Kevin Foley, 2011 State Open Champion, Wins First Web.com Tour Event
Kevin Foley of Somerville, less than two years removed from his victory in the 2011 New Jersey State Golf Association Open, captured his first professional tour event on Sunday when he won the Panama Claro Championship on the Web.com Tour in Panama City, Panama, sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to claim his winner’s check of $108,000.
Foley’s 3-under-par 67 (272 total) gave him a one-stroke victory over Australian Matt Goggin, a four-time Web.com Tour winner. On the 465-yard 18th hole, Goggin found a greenside bunker and he failed to hole it from the sand, enabling the 25-year-old Foley, a former NJSGA Caddie Scholar, to win the event.
Foley’s rounds were 66-69-70-67-272. Morgan Hoffman of Wyckoff, a former NJSGA Junior champion, was forced to skip the final round due to a stomach ailment. Matt Davidson, the 2005 NJSGA Amateur champion, missed the cut by two strokes.
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“If you had told me a year ago that I’d be standing here I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” said Foley, the Web.com Tour’s first champion of the 2013 season. “I’d take it, but I wouldn’t believe it. A lot has happened in a year.”
The Web.com Tour moves to South America this weekend to the Country Club of Bogota for the Colombia Championship.The victory places Foley squarely in the hunt for a PGA Tour card, which will go to the top 25 Web.com money winners. Another 25 cards are for grabs at a late-season, four-event finals pitting Web.com Tour's top 75 money winners against Nos. 125-200 on the PGA Tour money list.
Foley had no status on any tour to begin the 2012 season but fought through Monday qualifiers and top 25 finishes and earned full status to begin the year in Central America.
Last season, he finished 52nd on the money list and had four top 10s in 16 starts. Foley joined the Web.com Tour in 2012 after earning Special Temporary Membership status. Foley was a Monday qualifier at the South Georgia Classic and parlayed a T7 finish into a start the following week, where he finished T7 at the Stadion Classic at UGA.
A solo fifth-place effort at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational had a big enough payday for him to move into the membership category.
Foley, the youngest of eight children who plays out of Neshanic Valley, was a three-time All-American at Penn State where he won a school-record six titles.
“I knew it was going to be a shootout today because there were a bunch of guys lined up to start the day,” said Foley, who entered Sunday 5-under and tied for second, two back of Goggin, the 2010 champion. “It wasn’t the windiest day but with tough pin positions and the course getting firmer, I knew I just had to play smart and steady all day.”
Foley followed his game plan perfectly, with only one bogey and several solid par-saving putts, to claim the win.
Foley gained the lead with a birdie at No. 15 but gave it back with a three-putt bogey from 75 feet on the next hole. Goggin closed to within one at birdies on 14 and 15.
“Coming down the last two holes I knew I would rather pick one up and force him to tie instead of him making a birdie to beat me,” said Foley, who hit 9-iron from 147 yards. “I knew it was a good look from behind the hole. It was perfect and dropped it in the top-left side of the cup. That was sweet.”
