Five SEC College Golfers Litter Top-5 of PGA Tour Event: SEC Daily, May 5, 2025
The SEC has long been a hub for producing talented collegiate golfers. There are too many to count right now on the PGA Tour who are finding success, but a few of them recently have stood out.
The most obvious of the bunch is multi-time major championship winner Scottie Scheffler, who is a former Texas Longhorn. Not so much this season, but last, Scheffler was on a generational tear of winning tournaments.
Despite a slow start to the 2025 season, Scheffler picked up his first win of the 2025 season this past weekend, winning THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson by an eight-shot margin. He shot 31-under-par over the four-day tournament, with South Africa's Erik van Rooyen in the runner-up spot at 23-under-par.
When you go down the list of finishers at THE CJ CUP, there is a common theme of SEC success throughout. In the top-five finishers alone, five of the 12 finishers, including Scheffler, formerly played in the SEC. Former Texas Longhorn Jordan Spieth was the next man up after Scheffler, finishing in the solo fourth-place position, followed by former LSU Tiger Sam Burns. Vanderbilt Commodore Will Gordon and Florida Gator Ricky Castillo finished in a tie for fifth place.
The fifth-place finishes for Gordon and Castillo were the best of the season so far for both of them. For Gordon, in 11 played tournaments, he'd only made four cuts. His highest finishing position before last weekend was a tie for seventh place in late January at the Farmers Insurance Open.
For Castillo, this was his first-career finish within the top 10. Before that, a tie for 12th-place at the Valspar Championship and a tie for 15th at the Farmers Insurance Open were the best finishes for the first-year tour player. Castillo is a young up-and-comer and this fifth-place finish could be a start to a very long and successful career.
Outside of those five, there was a select group of others who played SEC golf in their college days to see high finishes. Former Texas Longhorn Jhonattan Vegas finished in a tie for 13th place, becoming the third former Longhorn to see a high finish. Two former Texas A&M Aggies, Chandler Phillips and Cameron Champ, finished in a tie for 15th, along with Oklahoma graduate Max McGreevy.
SEC golfers are everywhere and many of the best in the world played there in college. That will continue to be the case as the conference pumps out some of the world's best young players, while having produced multiple legends at the same time.
Top-20 at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson
1. Scottie Scheffler, -31 (Texas)
2. Erik van Rooyen, -23
3. Sam Stevens, -20
4. Jordan Spieth, -19 (Texas)
T5. Sam Burns, -17 (LSU)
T5. Mark Hubbard, -17
T5. Takumi Kinaya, -17
T5. Will Gordon, -17 (Vanderbilt)
T5. Eric Cole, -17
T5. Kurt Kitayama, -17
T5. Adam Schenk, -17
T5. Ricky Castillo, -17 (Florida)
T13. Antoine Rozner, -16
T13. Jhonattan Vegas, -16 (Texas)
T15. Matt McCarty, -15
T15. Chris Gotterup, -15
T15. Max McGreevy, -15 (Oklahoma)
T15. Chandler Phillips, -15 (Texas A&M)
T15. Si Woo Kim, -15
T15. Cameron Champ, -15 (Texas A&M)
T15. Vince Whaley, -15
T15. Kevin Roy, -15
T15. Patrick Rodgers, -15
T15. Andrew Putnam, -15
Vanderbilt Commodores On SI
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Michael is a sophomore from Papillion, NE who is currently a student at the University of Missouri studying journalism. He covers the university’s football program at Missouri Tigers on SI and is the co-sports editor for The Maneater, the student publication for the university.