It is a case of man bites dog.
Last week, Vanderbilt University standout Gordon Sargent, who is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, announced that he will return to the Commodores for his senior year. This despite already having earned a PGA Tour card that would have enabled him to begin playing in June after the NCAA Championship, fully exempt for 18 months.
“It’s been an honor to represent this university alongside my teammates and coaches, and I look forward to continuing to compete – and further my education – at this amazing place that has given so much to me,” Sargent said in a news release issued by the school in Nashville, Tennessee. “I would like to thank everyone who has supported me on this journey, and I’m excited for this final chapter at Vanderbilt.”
As a rule, this just doesn’t happen. Few college kids with his ability and pedigree hang around for their senior year … perhaps even their junior year.
The formula generally is this: a phenom comes on quickly as a college player. After a few wins, perhaps a Walker Cup appearance, maybe a U.S. Open cut made or a deep run in the U.S. Amateur, boredom begins to seep in. What’s the big deal about another college win?
Plus, management companies are whispering in his ear, and occasionally, parents are looking for a return on their years of investment in an expected professional career. The lure of lucre becomes too strong, and the underclassman turns pro. Sometimes it works … just ask Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, or Justin Thomas.
Often, it does not.
The extra-long-hitting Sargent won the 2022 NCAA individual championship as a freshman and went 4-0 at the Walker Cup last year at St. Andrews. He also earned the low-amateur honor at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
“How refreshing,” said Mike McCoy, Sargent's Walker Cup captain at St. Andrews last year. “He is smart enough and confident enough to know that the PGA Tour will always be there.”
Oklahoma State coach Alan Bratton also applauded Sargent’s decision.
“It shows great self-belief. He understands that if he is good enough, he will do well on tour,” Bratton said, adding that tour prospects “cannot over prepare.”
But Sargent’s situation is different from that of many others.
Most importantly, the tour exemption via PGA Tour University Accelerated still will be good in June of 2025 and runs through all of 2026. That’s a pretty good runway to figure things out as a tour professional. More on that below.
Secondly, Sargent has lucrative name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with Titleist and Nike. One industry executive who is close to the situation estimates that the value of those two NIL deals is somewhere between $750,000 and $1 million. Pretty good spending money for a college student. Also, ample funds to save and launch a professional career.
These kinds of deals did not exist when Fowler, Spieth and Thomas were in school. Who knows how it might have affected their decision-making back then.
Then there is Vanderbilt University. As talented as Sargent is, success on the PGA Tour is never guaranteed. Just ask some of the can’t-miss players who preceded Sargent and are reinstated amateurs. Having a Vandy degree in the back pocket as an insurance policy is a good idea.
And then there is the makeup of the young man. Education is important to Sargent, a 20-year-old economics major from Birmingham, Alabama, and his family. This is not uncommon among Vanderbilt players, as well as at places such as Stanford and Northwestern, where the phrase “student-athlete” means something extraordinary.
So, too, is playing for a team and a school. Sargent clearly revels in the spirit of college golf, enjoying the camaraderie and the hunt for a team national title, which ramps up this weekend in the Southeastern Conference Championship at Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Sargent’s situation is different than the one that faced Nick Dunlap, the standout Alabama player who won the PGA Tour’s American Express event in January. That is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Sargent is guaranteed starts, and nothing else. Dunlap, by virtue of his win, is guaranteed real money; he is exempt into the small-field, big-money signature events, many of which have no cuts.
The announcement is a big win for the PGA Tour University program, which provides a pathway onto the PGA Tour and its developmental tours. One of the program’s goals was to keep American players in school, to mature emotionally and to become better prepared to compete on the PGA Tour. PGA Tour U was not designed to keep college kids from being recruited by LIV Golf, as the Saudi-financed tour did not exist when the program was launched in 2020.
But in the LIV era, after a few prominent college players could not resist the clarion call of huge dollars, PGA Tour University has shown that it is a powerful incentive for the top players to remain in school, get a degree, and come out on tour ready to compete.
Consider what we all saw two weeks ago at the Masters. For a while, it looked as if Ludvig Åberg, a tour rookie, might win in his first major-championship appearance. Åberg, from Sweden, spent four years at Texas Tech. He is the first player in tour history to earn PGA Tour membership directly from college via PGA Tour University.
One has to wonder how much the decision by Sargent was influenced by what he saw transpire at Augusta National just days before his announcement.
Here’s hoping that the moves by Åberg and Sargent inspire other collegiate standouts to at least consider staying in school and getting a degree. Doing so can pay off in the short and long term.
E-MAIL JIM
Top: Gordon Sargent lines up several reasons to remain in college and not turn pro.
chris keane, usga