Frankie Capan just put his driver back in the bag this week.
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Frankie Capan III has done just about everything on the Korn Ferry Tour this season, including clutching his PGA Tour card just last week as he sits 15th on the Tour points list barring the win.
But this week in Columbus, Capan (pronounced SAP-en), is able to add the missing piece to Korn Ferry’s penultimate event in 2024. Capan leads the Children’s Hospital Nationwide Championship by a single stroke heading into the round of last.
Understandably, Capan’s game has been firing on all cylinders this week as he is tied for second in the field, having lost just nine through 54 holes and is tied for fourth with 14 birdies on a tough Scarlet Golf Club course. of Ohio State University.
One of the reasons Capan has credited his strong play this week is his driving. He was ranked 90th on the Korn Ferry Tour in total driving, which combines the distance and accuracy grades off the tee. Despite averaging roughly 310 yards off the tee, that’s just 56th on tour, and when you combine that with his 102nd ranking in accuracy, you can start to see the problem.
But that hasn’t stopped Capan from coming in second place twice – including one last month in the Magnit championship — and three more top-10s to earn himself Tour Bound status.
Why didn’t he stop it? BECAUSE took the driver out of the bag for the final weeks leading up to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
“Yeah, a lot of the courses we played were a little bit shorter or kind of finished in 310 to where a lot of the holes weren’t driving anyway, so I just decided to take it off,” Capan said Saturday. after his third-round 67. “I wasn’t hitting it that well at the time.”
But on a Scarlet course layout, Capan has decided to add the big stick back into the bag, and it’s paid off. Capan is averaging 334 yards off the tee this week – which is still only 13th on the field. He’s only hitting 54 percent of his fairways, but still, when he hits the green 83 percent of the time, it’s hard to argue that his shots aren’t putting him in a good position.
“I’m not sure if you caught some of (my drives today), it wasn’t everything perfect today, but it was feeling better and better and this is a course where you definitely need it,” Capan said. He hit 7-of-14 fairways Saturday but averaged more than 350 yards off the tee. “During the two weeks we had after Idaho before Nashville, I worked a lot on testing some things, but mostly just doing a little bit of work on trying to tighten it up a little bit because I knew I was going to need it last week. week and in French Lick.”
It’s clearly a strategy as Capan has already secured a PGA Tour card, but a win on Sunday could propel him into the priority rankings for next season, helping him have a better shot at the Big Tour.
