Fort Collins/Steamboat resident Sam Saunders retiring from tour golf; Arnie’s grandson posted 1 runner-up on PGA Tour and 3 on Korn Ferry Tour
By Gary Baines – 8/18/2024
Sam Saunders gave a not-so-subtle hint of what might be on the horizon just a month ago after a very promising start at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant presented by Blue at TPC Colorado went awry with a 5-over-par 41 on the back nine.
“The year has gone terribly,” the resident of Fort Collins — and Steamboat Springs — said in a post-round interview with Colorado Golf Journal. “I feel great. I’m healthy. I’m hitting the ball well. I know how to do it, but my patience has worn thin I think. The game has changed a lot. Golf courses are getting easier and easier, the way they set them up. These guys are getting better and better as well. I know I’m still good enough to compete. We haven’t played many courses that suit the style of game that I like to play. I tend to do well when courses get really firm and fast and difficult, and the winning score is more around 10-12 under par and not 30 under par like it is week in and week out here.
“If professional golf is a putting contest, I’m not going to win it and my career is going to come to an end real quickly. And if that’s the way it goes, that’s the way it goes. I’ve been very fortunate — I’ve played my five years on the PGA Tour. I really enjoyed it. I made a lot of friends out here. But if it’s over after this year, then that’s what it is.”
And, as it turns out, apparently it is indeed over after this year for Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer.
This weekend, after rounds of 75-71 saw him miss the cut on the KFT’s Magnit Championship in New Jersey, Saunders posted on social media that he’s retiring from professional tour golf.
“I started this career over 15 years ago, and today was my last professional round,” Saunders wrote. “I didn’t want to post anything or make a big to-do of it, but I have too many people I want to thank, and acknowledge what a treat it has been.
“It was never easy for me, and I never reached my playing goals, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have made so many friends, and created relationships that will last forever. I am excited for the next chapter of my life, and I will always be involved in this great game of golf that has given me so much.
“Thank you to my wife, for always being my biggest supporter, cheering me through the good times, and helping me see the bigger picture of life through the really bad times! You and our boys give me the ultimate purpose in life. This may be the end of this chapter but I think the best is yet to come. … Thank you to everyone that has shown me so much kindness and support. I would not have made it this long without you. All the best … Sam” (signed)
The post came in the wake of the final event of the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular season. With the top 156 players on the season-long points list advancing to the first event of the KFT Finals, Saunders fell just short, at a projected No. 160 on the standings. And thus his exempt status has largely run out. He needed to finish the KFT Finals in the top 75 to keep fully-exempt status, or at least the top 100 to be conditionally exempt.
Saunders has played full time on the PGA Tour and/or the Korn Ferry Tour for the last dozen years or so, but this season was a rough one. The 37-year-old made just four cuts in 19 events and posted just one top-40 finish, a 14th at the UNC Health Championship in early June.
As of this weekend, Saunders had competed in 163 Korn Ferry Tour events to go along with 158 PGA Tour starts — most of which came in the period from 2014-19. The former Clemson golfer owns a runner-up and three top-5s on the PGA Tour and three second places on the Korn Ferry Tour.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com