New tournament, new venue for Korn Ferry Tour event in Raleigh this year

The golf tournament has a new name and a different venue, but some familiar names will be competing and will have the same goal. That is, winning and never returning. Such is the nature of the Korn Ferry Tour, where golfers seek entry to the PGA Tour and want to stay there. Some, like Grayson Murray of Raleigh and Ben Kohles of Cary, have been to the big tour but have not been able to stick. But they’ll continue to try. The UNC Health Championship is set this week, a Korn Ferry Tour stop for years called the Rex Hospital Open and played at the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation. The event, presented by STITCH Golf, has been shifted to Raleigh Country Club — both clubs owned by Raleigh-based McConnell Golf — and will have a purse of $1 million, an increase of $250,000 from a year ago.

Should Kohles win, it would be his last Korn Ferry event of the year. Having won twice in 2023, a third victory would earn him instant promotion to the PGA Tour. With more than $450,000 in winnings this year and a tour-leading 1,278 points, Kohles is all but assured his PGA Tour card and playing privileges for 2024. But there’s nothing better than getting to the big tour sooner rather than later. Kohles, 33, had the fastest start in Korn Ferry history. After college golf at Virginia, he won his first two pro starts on the tour in 2012 and was on the PGA Tour in 2013. But those two early wins were his only victories until this year. He has floated between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour in the past decade, but then broke through again this year by winning the Chile Classic and Hometown Leaders Championship in April. “It’s funny, I really haven’t changed a whole lot,” Kohles, who played high school golf at Green Hope, said on a recent media call. “I feel like my mental game has gotten a little bit sharper. You know, you’ve got to keep putting yourself in that position and eventually you’re going to get close and hopefully be there with a chance to win. When I went into the playoff in Chile, I really brought back memories of the first tournament I won, going into a playoff. I relived those memories and it gave me a calming sense. A few weeks later, I was able to do it again, which was really special. “I feel like I’ve been able to stay within myself, and I’m doing a great job of not listening to all the noise and all the extra thoughts going on and been able to stay in the present, which is something all us golfers are striving to do. You’ve got to keep playing and hopefully great things will happen.”

The Raleigh Country Club layout was one of the last courses designed by Donald Ross, whose many golf creations include historic Pinehurst No. 2. Raleigh Country Club was founded in 1948, the year Ross passed away in Pinehurst at 75. Sam Saunders, a member of the Korn Ferry Tour, is eager to play the course. He noted his grandfather, Arnold Palmer, played the Raleigh course many years ago during his college days at Wake Forest. “For me personally, I’m a huge fan and any time we get an opportunity to play a course that has that type of history … it’s really unique,” Saunders said on the media call. “We don’t get to play a lot of old, traditional Donald Ross-styled courses where, for me, I feel like it’s the way the game was meant to be played.”

The Raleigh Country Club layout was renovated in 2020 by golf architect Kyle Franz. It will play to 7,394 yards and a par of 70 for the 72-hole tournament, which starts Thursday. Murray, 29, has played the course often and could contend this week. He won the AdventHealth Championship in Kansas City on the Korn Ferry Tour two weeks ago — his first PGA Tour-sanctioned victory in six years — while also playing seven PGA Tour events in 2023. The 2023 UNC Health Championship will help support UNC Children’s Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health programs.

BY CHIP ALEXANDER Published: MAY 31, 2023 7:00 AM

Read more at: News and Observer