Luke Clanton is in the midst of the best stretch of golf of his life. On Sunday at the John Deere Classic, he has a chance to do something not done since the 1950s on the PGA Tour.
Clanton, a rising junior at Florida State, enters the final round at TPC Deere Run tied for sixth. If he were to finish inside the top 10, he would be the first amateur with top-10 finishes in back-to-back starts on the PGA Tour since Billy Joe Patton in the 1957 U.S. Open and 1958 Masters.
For Clanton, he would accomplish the achievement in consecutive weeks, having placed T-10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic last week at Detroit Golf Club.
“I can’t even really fathom what’s happening right now, honestly,” Clanton said Saturday after a third-round 67. “I’m still a 20 year old kid in college just having fun. Doing that stuff a unreal.”
Clanton made the cut at the U.S. Open and now has in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour. He’s up to eight points in PGA Tour University Accelerated, a program that awards Tour status for college golfers who earn 20 points for achievements in the professional and amateur game.
He gets a point for every made cut on Tour in addition to another point for top-10 finishes. Another top 10 on Sunday would give him nine points and etch his name in the record book.
Clanton is third in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and finished the college season as the highest-ranked player in the NCAA Golf rankings. He helped Florida State to a national runner-up finish.