“Mama, there goes that man,” one of T.J. Vogel’s opponents wrote on Twitter Monday afternoon. “Only three spots available when T.J. is in the field.” The tweet was accompanied by a scoreboard picture showing the lowest score of the day, a six-under 65, with Vogel’s name beside it.
This is nothing new to golf’s greatest Monday qualifier, but that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous. This Thursday, Vogel will tee it up at the Greenbrier, the seventh time he has worked his way into a Tour start since the beginning of the season. Line ’em up and you can see just how good these starts are:
64 to qualify for the RSM Classic
64 to qualify for the Honda Classic
63 to qualify for the Valspar Championship
65 to qualify for the Wells Fargo Championship
66 to qualify for the AT&T Byron Nelson
66 to qualify for the FedEx St. Jude Classic
65 to qualify for A Military Salute at Greenbrier
]It’s difficult to give this proper context, but consider this: in 2017 no player Mondayed into more than three events, and Vogel has notched seven this season and still has events remaining. He has performed as a mere mortal Thursdays and on, however: he has just one top-40 finish, a T16 at Valspar, and has missed the cut in all three Web.com tour starts this season.
In addition to adding to the $110,021 he has made on Tour this year, Vogel is teeing it up at the Greenbrier hoping to gain something much more fleeting: Tour status. As a non-PGA Tour member, Vogel could earn his card for the 2019 season by earning enough FedEx Cup points to finish the equivalent of 125th by year’s end. Finishing in the top 200 would guarantee him a trip back to Q-school finals (where he came up short in 2017). Vogel has earned 51 FedEx Cup points in his three made cuts, but he’ll need more: in 2017, finishing 125th required 365 FedEx Cup points, while 82 points was good enough for top 200.
The 27-year-old will have plenty of fans hoping he can harness that Monday magic through the weekend in West Virginia.
