After APGA win at Torrey Pines, Patrick Newcomb gives Korn Ferry Tour exemption to Tim O’Neal

Patrick Newcomb received an exemption into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Simmons Bank Open in May, but he passed along the opportunity. 

After Newcomb won the APGA’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Sunday, he gave his exemption to APGA veteran Tim O’Neal, who nearly won the tour’s first nationally televised event but his 5-foot birdie putt on the final hole lipped out. 
 
O’Neal, 49, has made over 200 starts on mini-tours and has eight PGA Tour starts to his name, including the 2015 U.S. Open. He has played on the APGA, a non-profit tour that’s dedicated to bringing diversity to golf, since its inception in 2010, winning three APGA titles. 

Newcomb, a 31-year-old Murray State alumni, who won the final PGA Tour Latinoamerica event of 2021, already earned partial status on the Korn Ferry Tour this year after tying for 11th in the KFT Q School Finals. This week at the Panama Claro Championship, he will make his third KFT start of 2022. 

Last week, at Torrey Pines in front of a nationally televised audience, he claimed his maiden APGA victory and took home $30,000. And he’ll take that without another shot at a KFT win as he, like many of his African-American competitors on the APGA, is committed to growing the game.