The PGA Tour’s five newest members
Meet the five golfers, and the following with much thanks to the PGA Tour, who earned full status on the PGA Tour for 2024 at the close of Monday’s (December 18th) rain-delayed Final Qualifying at Ponte Vedra in Florida.
Harrison Endycott (Sydney, Australia)
Age: 27
Career PGA TOUR starts: 33
A Sydney, Australia born rookie on the PGA TOUR last year, Endycott narrowly missed out by 14 spots in securing a top 125 finish on the FedExCup to secure full status for 2024, though he retained conditional status.
That meant Endycott entered the week with less pressure than most. No matter what, the he was likely to play 15 events on the PGA TOUR. A top-five finish would just secure 15 more starts.
He’s now done better than that clinching the Q-School top spot thanks to a final round 67 to finish four in front at 15-under-par in Ponte Vedra, Florida.
“A sixth-place finish does nothing for me,” Endycott said Thursday, admitting he would be more aggressive than usual. That aggression resulted in a runaway victory. He made 16 birdies to just three bogeys.
Endycott now has a full schedule to acclimate in his second year on TOUR. His first was a learning year. He had battled inconsistency, missing 20 of 33 cuts. His best finish was solo 10th at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship. It was one of two top 15s he carded in the fall of 2022. He had just one in all of 2023.
“I got sick of feeling like crap all the time,” he said.
Endycott earned his first PGA TOUR card via the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season, with the highlight of his year being a victory at the Huntsville Championship in Alabama. Enydcott was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.
He spent his entire amateur career there until he turned professional in late 2017. He eventually worked his way to the Korn Ferry Tour via two seasons on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica (2018 and 2019)
Welcome back to the PGA Tour!
Age: 27
Career PGA TOUR starts: 3
Trace Crowe was second posting a closing 67 for an 11-under tally.
Crowe had been in the mix to earn his PGA TOUR card at Korn Ferry Tour Finals this past autumn but shot 76-74 on the weekend to finish outside the top 30.
The Auburn Alabama former college student thought he got too ahead of himself, letting emotions get the best of him. He vowed not to have a similar finish to Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.
“Let’s not miss out twice,” he said.
His final round at Dye’s Valley on Monday was indicative of that lesson learned. Crowe carded a bogey-free front nine and made four birdies on his back nine to finish 11-under, tied for second. He was one of four players to card four rounds in the 60s.
His rise was aided by that moment of good fortune, but is a credit to Crowe alone.
Age: 26
Career PGA TOUR starts: 0
From the mini tours to the PGA TOUR that’s Blaine Hale Jr story shooting a final round 71 to finish third at nine-under, and will be making his PGA Tour debut no doubt at next month’s Sony Open.
Hale began Q-School with no status, having only ever played one PGA TOUR-sanctioned event (2022 Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour). He entered this week 4120th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Now, Hale will tee it up weekly with the world’s best.
His story encapsulates the Q-School ethos, grinding from relative anonymity and seizing his moment when it arose this week.
Hale was a member of Oklahoma’s 2017 NCAA Championship team as a sophomore, winning his match in the finals against Norman Xiong, another incoming TOUR rookie. Hale graduated in 2019 and was part of a wave of young players that had a crucial year of play wiped out by COVID-19. He attempted to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour through Q-School multiple times but never earned any status. He performed well on the All Pro Tour this year with five top 10s in 10 events
“I put so much pressure on myself that second time I got to try Q-School that I just didn’t play very good that year,” Hale said. “It’s been kind of a weird start with COVID; kind of felt like I was behind everyone else.”
He’s behind no longer. He finished solo third at 9-under, perfectly timing up his first successful Q-School week.
Hayden Springer (USA)
Age: 26
Career PGA TOUR starts: 4
Hayden Springer already locked up a full season on the Korn Ferry Tour after finishing No. 1 on PGA TOUR Canada.
No need for that anymore. He’s going straight to the PGA Tour after sharing fourth place on Monday thanks to a closing 69 for an eight-under tally.
The Nashville native won two of his seven PGA TOUR Canada events this season and finished inside the top 10 in another two. It was Springer’s first two professional victories. He has primarily played mini tours and some PGA TOUR Latinoamerica events when he turned pro in 2019.
Springer attended and graduated from Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, Texas, a school named for the World Golf Hall of Fame member who lived two miles from the campus. He won the 2019 Big 12 Championship at Texas Christian University.
It’s been an emotional month for Springer. His young daughter Sage passed away last month at age three after battling Trisomy 18, a severe developmental disorder stemming from an extra chromosome. Sage wasn’t initially expected to make it out of the hospital after birth, but she persevered as a tough and happy little girl.
“She’s special,” Springer said. “She’s very special. She’s so special, and we’re going to miss her forever. There’s no way around that, but she was strong. She was a fighter. We always said she had strength in heart, and that will stay with us forever.”
Springer finished 8-under, tied for fourth, navigating three bogeys on his back nine to earn his card by one stroke. His drive found the water on the difficult par-4 17th, but he saved bogey and locked his card up with a par on 18.
Age: 27
Career PGA TOUR starts: 1
Mexican-born Raul Pereda got a taste of the PGA Tour this spring. He spent the rest of the year desperate to get back again.
Now, he has become the first active PGA Tour player of Mexican descent, and also posting a closing 69 to share fourth with Springer.
“I’ve always dreamed about putting Mexico back on the PGA Tour,” he said.
It was in Pereda’s national open that he made a name for himself. He shot an opening-round 65 at the Mexico Open at Vidanta in April to vault up the leaderboard in his first PGA TOUR start.
He struggled from there but proved plenty entertaining. He filled the scorecard over his final three rounds with 11 birdies, 13 bogeys, two eagles and two double bogeys. It proved to him that he belonged.
“That really put in perspective to me that I’m capable of playing in the biggest leagues out there, in big scenarios, and I did great,” he said.
It was an entertaining finish to Q-School for Pereda as well. He chipped in for birdie twice on the back nine to secure his TOUR card by one shot.
Pereda played four years collegiately at Jacksonville University before turning pro. He spent the last four seasons playing primarily on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, twice finishing 12th in the Totalplay Cup standings.
He locked up conditional Korn Ferry Tour status by making Final Stage but had no guaranteed starts on the tour before this week. Instead, he will play as a full-status member on the PGA TOUR.
