The field is set for the PGA Tour Canada’s inaugural CRMC Championship presented by Gertens set to begin Thursday at Cragun’s Legacy Courses in Brainerd, Minn., marking the first time a PGA Tour Canada event has been played outside of Canada.
The championship is the ninth of 11 official events on the 2022 calendar, concluding with the Fortinet Cup Championship Sept. 15-18 in Kitchener, Ontario.
FAMILIAR FACES
Former University of Minnesota golfer and Lakeville, Minn., native Justin Doeden currently sits 39th in the Fortinet Cup standings. In seven events this season, Doeden has missed just two cuts, while notching a pair of top-15 finishes.
Doeden made his PGA Tour debut at the Puerto Rico Open in 2020. Earlier this season, Doeden made his Korn Ferry debut at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard.
Fellow Gopher alum Angus Flanagan earned an exemption into this week’s field and will make his second start on the PGA Tour Canada this season.
Flanagan, from Woking, England, made seven starts last season, making just one cut at the Birck Boilermaker Classic.
The 2020 Minnesota State Open champion made two starts on the Korn Ferry Tour earlier this season, most recently finishing tied for 71st last month at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS. Since leaving the Gophers, Flanagan has made three starts on the PGA Tour.
Another former Gopher, Alex Gaugert, earned a spot in the field this week, taking time away from his usual job caddying for the PGA Tour’s (and former Gopher teammate) Erik Van Rooyen.
After graduating in 2014, Gaugert, from Lake Geneva, Wis., played one season on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.
On Van Rooyen’s bag since the 2019 season, Gaugert has helped the South African to 12 top-10 finishes, including his first PGA Tour victory at the Barracuda Championship in 2021, in a total of 55 PGA Tour starts.
Van Holmgren claimed his first victory as a professional earlier this season at the Minnesota State Open at Bunker Hills to earn an exemption into this week’s championship.
Holmgren, a former Wayzata High School standout who went on to play collegiately at North Dakota State University before transferring to Florida Gulf Coast University, earned conditional status on the PGA Tour Canada after finishing tied for 15th in February in Florida.
Prior to missing the cut at last week’s CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open, Holmgren carded his best finish of the season, placing seventh at the Quebec Open.
Andrew Israelson will make his second start on the PGA Tour Canada this week, missing the cut previously at the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist in early June.
He finished tied for 20th in Washington in late April at PGA Tour Canada Q-School to earn conditional status for the 2022 season.
Israelson earned eight state victories in Minnesota as an amateur, including the 2019 Minnesota Golf Association Players’ Championship, before attending North Dakota State University to play college golf.
University of St. Thomas assistant golf coach Alex Kline makes his PGA Tour Canada debut this week. Kline has three wins in the Minnesota Section of the PGA over the last two seasons.
Kline, 26, who graduated from Elk River High School, played collegiate golf at South Dakota State University before transferring to Grand Canyon University.
Thomas Lehman, who played his collegiate golf at California Polytechnic State University, is currently playing his third season on the Dakotas Tour prior to receiving an exemption into this week’s championship.
Former Gopher Thomas Longbella leads all golfers with Minnesota ties on the PGA Tour Canada this season, currently sitting 19th in the Fortinet Cup standings. Longbella, 24, originally from Chippewa Falls, Wis., enters the week with a pair of top-10 finishes on the season, including his seventh-place finish at the Quebec Open last month.
OTHERS TO WATCH
Wil Bateman currently leads the Race for the Fortinet Cup, holding an 11-point lead over last week’s leader Danny Walker.
Bateman, 28, who hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, overtook the points race with his fourth top-20 of the season last week at the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open.
In seven events this season, Bateman has a pair of top-10’s with the first win of his PGA Tour Canada career in June at the ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton.
Walker, a 26-year-old Florida native, enters the week with three top-10 finishes on the season, but has a pair of missed cuts at each of his last two.
He fired a career-low round of 62 during the second round of the Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates last month on his way to his first PGA Tour Canada event.
Shortly after leading the University of Texas golf team to the 2022 NCAA Division I team title, Parker Coody earned his PGA Tour Canada status by finishing 13th in the final PGA Tour University rankings.
After a strong showing during his debut, where his finished tied for 15th, Coody has since finished outside of the top-50 and missed three consecutive cuts.
The 22-year-old Coody bounced back last week by claiming his first professional win, firing 27-under 261 to claim the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open Sunday by seven strokes.
Noah Goodwin is a name Minnesotans may remember, representing the United States in the 2016 Junior Ryder Cup played at Interlachen Country Club.
A 2022 graduate of Southern Methodist University, Goodwin has had an up-and-down start to his professional career this season.
He missed the cut at three of his first four events before winning the Sotheby’s International Realty Canada Ontario Open in late July. Goodwin currently sits eighth in the Fortinet Cup standings.
Tyler Strafaci claimed the 2020 North and South Amateur at Pinehurst and complimented it by winning the U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes the following month. Prior to turning professional in 2021, Strafaci was a member of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team.
The 24-year-old Georgia Tech alum has made the cut three times during his rookie season on the PGA Tour Canada. His best finish of the season came at the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open Sunday, where he placed tied for 14th.
THE COURSE
Minnesota golf icon and PGA Tour veteran Tom Lehman is overseeing a $10 million renovation at Cragun’s Legacy Courses, which began in the spring of 2021. When the project is complete, scheduled for next spring, Cragun’s will boast 54 holes of play.
The inaugural CRMC Championship gets underway Thursday when the first round begins at 7:30 a.m. at Cragun’s Resort.
For more information go to: https://crmcchampionship.com/
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