Noah Moody already was impressed with his father’s performance in a national golf tournament for club pros.
Then he learned what it all meant as they were driving home from Oregon in June.
Chris Moody would be playing in the PGA Championship with some big-time golfers. Phil Mickelson? Rickie Fowler? Noah, who’s 11, kept naming famous players and, to his amazement, received confirmation that they all would be there.
Moody, a longtime, homegrown assistant pro at Riverside Country Club in Provo, became the third Utah club pro in two years to qualify for the PGA Championship. At age 42, he will join two of Utah’s PGA Tour members, Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays, teeing off Thursday in his first major tournament appearance at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, N.C.
Moody, a former Timpview High School and Utah State golfer, became one of 20 club pros to qualify, via his tie for ninth place in the PGA Professional Championship at Sunriver, Ore. Salt Lake City’s Tommy Sharp, who played in last year’s PGA Championship, was eliminated in a nine-way playoff for the last two spots.
Moody is enjoying a phenomenal season locally. He has won the Provo Open, the Black Diamond Open in Helper and the Utah Section PGA Assistants Championship at Jeremy Ranch. Golf “just feels easy right now, for whatever reason,” he said.
UTAHNS’ THURSDAY TEE TIMES (MDT) <br>5:30 a.m. • Tony Finau, with Adam Rinaud and Fabrizio Zanotti <br>5:55 a.m. • Daniel Summerhays, with Robert Streb and Chris Wood <br>12:35 p.m. • Chris Moody, with Luke List and Jamie Lovemark
He’s one of the best golfers among Utah PGA members. Moody has earned the section’s Player of the Year award, based on points, five times in this decade.
Even so, finally qualifying for the PGA Championship was difficult. In a field of 312 players in the PGA Professional Championship, Moody shot 74-73 in the first two rounds and agonized about missing the cut to 90 golfers (plus ties). He barely made it, then posted 69-72 to move comfortably inside the top 20.
Moody has caddied for former BYU golfer Dean Wilson, who’s retired from the PGA Tour, in U.S. Opens and World Golf Championship events, so he’s not feeling overwhelmed in the PGA Championship environment. It is rare for any club pro to make the 36-hole cut, as Utahn Steve Schneiter did in 2005, but Moody likes his chances on the traditional layout of Quail Hollow. The course, the usual host of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, is one of Summerhays’ favorites.
UTAHNS’ RANKINGS <br>How three Utahns rank in the Fed Ex Cup Standings, with two events remaining in the regular season. <br>Tony Finau • 26th <br>Zac Blair* • 120th <br>Daniel Summerhays • 124th <br>* — Not in PGA Championship field
That tournament will be staged next week, concluding the tour’s 2016-17 regular season. Summerhays needs a strong performance in this North Carolina swing to finish among the top 125 players in the FedEx Cup standings and retain full access to the tour’s 2017-18 schedule. Summerhays placed third in last year’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Country Club in New Jersey. He made the cut in both the Masters and the U.S. Open but faded on the weekend this year.
Finau’s only major appearance of 2017 came in the British Open, where he tied for 27th place. He’s well-positioned for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, with a good chance of finishing in the top 30 as of mid-September and earning invitations to all four majors in 2018.
Zac Blair, the other Utahn with tour membership, did not rank high enough in any qualifying categories to play in the PGA Championship, but he should be in the FedEx Cup’s top 125 going into next week.
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