Trevor Cone wins AdventHealth Championship with closing birdie

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –Trevor Cone drained a 19-footer for birdie as outright leader Taylor Montgomery three-putted for bogey on the 72nd hole of the AdventHealth Championship, creating a two-shot swing for Cone to secure his second career Korn Ferry Tour victory. Cone also birdied the par-4 16th en route to a second consecutive 2-under 70, which took him to 16-under par for the week and earned him a one-stroke victory over Montgomery.

The birdie at the par-5 18th was the 23rd of the week for Cone, a figure which led the field. Cone also made an eagle earlier this week at the par-5 first, giving him a field-leading 24 total birdies for the week. Conversely, Montgomery, now a four-time runner-up finisher on the Korn Ferry Tour, made just four bogeys all week, the fewest in the field.

“The game’s been trending this way for a long time, I just couldn’t put it all together,” Cone said. “You start to doubt yourself a little bit after being three and a half years since the last win, and when you’ve only won once, some people may think it’s a fluke. Since then, I’ve been trying to prove to myself I can do it again, and it’s nice to get it done. I’m kind of at a loss for words.”

Cone played his first 15 holes Sunday at even par, making birdies at the par-4 second and ninth and bogeys at the par-4 third and par-3 14th. The 29-year-old native North Carolinian halved Montgomery’s two-stroke lead with a birdie at No. 16. A missed birdie opportunity at the par-4 17th actually provided the swing thought for Cone’s winning moment at No. 18.

“I hit it right through (No. 18) fairway all three days and I saw the tee was up when we were walking down No. 17, so I knew it was gettable in two if you hit a good tee shot,” Cone said. “I was a little disappointed with hitting it left, but I knew I could still lay up to a good number. Luckily, I drew a really good lie (in the rough). And once I saw Taylor hit the green, I was like, I’ve got to do something crazy. I tried to hit it right in the middle of the green. (It) flew a little farther than I thought.

“Luckily, (I) made the putt. I was just thinking about getting it there. I left the one on No. 17 short. It was fantastic to see that go in.”

Cone, a Virginia Tech alum, last won on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018, when he ran away with a four-stroke victory at the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae.

Across 73 starts following the win, Cone posted just one top-10 and seven top-25s. Cone also finished 135th and 125th on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List in 2019 and 2020-21, respectively. At the end of each season, Cone returned to the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament as he attempted to move up from the “Past Champions” category. Cone walked away empty handed both times.

At Final Stage in 2019, a final-round 5-under 66 left him two strokes outside the top 40 for guaranteed starts. After missed cuts in his first two starts in 2020 (the second and third events of the season), Cone posted a T9 at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard and climbed the priority ranking via the first reshuffle, which set him up to play the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

Last fall, however, Cone finished below the cut line at Second Stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament by a single stroke. Still with membership and only slightly ahead of the non-top-40 finishers from Final Stage, Cone played each of the first four events this season under pressure and in need of points for the looming reshuffles. Cone made the cut in three of them, once again setting up the rest of the season. Cone entered this week with four made cuts in eight starts this season, but without a finish higher than T45.

With a victory and fully exempt status again, reshuffles will no longer be of concern for Cone.

“It was a rough couple years,” Cone said. “I just kind of lost my ball striking, which is like my bread and butter, but it wasn’t bad to the point where I could figure out what needed work and where to change thing. It was just kind of stagnant. Last year was probably the worst year I had finishes-wise, and the same thing happened before the win in 2018. I was kind of lost a month or two before that and just playing mini-tour events back in North Carolina and couldn’t play well at all.

“Next thing you know, I snowballed one into a bunch of top-25s and finally won in San Francisco,” Cone continued. “I guess I’m just trying to keep the pedal down and not take it for granted this time.”

Cone climbed from No. 149 to No. 21 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List, meaning a long road lies ahead as he pursues his first PGA TOUR card. For the time being, though, Cone just wants to figure out how to enjoy this victory.

“I didn’t celebrate the last one, so I don’t know what to do. We’re driving to Chicago tomorrow,” Cone said. “I’m just so excited. Really excited to get the rest of the season going.”

Also of note Sunday, MJ Daffue recorded his third top-four finish of the season with a solo third, accruing enough points to cross the 900-point mark the Korn Ferry Tour is currently using as its fail-safe threshold for players to finish inside The 25 at regular season’s end and earn a PGA TOUR card. Daffue is the third player this season to cross the #TOURBound threshold, joining points leader Carl Yuan and second-ranked Seonghyeon Kim.

The 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season continues Thursday with the first round of the NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank, hosted by The Glen Club in Glenview, Illinois.

Final-Round Notes

• Seven of the first 13 tournaments this season were decided by one stroke, while another three were decided in sudden-death playoffs

• Trevor Cone (1st / -16) is the third winner this season who previously won on the Korn Ferry Tour

• Cone is the ninth winner (through 13 events) under the age of 30 this season

• Through 55 career Korn Ferry Tour starts, Taylor Montgomery (2nd / -15) has four runner-up finishes, previously finishing T2 at the 2020 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, 2021 LECOM Suncoast Classic, and 2021 Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank

With the 300 points awarded for solo second, Montgomery rose to No. 8 on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List, climbing 14 spots this week

Montgomery finished No. 26 on both the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List and 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points List, missing a PGA TOUR card by one spot each time

Montgomery’s only bogey of his final-round 2-under 70 came at the par-5 18th, as only three bogey-free rounds were recorded Sunday

• Making his 13th career start and 12th start of the season, Michael Feagles (T4 / -13) posted his first top-10; his previous career-high finish was a T21 at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS this past March

Feagles played collegiately at University of Illinois, where he was a five-time All-Big Ten Conference First Team selection and 2021 Les Bolstad Award winner as the conference’s scoring average leader; he finished No. 7 in the inaugural PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global Class of 2021

• Grayson Murray (T4 / -13), a past winner on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR, recorded his highest finish in PGA TOUR-sanctioned play since a T3 at the PGA TOUR’s 2021 Puerto Rico Open

• Korn Ferry Tour rookies Sam Stevens (T7 / -10) and Kyle Westmoreland (T7 / -10) recorded the first top-10s of their careers

• Second-year member Jeremy Paul (T7 / -10) went without a top-10 through the first 22 starts of his Korn Ferry Tour career, but he has two top-10s in his last three starts, as he finished T5 two weeks ago at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation

• Austin Eckroat (T23 / -5), who has conditional status from a T50 at Final Stage of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament last November, birdied two of the final three holes and earned a guaranteed spot in next week’s field with his first top-25 in three starts this season

Eckroat finished No. 3 in the inaugural PGA TOUR University presented by Velocity Global Class of 2021 out of Oklahoma State University and made three starts last season, highlighted by two top-25s, including a solo seventh at the 2021 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX

• The AdventHealth Championship was the 13th of 23 regular season events on the 26-event 2022 Korn Ferry Tour schedule; the first set of 25 PGA TOUR cards will be awarded at the regular season finale, the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna (August 11-14), and an additional 25 TOUR cards will be awarded following the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which conclude with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (September 1-4)

• This week’s purse was $750,000, with $135,000 going to the champion, Trevor Cone; he also earned 500 Korn Ferry Tour points

All 2022 Korn Ferry Tour regular season events feature a minimum purse of $750,000, a 25 percent increase from last season, and will boast minimum purses of $1 million in 2023 for a total increase of 66.7 percent from 2021 to 2022