KITCHENER, Ont.—Wil Bateman didn’t necessarily need to win the season-ending Fortinet Cup championship to secure the Fortinet Cup title and player of the year honors. He did just that, though, shooting a final round 1-under 69 Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club to defeat Jeffrey Kang by two strokes. In the process, Bateman won the Fortinet Cup, finishing with 1,654 points and passing Jake Knapp, who entered the week at the top of the standings. It was quite the double dip.
With the win, Bateman locked in his playing privileges on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour, making him eligible to play in all open tournaments on that Tour’s schedule. He is also the second Canadian, along with Mackenzie Hughes in 2013, to win PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year honors. He pocketed a $25,000 bonus from Fortinet for winning the inaugural Fortinet Cup, and next summer Bateman is invited to play in the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA TOUR. By finishing second, Knapp will be conditionally excused from next season’s Korn Ferry Tour. He finished tied for 34th in the closing tournament of the year.
After Bateman and Knapp, the third, fourth and fifth place finishers in the Fortinet Cup were Americans Noah Goodwin, Scott Stevens and Ryan Gerard respectively. The players received their membership cards in a ceremony after play ended Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club.
Bateman, a native of Edmonton, Alta., played his 59th career event on the PGA TOUR Canada with the appearance – his best this season by far. Prior to this year, Bateman had never recorded a top-three finish and only had one career top 10 finish.
Exempted at the start of the season due to his 21st place on the Forme Tour 2021 points list, Bateman was three shots off 54 holes in the season opener of the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist . A final round, 3 of 73, derailed his chances, but he put everyone on notice two weeks later when he competed to end the playoffs and record a hugely popular victory at his hometown ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton. He put an exclamation mark on his season with his resounding victory on Sunday, allowing him to join Noah Goodwin as the only two-time champion this season.
“I think setting myself solid goals and knowing that I can achieve them was important. Going into this week, I think I put more pressure on myself, more than the pressure I felt when I was away [on the course] just because I wanted to achieve some of my goals,” Bateman said. “I scored a few of those goals, so it was a lot of fun.
“I still have bigger goals and dreams that I want to accomplish,” Bateman continued, “but this is a really good start. Just knowing where I was four or five years ago, if anyone told me I would be here, I would say he was crazy.
“It was a fun season, and getting to the Fortinet Cup Championship, our final event of the year, with so many players with so much left to play, was amazing to watch,” said Scott, manager. Executive of PGA TOUR Canada. Prichard. “Wil proved from start to finish that he was our best player against formidable competition, and his performance under pressure this week to win the tournament and the Fortinet Cup was impressive. He will always have the Fortinet Cup on his coat for him. remembering how special the 2022 season has been. Congratulations to Wil on an outstanding achievement. Can’t wait to see what he can do next season on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Players who finished sixth through 10th in the Fortinet Cup standings are exempt from the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament Finals in Savannah, Georgia. This 72-hole tournament will take place from November 4 to 7. The five PGA TOUR Canada players exempted from the qualifying tournament, hoping to gain Korn Ferry Tour status via this route, are Thomas Walsh (#6), Jeffrey Kang (#7), Danny Walker (#8), Joe Highsmith (#9) and Ian Holt (#10).
The 2023 season of the Korn Ferry Tour, the 34th in its history, begins in mid-January, the full program has not yet been announced.
Beginning in 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour became The Path to the PGA TOUR by awarding all 50 membership cards to Korn Ferry Tour players for the following PGA TOUR season. Players can initially qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour through the Qualifying Tournament and by achieving a top-five finish at the Fortinet Cup on PGA TOUR Canada or a top-five performance at the Totalplay Cup. PGA TOUR Canada sent its first five players to the Korn Ferry Tour after its inaugural season in 2013. They were Mackenzie Hughes (Canada), Riley Wheeldon (Canada), Mark Hubbard (USA), Hugo Leon (Chile) and Wil Collins (USA). ). This is the eighth group of PGA TOUR Canada players to move to Korn Ferry after the Tour did not play tournaments in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.
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