I went to the Pinnacle Bank Championship on Thursday to watch the only two African American players in the field, Joseph Bramlett and Cameron Champ. These two brothers are excellent golfers but have had ups and downs in their careers.
Joseph, age 38, played collegiately at Stanford and turned pro in 2010. He has made $4.6M on the PGA Tour in 177 starts where he has recorded no wins and 25 top 25 finishes. He has also had 120 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour where he has recorded 1 win and 50 top 25 finishes. He has also made over $1M on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Cameron Champ, 31 years old played at Texas A & M and turned pro in 2017. He has had 176 starts on the PGA Tour resulting in 3 wins and 37 top 25 finishes and earning $9.3M. Like Joseph, Cameron also played on the Korn Ferry Tour where he has had 38 starts, 1 win and 14 top 25 finishes earning $375,000.
So, with both of them playing in Omaha this week I am pulling for both of them to have a good tournament meaning either winning or finishing in the top ten and accelerating their return to the PGA Tour. Years ago, a friend said something to me about this crazy game we love.
His words were “ Golf Don’t Care” meaning Golf has no feeling, no allegiances ,no love ,nothing, it just is. You either score well or you don’t. It doesn’t care if you are ailing mentally or physically. It only cares about the number of strokes you take to get that ball in the hole, the fewer the better.
On opening day of the tournament Joseph shot even par and Cameron shot 4 under. Good starts but they will have to go lower to stay in the hunt as the tournament leader , Robby Shelton shot a record tying 9 under 62.
“Golf Doesn’t Care” who puts the ball in the hole, I do.
