C.T. Pan nabs berth for The Open Championship with John Deere Classic runner-up
C.T. Pan’s awesome 32-yard pitch-in eagle for the Shot of the Day
Joins winner Davis Thompson in qualifying for Royal Troon via Open Qualifying Series
Change
C.T. Pan annually hosts an AJGA event in Houston for a dozen or so young golfers from Chinese Taipei. The event will be missing its host in two weeks, as Pan will be otherwise occupied in Troon, Scotland.
On the strength of two birdies in his final three holes Sunday at the John Deere Classic, Pan, 32, shared second place at TPC Deere Run with two players a decade younger. Based on an Official World Golf Ranking tiebreaker, Pan earned the second of two Open Championship exemptions available to the highest John Deere Classic finishers not otherwise qualified, after Davis Thompson ran away with the first exemption and the tournament. (Thompson finished 28 under, four strokes clear of the runner-up trio.)
“It’s going to be a great trip,” Pan said. “Honestly going to be hectic to arrange all the travel details at the last minute, but it will be a good problem to have.”
As for those young golfers from his native homeland, “I might have to say, ‘You guys are on your own. I’m going to The Open.’”
C.T. Pan holes out for eagle from 98 feet at John Deere
Pan entered the week at No. 114 on the OWGR, well above the positions of co-runners-up , who earned TOUR membership by winning the PGA TOUR University race in May, and .
Pan is a former phenom himself and the 2020 bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, but he came into Sunday chasing just his second PGA TOUR victory. Those hopes took a hit as third-round leader Thompson jetted out to a commanding lead, making birdie on six of his first nine holes to reach 27 under midway through the round, threatening Michael Kim’s tournament record score (27-under 257) which he eventually eclipsed.
At that point, the chase for the second Open exemption became a tournament within the tournament. After a three-birdie, lone-bogey front, Pan joined that fight with birdies on four of his first five holes of the backside, but a bogey on the 15th slowed his roll. He rebounded with a 17-foot birdie roll at the par-3 16th and a 5-footer for birdie on the par-5 17th.
C.T. Pan makes 17-footer for birdie at John Deere
Clanton and Thorbjornsen both made steely birdies on the 18th, but because the two youngsters each have had precious few chances to earn world ranking points, Pan needed only a par on the 18th to book passage to Scotland. He got it.
“The Open is always in the top of my list,” said the 2019 RBC Heritage winner, who missed The Open Championship cut in previous starts in 2014, 2019 and 2021. “I feel it fits my game, but somehow in the past, I haven’t played well. Hopefully, this trip will be different.”
The two newly qualified players will join 18 other Open-bound players who started the week in the John Deere Classic field. Those included Jorge Campillo, Stewart Cink, Eric Cole, Jason Day, Lucas Glover, Ben Griffin, Ryo Hisatsune, Sungjae Im, Zach Johnson, Denny McCarthy, Maverick McNealy, Thorbjørn Olesen, J.T. Poston, Adam Schenk, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka, Brendon Todd and Sami Valimaki at Royal Troon in two weeks.
Of that group, only Day, Griffin, Johnson, McNealy, Pan, Poston and Schenk were not among the 34 players who boarded the John Deere Classic charter to next week’s Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday evening. The final three Open berths will be awarded at the conclusion of play at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.