Big Week Awaits

Two Denver natives will be stepping it up a level or two for tour starts this coming week.

Wyndham Clark, fresh off his best showing as a pro after placing fourth in a Web.com Tour event in the Bahamas, will make his first PGA Tour appearance since November — and his eighth overall — as the Waste Management Phoenix Open gave him a sponsor exemption.

Clark (pictured), a former CGA Amateur and Pac-12 champion whose best PGA Tour finish is a 17th place at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, will tee it up at TPC Scottsdale starting on Thursday. He will go to Scottsdale having made two cuts in his seven previous PGA Tour appearances.

Joining Clark in the field for the Phoenix Open — also known as the “Greatest Show on Turf” — will be former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird, owner of three top-seven finishes at the event since 2011.

Meanwhile, a past winner of the Phoenix Open, part-time Boulder resident Jonathan Kaye, will be making his first Web.com Tour start since April as he’s in the field for the Panama Championship that also starts on Thursday, in Panama City. The two-time PGA Tour winner claimed his second CoBank Colorado Open title last summer.

Kaye, a former University of Colorado golfer, made three Web.com Tour appearances in 2017, making one cut. He finished 33rd in April at the United Leasing & Finance Championship.

Also in the Panama Championship field are several other players with major Colorado ties: Shane Bertsch, Mark Hubbard and Andrew Svoboda.