making seven birdies en route to a 6-under-par 66 on Friday — and secured conditional status for the PGA Tour Canada season, which begins June 1.

Morris moved up 27 spots in the final round to tie for 14th in the 120-man field. His rounds of 69-70-75-66 resulted in an 8-under-par 280 total, which left him seven strokes behind medalist Robby Shelton.

Morris had a chance to be exempt for the first four events of the season, but fell short in a 6-for-3 playoff for the 14th through 16th positions at Q-school.

Earlier this year, former University of Denver golfer Chris Gilman, amateur Wyndham Clark of Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock native Jamie Marshall landed exempt status through Q-school. And Nathaniel Goddard of Fort Collins and former Coloradan Alex Gutesha earned conditional status.

Two more PGA Tour Canada Q-school tournaments will be held in the next month.