The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

The last golf season wound down a couple of weeks ago and a new one is starting this week. Here's where the Kent alum stand as best as I can tell.

Corey Conners finished 22nd in the Fed Ex cup and had the best year of his career. In 29 tournaments, Conners made the 25 times with 19 top 25 and 8 top 10 finishes. That is consistently excellent golf that only lacked a win (his best finish was 3rd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational). At 29, he is entering his peak years and could become an elite golfer, so it will be very interesting to watch as he enters his 5th PGA tour season.

Mackenzie Hughes finished 67th in the Fed Ex cup and had a very solid year. In 28 tournaments, he made the cut 19 times with 7 Top 25 and 4 Top 10 finishes, with his best finish being third at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Hughes has been consistently good for the last few years but falls beneath Conners as a good, but not great PGA player. Like Conners, he is entering his peak years and it will interesting to see if he can raise his game further as he enters his 6th PGA tour season.

Taylor Pendrith spent the year waiting to join the PGA tour. Because of the COVID, no golfer from the Korn Ferry Tour were promoted to the PGA Tour after the 2020 season, so Pendrith had to wait through the 2021 year even though he had earned enough points to finish in the Top 25 of the Korn Ferry Tour even if he didn't play a tournament. For 2021, he made 16 of 17 cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour with 10 Top 25 finishes and 2 top 2 finishes. He also had 6 PGA tournament starts (based on his 2020 record), making one of two cuts at the US Open (essentially played twice in the 2021 season) and making the cut at all four alternative PGA tournaments with a best finish as T11 at the Barbosal Championship. He is now a PGA Tour rookie and given how well he has played in the last three years, I think there is a good chance he will stick.

Chase Johnson played the season on the Korn Ferry tour and finished 105th in the standings, which means he will have to re-earn his card through Q school. I think the experience was positive for Chase as he got to play at a high level and even though he only made 9 cuts in 32 tournaments, he showed signs of improvement making 5 straight cuts at one point last summer.

Ian Holt played the Forme tour, which is a COVID substitution for the Mackenzie Tour. He played well, making 6 of 8 cuts and finishing in the Top 5 twice, ending up 15th in points. Now, the problem is that you need to finish in the Top 5 in points to get into the Korn Ferry Tour, so Holt will have to go to Q school for the chance.

Finally, Kyle Kmiecik made the Latinoamerica Tour, but then COVID happened and he only played one tournament in 2020. I have no idea what his plans are.

And, for grins and giggles, here is a reminder of Kent's loss to Alabama in match play to finish tie for 5th in the 2012 season.

Kevin Miller (Kent) lost to Justin Thomas 6 & 5.
Kmiecik lost to Cory Whitsett 5 & 4
Connors beat Bobby Wyatt 4 & 2.
Pendrith lost to Scott Strohmeyer 2 & 1.
Hughes squared with Hunter Hamrick

Of course, Thomas is one of the best players in the world (with 13 PGA tour wins), but none of the other 4 have had significant pro careers (Bobby Wyatt played one year on the PGA tour). Kent now has 3 of this team on the PGA tour. Amazing.

Thanks for these great and in-depth updates.

Good time for an update as we are five tournaments into the 2021-22 PGA season and there is good news.

Mackenzie Hughes (DNP - T35 - DNP - T25 - T4 in the five PGA tournaments this year). Typical Hughes of solid and unspectacular golf until the ZOZO Championship where he had been playing good all weekend and seemed to be heading towards a Top 15 finish. When I fell asleep last night, Hughes was tied for 12th with two holes to play. He birdied both and moved all the way up to a T4. He was never in contention finishing 9 strokes behind the winner, but it was still a great weekend for a long trip to Japan.

Corey Conners (DNP - T17 - T40 - DNP - DNP) - Conners was in contention at the Sanderson Farms Championship, even taking the lead on the final day briefly, but went two over on the final 15 holes and fell all the way back to T17. At the Shriners, he was screwed up by going triple bogey on the 16th in the third round when he found the water twice (hey, I can do that) and fell out of contention there. I think he has the best chance of a Kent golfer of securing a win this year.

Taylor Pendrith (T36 - T39 - T47 - DNP - DNP) - Three for three in making the cuts, but no high finishes. As a PGA rookie, I always think the key is to make cuts and get a couple of Top 10 finishes while you are learning to play the best golfers in the world. Pendrith is off to a good start on that.

Other news: Chase Johnson did not advance out of the 1st round of Q School. He will have to chase a place on a minor tour this year (Mackenzie or LatinoAmerica Tour) if he continues his pro career. I have not found Ian Holt in Q School (they don’t make it easy to find individual players) and I have not seen any other Kent golfers, so if someone knows more, please chime in.

After the second round, Taylor Pendrith has a one shot lead at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. This is a PGA tournament (not Korn Ferry). Go Taylor.

#GoFlashes

Shot a 10-under 61 today, 6-under 30 on the back 9.

Another great day for Pendrith (5 under) and he'll go into the final round three strokes in the lead. Shades of Mackenzie Hughes winning his first PGA tournament a few months after joining the tour, maybe, fingers crossed.

They are playing through a windstorm. Pendrith has struggled and fallen to T2nd, one stroke behind the leader with 2 holes left. It's a complete mess out there. Pendrith could make up ground on the 17th (he's gone eagle-eagle-birdie on it), but the weather is something. Lots of bogeys now. We'll see.

And he double bogeyed 17, which I can only assume has to do with water. Pendrith finished tied for fifth, a disappointing day, but a big step in proving he belongs on the PGA Tour as a Top 10 finish will give him a nice chunk of FedEx Points to keep his card.

Hooked his drive into the water, had to to take another penalty stroke later, so doubled a hole he had gone eagle, eagle, birdie on the first three rounds. Can you say "learning experience"? Every tour pro goes through this kind of 4th round blow up. But Taylor has a huge game and will be in the hunt a lot in the future.

(11-01-2021 09:33 AM)axeme Wrote:  Hooked his drive into the water, had to to take another penalty stroke later, so doubled a hole he had gone eagle, eagle, birdie on the first three rounds. Can you say "learning experience"? Every tour pro goes through this kind of 4th round blow up. But Taylor has a huge game and will be in the hunt a lot in the future.

The weather was absolutely brutal by the end as well. It wasn't just Pendrith as all the leaders were giving up strokes by the end. You're right though, he'll learn from it and his play this fall has been very encouraging for Tour success.

Mac Hughes is two shots off the lead at the RSM Classic in Georgia. Corey Conners is four shots off the lead. Taylor Pendrith is eight shots off the lead. All made the cut. Oh Canada!

#GoFlashes

Well, if you are by a TV this afternoon, the RSM Classic might get interesting as Mackenzie Hughes is tied for 2nd, four strokes off a leader. Since there is only one golfer in front of him, a bad back 9 for that golfer might let Hughes slip into contention.

Mackenzie played fine golf today, going 8 under, but Talor Gooch did not fold at all, finishing the day 6 under, winning his first tournament by 3 strokes. Hughes gets a solo 2nd and get a fat payday and a boatload of FedEx Points, so good weekend.

Connors finished tied for 22nd and Pendrith tied for 26th, so a really good Kent golf weekend.