Pierceson Coody earns first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Live and Work in Maine Open

FALMOUTH, Maine – When Pierceson Coody earned the No. 1 spot in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2022 for Korn Ferry Tour status the rest of the season, his main goal was to finish top 75 on the Regular Season Points List for a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and a chance at a PGA TOUR card. Coody’s runaway win at the Live and Work in Maine Open Sunday moved him into contention for a PGA TOUR card via The 25.

Coody began the day tied atop the leaderboard with Camden, Maine native Cole Anderson, who was bidding to become the fourth amateur winner in Korn Ferry Tour history. With a 7-under 28 on the front nine (birdies at Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8, along with an eagle at the par-5 sixth), Coody built a seven-stroke lead and ultimately closed out a five-stroke victory with seven straight pars after back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11.

“It's crazy. It feels like a blur,” said Coody, whose final-round 5-under 66 took him to 20-under par for the tournament. “I knew the front nine was gettable and I knew in the afternoon this back nine plays tough. I just played it really aggressive on the front nine, just great numbers, really nice putts. Just everything seemed to go my way. The back nine is tough. It gets blowing, 15-20 miles an hour and some tougher pins, so I just kind of held on.”

Coody’s five-stroke win tied the largest margin of victory on the Korn Ferry Tour this season, as Harrison Endycott (Huntsville Championship) and Norman Xiong (last week’s Wichita Open Benefitting KU Wichita Pediatrics) also posted five-stroke wins. The past two weeks mark the first time since 2011 back-to-back Korn Ferry Tour events were won by five strokes.

Coody’s win came in just his third Korn Ferry Tour start, and at 22 years, 5 months, and 19 days old, he became the second-youngest winner on Tour this season, only behind Akshay Bhatia.

Coody noted in a post-round interview via the Korn Ferry Tour’s livestreaming coverage this may be the most consistent stretch of golf in his young career. The Plano, Texas native broke his arm midway through his senior season at the University of Texas last December, but returned in April and kickstarted a remarkable two-month stretch with a win at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational. Coody went on and finished T15 in the stroke play portion of the NCAA Championships, then went 2-1 in match play as Texas captured its fourth national title.

“Finishing first on the PGA TOUR University (Velocity Global Ranking) was in itself just such a huge goal,” Coody said. “The one day that I was in Dallas before I went to the BMW (Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX)… we talked about how getting a top 75 was just the big goal. That's what we wanted, just stack some nice weeks together and see where it takes us.

“Last week, finishing fourth in Wichita gave me such confidence. I won't say I knew this was going to happen, but I definitely felt that I would play well and I felt the momentum from last week.”

Coody, who along with his fraternal twin brother, Parker, is a third-generation professional golfer and grandson of 1971 Masters Tournament winner Charles Coody, rose from No. 118 to No. 31 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List. With five regular season events remaining, Coody moved within 47 points (equivalent to a solo-19th finish) of the No. 25 spot on the points list.

“It won't sink in for a while,” Coody said. “Hopefully I can just keep playing with this kind of momentum and see where it takes me.”

The 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season continues Thursday with the first round of The Ascendant Presented by Blue, hosted by TPC Colorado in Berthoud, Colorado.