Las Vegas • During his phenomenal 2015 Web.com Tour season that included a victory in the Utah Championship in Lehi, Patton Kizzire earned $567,866.
He collected $355,733 for his first four rounds of golf as a PGA Tour member.
Everything is just a little bit nicer at this level, especially the size of the checks. Having missed the tour's season-opening event while being married, Kizzire closed the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with an 8-under-par 63 on Sunday, finishing in a six-way tie for second place and establishing himself as a rookie to watch in 2015-16.
And if the Web.com Tour needed any more validation Sunday, another recent graduate provided it. Smylie Kaufman, who tied for 18th in the Utah Championship, shot a 61 to win by one stroke in Las Vegas.
Yeah, those guys can play. Anyone who witnessed Kizzire's work at Thanksgiving Point or anywhere else the Web.com Tour stopped this past season already knew that. It was fun to watch Kizzire play with former BYU golfer Zac Blair in the first round Thursday, when the rookie missed an eagle putt on his last hole in the impending darkness, settling for a birdie that gave him a 65.
When I returned to TPC Summerlin on Sunday after a college football weekend in California, Kizzire was paired with West High graduate Tony Finau. Mark Whetzel, the Utah Championship's tournament director and a member of Finau's foundation board, was in the gallery, enjoying the Thanksgiving Point connection.
Finau eagled the par-5 No. 16 to tie for 16th, giving him 17 top-25 finishes in 33 starts over two seasons. He was frustrated with his putting after the first round and barely made the 36-hole cut, but produced a 66-68 weekend. Finau will play in this week's tournament in Malaysia, his last PGA Tour event of the calendar year. He's entered in the prestigious Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in mid-November on the Japan Tour, which draws a strong field and will give him a chance to improve his No. 82 World Golf Ranking.
The tradeoff is missing two PGA Tour stops, but that itinerary shows how Finau is thinking bigger now, determined to become an elite player.
Daniel Summerhays of Fruit Heights has exactly matched Finau's finishes the past two weeks, as they're tied for 21st in the FedEx Cup standings. Summerhays faded with a 72-69 finish after being tied for fifth place going into the weekend, but he likes the early results of working with his brother Boyd, who's also Finau's coach.
"He sees things differently than I do, and he's learned a lot [about] how to think the right way," Summerhays said. "Sometimes I fall into some perfectionism traps. …. We have a lot of similarities, but we're different enough to where I feel like it's a fresh perspective from what I have in my own mind sometimes."
Summerhays was disappointed to barely miss the 2014-15 Tour Championship, finishing 31st in the FedEx Cup standings, but that status gained him entry into his first World Golf Championships event. He'll play in the HSBC Champions tournament next week in China.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
Twitter: @tribkurt
Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune Patton Kizzire reacts after chipping onto the 18th green, in the Web.com Utah Championship golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club, in Lehi, Saturday, August 1, 2015.
Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune Patton Kizzire hits a fairway shot, in the Web.com Utah Championship golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club, in Lehi, Saturday, August 1, 2015.
Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Patton Kizzire celebrates after winning the Web.com Utah Championship golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club Sunday August 2, 2015.
Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Patton Kizzire celebrates after winning the Web.com Utah Championship golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club Sunday August 2, 2015.
Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune Patton Kizzire celebrates after winning the Web.com Utah Championship golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club Sunday August 2, 2015.
