For the second time this calendar year and third time this professional golf season, a PGA Tour event will include three or more current or former BYU golfers.
This week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the final regular-season event on the PGA Tour before the playoffs begin next week in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Wyndham Championship begins Thursday and will include current BYU golfer Kihei Akina and former Cougars Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn. Blair and Fishburn are current PGA Tour members, while Akina is getting in on a sponsor exemption.
“Definitely a big deal to have three Cougars playing (this) week,” said former BYU golf coach Bruce Brockbank, who coached all three in Provo.
It is even more impressive considering the Wyndham Championship’s stature and place on the calendar, noted Utah golf historian Kurt Kragthorpe.
Additionally, former Salt Lake City and Lehi resident Tony Finau is in the field.
Fishburn and Akina are paired together in the first two rounds, along with Jeffrey Kang. They will tee off on No. 10 at 12:11 p.m. MDT Thursday. Finau tees off on No. 1 at 5:23 a.m. MT Thursday, while Blair goes off No. 10 at 6:18 a.m. MT.
The event, which offers an $8.5 million purse, represents the last chance to crack the top 70 and make the FedEx Cup Playoffs for members of the PGA Tour.
Finau is No. 89 on the FedEx Cup points list, while Blair is No. 117 and Fishburn is No. 145.
Fishburn and Blair, lifelong friends who attended the same high school in northern Utah (Fremont), tied for 50th at last week’s Rocket Classic in Detroit. Fishburn was tied for first through two rounds, but shot 74-72 over the weekend to tumble down the leaderboard.
Finau tied for 71st. The West High product has never missed the FedEx Cup Playoffs since earning his PGA Tour card in 2014.
Fishburn and Blair each earned $23,860 for their efforts, while Finau pocketed $20,200.
It will be the second PGA Tour event this year for BYU’s Akina, the No. 11-ranked amateur in the world. He finished tied for 16th at the Puerto Rico Open earlier this year, and won twice as a freshman this past college golf season.
Blair and Fishburn were also in the Puerto Rico Open in March, with Blair finishing T8 and Fishburn failing to make the cut.
Last fall, the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert Resort in Ivins featured four current or former Cougars, as 2024 BYU graduate Carson Lundell was also in the field in that new PGA Tour event in southern Utah with Blair, Fishburn and Akina.
In May of 2024, Blair, Fishburn and 2020 BYU graduate Peter Kuest played in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson tournament in McKinney, Texas. Kuest is a member of the Korn Ferry Tour but is currently “working through an injury,” he told the Deseret News via text message on Tuesday.
