BATON ROUGE – Fans of the national champion LSU Men’s Golf program will have yet another Tiger to cheer for on the PGA TOUR next season after Smylie Kaufman earned his tour card for the 2015-16 season with a top-25 finish on the final Web.com Tour Money List after this weekend’s regular-season finale at the WinCo Foods Portland Open.
Despite tying for 47th place in the Web.com Tour’s regular-season finale held at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Oregon, Kaufman cashed in on an outstanding rookie season as a professional by finishing at No. 6 on the final Web.com Tour Money List for the 2014-15 season with $248,088.33 in earnings.
Kaufman’s season was certainly highlighted by his first professional win at the United Leasing Championship Presented by PTI back in May where he took home a $108,000 check for his performance.
In all, LSU’s former PING All-Southeast Region performer cracked the Top 10 of the final leaderboard in four Web.com Tour events during the 2014-15 season while tying for fourth place in back-to-back tournaments at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by NACHER in March and the El Bosque Mexico Championship in April, as well as a runner-up finish at the Price Cutter Charity Championship just two weeks ago.
While already earning his PGA TOUR card for the 2015-16 season, Kaufman will also be competing in the four-event Web.com Tour finals being held over the next month to improve his status on tour next season.
Another former LSU Tiger joining Kaufman in the four-event Web.com Tour Finals will be former teammate and All-American Curtis Thompson, who took home his best finish on the 2014-15 season at the WinCo Foods Portland Open where he tied for fourth place on the final leaderboard with a final 72-hole score of 13-under par 271.
After opening the championship with his brilliant round of 9-under par 62, Thompson cracked the Top 5 of the leaderboard with rounds of 1-under 70, even-par 71 and 3-under 68 to tie for fourth place and finish seven shots off the pace set by tournament champion Dicky Pride. Pride captured a three-shot victory with a winning score of 20-under par 264 for the weekend.
Thompson’s performance catapulted himself 23 spots up the final Web.com Tour Money List of the regular season while finishing his first professional campaign in the No. 45 spot with $107,252.49 in earnings so far this year. That performance has earned him a spot in the 75-player Web.com Tour Finals that is set to kick off at the Hotel Fitness Championship being held Sept. 10-13 at Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
There will be 25 more PGA TOUR cards on offer during this year’s Web.com Tour Finals as the players finishing in spots 25-50 on the final money list will also earn status to compete on the PGA TOUR during the 2015-16 season. The finals also includes the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run in Davidson, North Carolina, from Sept. 17-20, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, from Sept. 24-27, and the Web.com Tour Championship being held at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, from Oct. 1-4.