A week after Rose Zhang won in her professional debut on the LPGA, one of this past season’s top men’s college players got his pro career started off on the winning foot.
Belgium’s Adrien Dumont de Chassart, who starred for five years at Illinois, won the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am on Sunday in a playoff over Josh Teater. Dumont de Chassart played Nos. 13-16 in 5 under in Sunday’s final round and shot 6-under 65 despite a closing bogey to finish at 21 under with Teater, who bogeyed the playoff hole to lose to Dumont de Chassart’s up-and-down par.
“I’m not going to lie, I was very nervous out there,” Dumont de Chassart said. “I was like four behind after 12. I just remember looking at the leaderboard on 13 and kind of got on a roll. … I’m glad it’s over now, and that was a great chip on 18.”
Dumont de Chassart was a first-team All-American this past season for Mike Small’s Illinois squad that advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals. He ended up fourth in Golfstat’s final individual ranking thanks to nine top-10s, including a win and a T-7 at the NCAA Championship. His strong fifth year propelled him to No. 3 in this year’s PGA Tour University graduating class, which in turn earned him a full KFT card for the rest of the this season, plus a ticket to the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School this December.
With his win, Dumont de Chassart debuts at No. 22 in KFT points. The top 30 earn PGA Tour cards following the KFT Championship in October.
“I came here with no expectation,” Dumont de Chassart added. “I had a good college career and I just came here, and I told myself to just stay who I was and just play my game, and that’s what I did all week, and I’m glad it paid off.”
North Carolina grad Ryan Burnett was the next highest finishing PGA Tour U product, tying for 11th. Recent NCAA individual champ Fred Biondi, who turned pro and forfeited two major starts to focus on his KFT career, tied for 31st.
It was a nice week overall for Illini as alum Michael Feagles shot 59 in the opening round before tying for 15th to move to No. 107 in points and earn a spot in next week’s Wichita Open field.
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