One of the more intriguing storylines out of the new team format at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week was the pairing of brothers Brooks and Chase Koepka.
While Brooks is the 19th ranked golfer in the world and has a PGA Tour win on his resume, his brother Chase has no status of any kind in the United States, playing this year on the European Challenge Tour. Chase received a sponsors invite to play in the event this week with his brother, and the two made the most of Chase’s PGA Tour debut.
While they didn’t walk away with a victory, a Sunday 62 got them a T5 finish. As a result, Chase has earned a spot in this week’s Wells Fargo Championship where he can continue to try and earn enough FedEx Cup points to qualify for the season ending Web.com Tour finals. There he can either earn full playing privileges on either the Web.com or PGA Tour for 2018. In 2016, it took 112 FEC points to qualify to the Web.com Tour Finals. The T5 finish netted Chase 77 FEC points.
Chase, a standout golfer at USF, graduated last spring after becoming the program’s all-time wins leader. He immediately followed in his brother’s footsteps, heading over to Europe to try and earn his PGA Tour card. Unlike Brooks though, who rose through the ranks via the Official World Golf Ranking to get his Tour card, Chase might be using a different way to get back over to the States. An impressive finish at this week’s Wells Fargo, and we might be seeing a lot more of Chase Koepka.