Chitimacha Louisiana Open starts Thursday

Published 5:30 am Wednesday, March 16, 2022

BROUSSARD — The Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS is scheduled to start Thursday at Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club with 144 players vying for the title.

Here are pre-tournament notes

Things to Know

• Following a three-week break, the Korn Ferry Tour resumes play with the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS, the sixth tournament of its 26-event 2022 schedule

• This year marks the 30th playing of the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS, with Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club hosting every iteration of the event

• First played in 1992, this event is tied with the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX for the fifth-longest running event on the Korn Ferry Tour, and Le Triomphe is the third-longest running host of a Tour event

• The only events which have a longer tenure on the Korn Ferry Tour are four events from the original 1990 schedule: Albertsons Boise Open, Price Cutter Charity Championship, Visit Knoxville Open, Wichita Open

• Players with local ties for the event include sponsor exemptions Nathan Jeansonne (native of Keithville, Louisiana, and a Baton Rouge resident), Brandon Pierce (hails from Covington, Louisiana), and open qualifiers Boyd Owens and Luke Haskew (Baton Rouge high schoolers)

• Jeansonne and Pierce both played collegiately at Louisiana State University, with Pierce helping the Tigers win team titles at the 2015 NCAA Division I Championships and 2015 Southeastern Conference Championships; the other LSU alums in the field are Costa Rica’s Luis Gagne and England’s Ben Taylor

• Pierce went 2-0-1 in match play as LSU won the 2015 national title, defeating Korn Ferry Tour member Theo Humphrey (Vanderbilt) in the quarterfinals, halving a match against PGA TOUR winner and Korn Ferry Tour alum Sepp Straka (Georgia) in the semifinals, and defeating Korn Ferry Tour member Rico Hoey (Southern California) in the championship

• Taylor went 3-0 in match play en route to LSU’s 2015 national title, defeating PGA TOUR rookie Matthias Schwab (Vanderbilt) in the quarterfinals, Georgia’s Zach Healy in the semifinals, and Southern California’s Bobby Gojuangco in the championship

• Reigning champion Roberto Díaz is attempting to become the first player in the Tour’s history (established in 1990) to successfully defend his title

• Díaz’s victory last year was the first PGA TOUR-sanctioned win of his career, and it came in his 194th TOUR-sanctioned start and 113th Korn Ferry Tour start

• Fabián Gómez (2010) and Julián Etulain (2018) are the only other past champions returning to the event

• Jimmy Walker is the most accomplished past champion of the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS, as he is a six-time PGA TOUR winner, including the 2016 PGA Championship, one of 25 major championships won by Korn Ferry Tour alumni

• Six of the top 13 players from last year’s final leaderboard earned PGA TOUR cards at season’s end, including season-long points list winner Stephan Jaeger (solo fourth); the other five who earned TOUR cards were: Peter Uihlein (solo second), Scott Gutschewski (T6), Chad Ramey (T8), Adam Svensson (T8), Max McGreevy (T12)

Field Notes (as of 3/15/22)

• Field is headlined by 46 of the top 50 players, including 24 of the top 25, on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List currently led by Brandon Matthews

• Field includes 48 past Korn Ferry Tour winners with 65 total wins, led by Daniel Chopra and Heath Slocum with three wins apiece

• Field includes nine past PGA TOUR winners with 19 total victories, led by Aaron Baddeley and Heath Slocum with four wins apiece

• All five champions from this season’s events – Akshay Bhatia, Brandon Harkins, Carson Young, Brandon Matthews, Byeong Hun An – are in the field

• Three conditional members gained entry into the field via top-10s at the last Tour event, the LECOM Suncoast Classic: MJ Daffue (T2), Jay Card III (T6), Albin Choi (T6)

• Daffue and Card gained entry into the LECOM Suncoast Classic with top-10s (both T9) at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard the week prior

• Choi played the LECOM Suncoast Classic via Korn Ferry’s sponsor exemption; his T6 last week marked the third-highest finish of his career, behind T5s from the 2017 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX and 2016 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

• Seonghyeon Kim, a 23-year-old native of South Korea, is the only player in the top 200 of the Official World Golf Ranking in the field this week (No. 178); his T2 at the LECOM Suncoast Classic took him to eighth on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List

• Baton Rouge high schoolers Boyd Owens and Luke Haskew highlight the eight players who gained entry into the field via open qualifying

• Owens, an 18-year-old senior at Episcopal School of Baton Rouge who will play collegiately at Wake Forest, was medalist at the Oakwing Golf Club site with a 9-under 63

• Haskew, an 18-year-old senior at Louisiana State University Laboratory School who will play collegiately at LSU, survived a 7-for-3 playoff at the Links on the Bayou site; he also won the 2021 Louisiana State Amateur

The chase for PGA Tour Cards

• Following the conclusion of the 23-event regular season at the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna (August 11-14), 25 PGA TOUR cards will be awarded to the top 25 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List, making those players “The 25”

• Another 25 PGA TOUR cards will be awarded through the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals at the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (September 1-4) • Leading points earners of The 25 and Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points Lists receive fully exempt status for the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season and an exemption into the 2023 THE PLAYERS Championship, while The 25’s leading points earner (regular season and Finals combined) receives the added bonus of an exemption into the 2023 U.S. Open Championship

• With 18 events remaining in the regular season, the Korn Ferry Tour is currently using 900 points as its fail-safe threshold for players to finish inside the top 25 of the Regular Season Points List and become #TOURBound (see above for the latest points list)

Course Information – Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club

• Years Hosted: 1992-Present (2020 canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic)

• Scoring Average (2021): 70.995 / -0.005

• Toughest Hole (2021): No. 14, Par 4, 513 yards – 4.298 / +0.298

o Ranked No. 34 among 50 toughest holes from the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour season

• Easiest Hole (2021): No. 1, Par 5, 556 yards – 4.469 / -0.531

Tournament Scoring Records

• Low 18-Hole Score: 60, Brenden Pappas (2007, Round 1)

• Low 36-Hole Score: 127, Wes Short Jr. (2003)

• Low 54-Hole Score: 194, Brett Wetterich (2003) and Casey Wittenberg (2017)

• Low 72-Hole Score: 260, Casey Wittenberg (2012)

• Largest Margin of Victory: 8, Casey Wittenberg (2012)

• Playoffs: 5, last in 2019 (Vince Covello defeated Justin Lower)

Alumni Spotlight

• Of the 13 Korn Ferry Tour Class of 2020-21 graduates who played last week’s THE PLAYERS Championship, Taylor Pendrith recorded the highest finish with a T13 in his PLAYERS debut

• Cameron Smith, champion of the 2022 PLAYERS Championship, finished 157th in the 2015-16 FedExCup Standings in his first full TOUR season and had to retain TOUR membership via the 2016 Korn Ferry Tour Finals; he finished solo second at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, returned to the TOUR for the 2016-17 season, won the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans and began a run of five consecutive FedExCup Playoffs appearances

• Ryan Brehm, a two-time Korn Ferry Tour graduate (2016, 2019), won the 2022 Puerto Rico Open on his one and only start of a PGA TOUR Minor Medical Extension, which stemmed from the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he withdrew after a positive COVID-19 test in advance of the event

• Brehm had fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour status for 2022 from his win at the 2019 LECOM Health Challenge and played four of the first five Korn Ferry Tour events this season

• Brehm is now exempt on the PGA TOUR through the 2023-24 season

• Scottie Scheffler, the cumulative winner of the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earned his second PGA TOUR victory of the season (and his career) at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard

Dates: March 17-20, 2022

Where: Broussard

Course: Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club (Par 71 – 6,961 yards)

Course Designer: Robert Trent Jones Jr. (1985)

Field: 144 players

Defending Champion: Roberto Díaz

Purse / Winner’s Share: $750,000 / $135,000 winner

Format: 72-hole stroke play