Andrew's Evans Scholars Invitational (KFT) Preview

If you cast your mind back to the days before Royal Birkdale, we were lucky enough to pick up both a winner, in Ross Steelman, and a chopped place from Christiaan Maas the last time the KFT held an event. That was very welcome and I hope plenty of you had tickets on Steelman at 33/1. Obviously I’m pleased about Steelman and I hope he goes on to success at the PGA next year (sitting in fourth in the standings, so I’m almost certain he’ll get a card) but the big takeaway from the last month on the KFT is the extraordinary success of the PGA Tour U graduates.

As you probably know, one PGA card is given to the man atop the standings, which was Ben James who is doing very nicely. Players two-through-ten get KFT cards and the early record of those players hasn’t always been great. This time around, three tournaments is sufficient to say that we’re seeing something special. I’d say that you need to be aware of all nine of them to be betting effectively at this level, and it’ll be a rare event when you haven’t got at least a couple on your longlist of potential winners. Tommy Morrison was second in Colorado and is already up to 29th on the points list, after just three starts. He could win his card this year, which is an astounding achievement. His ex-Texas teammate, Christiaan Maas, was fifth in Colorado having been 19^th in Memorial Health (and with some great DPWT results from his amateur days,) and the third former Longhorn, Luke Potter was 29th in his first made cut.

Jase Summy, formerly of Oklahoma, missed the cut at the Ascendent but he was third in his first start at Amarillo. William Sides came out of SMU hot and grabbed a 14th and a tenth (he was 56th in Colorado.) Mahanth Chirravuri who was a Pepperdine Wave (or was he a Waves?  I never know…) was 29^th in the Ascendent, best finish since turning pro. Missing the cut last week, Frankie Harris of South Carolina had previously been 13th at Memorial Health. The ninth and final card went to Wells Williams of Vanderbilt, and even he made a cut for the first time this week.

Look, this can mean as much or as little as you want it to, but for all we keep hearing (rightly) about how ready college players are to compete, there’s always been a bit of a delay to see success at the KFT level – with a few notable exceptions such as Adrien Dumont de Chassart’s electric start – as the best players increasingly skip this stage. This year, however, they need watching. Top to bottom, it is a serious group. 

Anyway, with a little bit of context applied and the players back from a break, it’s time to get into the Evans Scholars Invitational.

The Tournament

This is the eighth time this tournament has been held, though for a few years it was called the NV5 Invitational. It has reverted to being the Evans Scholars Invitational this year and is once again at the Glen Club in greater Chicago, which has held this event every year except when it was moved in both time and course because of Covid. I looked at the event last year. I suggested that this event retains a place on the KFT rotation because it provides a walkable course that is very accessible from both Chicago and Milwaukee and not because it is particularly good for exploring great golfers. I went on to say that,

“This is a Tom Fazio design and it is very much the antithesis of last week’s Royal Portrush – entirely artificial (2.5 million cubic yards of earth were moved to set this course up; I don’t know what that means but it feels like a massive number to me) and with no links to what was there before. This was an air base and that gives an indication of how flat the course was before anyone got to work on it. 

What we’re left with is a course of 7,100 yards playing as a par-71, with two par fives on the way out and one on the way back, and two par-threes in each half. Scoring has tended to be pretty low – this is the sixth event held here and the winning scores have ranged from -17 to -25. The first edition was won by that Scottie bloke in what was his second and undoubtedly final KFT victory. Last year saw Thomas Rosenmuller beating Karl Vilips at a score of -25, but in other years comparatively short hitters (winners Harry Hall and Curtis Thompson, high finishers like Marcelo Rozo or Justin Suh) have succeeded based much more on accuracy. It all comes down to weather . This being “the windy city”  there is a major defence from the elements if it is blowy.”

I don’t see much to change my views from the 2025 edition, which was won by Johnny Keefer at -26 (258) who burst clear of a crowded leaderboard with a Saturday 61 to eventually beat Jeffrey Kang by two shots. The presence towards the top of the leaderboard of Davis Chatfield, Austin Smotherman, Cooper Dossey and Neal Shipley confirms that this is a straightforward track that will give bountiful rewards to the best players taking it on. Without much weather to consider, I’m expecting very low scores and yes, we’re on 59 watch again. It might be a bit breezy on Sunday, but not enough to alter my thoughts on this event.

The Selections

A brief rant: this part of the US sees too few golf events. Even allowing for the relatively short weather window, is pretty frustrating that the KFT and PGA come to the Great Lakes region in the same week, meaning that most golfers who might provide a local link into this event are across Lake Michigan and battling in the 3M. As a result of that, and with very few clues to go from in terms of course fit, there really are just two questions here. The first is simple; who are the best golfers on the KFT currently? My list has the aforementioned Goodwin and Steelman on it, joined in no particular order by Cooper Dossey, Ben Kohles, Blades Brown and James Nicholas on it. From the recent college grads you’d have to consider Maas, Morrisson, Sides and Summy in this conversation.

The second question is much harder; where is the value? This gets trickier and more subjective. The market isn’t giving much away and as you’d expect, the list above is made up primarily of those who are pretty short in the market (where they’re playing the event, obviously.) I’ll be honest and say that I wrote a draft of this column (without prices) and included my reasoning for picking Cole Sherwood, so confident was I that the bookies would continue to underrate him despite his solid all-round game and second place position on the KFT rankings. Nope, he’s 20/1 and whilst I think he’s got a solid chance, I don’t think that there’s value. Let’s get back to the college players.

Whilst the news of the Longhorn invasion has reached the bookmakers and I can’t justify backing Maas or Morrison at the prices, I do want to keep Jase Summy onside. As I’ve said, he was third in Amarillo at the Occunet, and although he missed two cuts since, he’s proving himself to be accurate from the tee and a handy putter, which is hardly a surprise for the former number three amateur in the world. Oh, and he won the Western Amateur (thrashing Ethan Fang six and five in the final and beating Tommy Morrison in the round of 16) in 2025 which was held at Skokie Country Club, an easy walk from this week’s venue.

William Sides, meanwhile, hasn’t missed a cut as a professional and was also a top ten amateur in the world. He did nicely in that same Western Amateur, qualifying for the round of 16 but losing out to Cameron Adam (one of my regular DPWT picks and another future star) in extra holes. He’s a more powerful driver than Summy but is showing a strong all-round game and, if he can putt well (that’s been the variance in his finishing positions) can make a mockery of his price and put plenty of more experienced players behind him.

Thirdly, I’m putting up a player who didn’t graduate from college this year. The “old man” of my team recently turned 26, and is a rare example of a player who caught my eye this week from a pure value perspective. Noah Goodwin was third last time out, returning to form after some iffy results splitting time between the two tours (he won a PGA card for the 2025 season but holds only conditional status now,) although it is notable that his best result last week came this week at the 3M, which is obviously a similar event in many ways and a tougher field, in which he came tenth. He’s been cut from this event twice which is obviously a concern, but there’s nothing specifically tricky about the conditions he’ll face, and as a form golfer who was good enough to pick up a PGA card two years ago and is still improving, I’ll happily take a three-figure price.

• Jase Summy, 60/1

• William Sides, 40/1

• Noah Goodwin, 110/1

  All picks are 1pt e/w, 1/4 odds 5 places, Bet 365. As this column has been written with only one bookmaker showing odds, you might get better prices by the time of publication. Shop around.