Sam Saunders, who recently moved to St. Augustine, Fla., after residing in Fort Collins for four years, is in the midst of his best stretch of his PGA Tour career.
Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer, has posted three top-10 PGA Tour finishes in his career, and two of them have come this month. He was ninth two weeks ago at the Barracuda Championship and placed eighth Sunday in the Barbasol Championship. Both events were held opposite more significant tournaments on the PGA Tour — Barbasol the British Open and Barracuda the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.
In Auburn, Ala., at the Barbasol, Saunders shot rounds of 68-69-65-68 for a 14-under-par 270 total that left him four shots out of the playoff between Aaron Baddeley and Si Woo Kim that Baddeley won.
The last two tournaments have helped Saunders make up considerable ground in his attempt to retain his PGA Tour card for the 2016-17 wraparound season. He currently stands 138th on the FedExCup points list. The top 125 on that list will be fully exempt for next season.
