Luke Clanton’s rise further evidence of PGA Tour’s best move in LIV conflict

Pro golf has been fractured for almost three years now, as the merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund crawls along. But while both sides have made missteps, one of the best tactical moves the PGA Tour has made once again shined this past weekend at the Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches, when top-ranked amateur Luke Clanton made the cut to secure his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated program.

The Florida State junior became the second player to earn his card through the Accelerated program, joining Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, who will join the Tour after this season.

The PGA Tour created the Accelerated program in November 2022 as part of a series of changes to the PGA Tour University program designed to give the best young amateurs a more direct path to the Tour and help keep them from joining LIV Golf (as No. 2-ranked amateur Eugenio Chacarra did).

Among those changes was a decision to give the No. 1 senior in the final PGA Tour University standings a Tour card, which Ludvig Aberg became the first to take advantage of in the spring of 2023. By giving top collegiate players a more direct path, the Tour was able to mostly stop LIV from stealing up-and-coming talent and keep it funneling up to the PGA Tour.

Aberg burst onto the scene almost immediately after earning his PGA Tour card. He became a member of the 2023 Ryder Cup team and is now the No. 4-ranked player in the world after winning the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines a few weeks ago. He’s a budding star with a golf swing that looks like it was created in a lab and an engaging personality that will make him one of the next faces of golf.

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Clanton might be too. He earned 14 of his 20 PGA Tour University Accelerated points on the PGA Tour, which included five top-15 finishes in 11 PGA Tour starts and two runner-up finishes. Clanton hasn’t just been making cuts on the PGA Tour — he’s been contending.

Like Aberg, Clanton has everything the PGA Tour needs in its next generation of stars, and there’s no reason to think he can’t keep it up. Heck, a spot on the 2025 Ryder Cup team isn’t out of the question.

There’s a world where Chacarra leaving for LIV was the start of an exodus of top amateurs to the breakaway circuit, leaving the PGA Tour in an even more dire situation. But while a few other talented young players went to LIV, the PGA Tour has remained the desired destination for the world-beating youngsters coming up the pipeline.

As a result, the PGA Tour has watched Aberg flourish. Now Clanton and Sargent will have a chance, and that alone proves the PGA Tour University and Accelerated pathways have been a massive success.

After his late charge to make the cut and earn his PGA Tour card at the WM Phoenix Open came up just short, Clanton said he knew his “time would come.” It arrived Friday on a course he knew well. When his final putt dropped, the emotions of a dream realized started pouring out. Clanton immediately went to his family off the 18th green to pray.

After he received his card, Clanton and his family went to Chipotle for dinner. Aberg did the same thing after he clinched his in 2023.

Future stars often follow a similar path to the top, and this one leads to the Tour, which remains the place where (most of) the world’s best tee it up.