Chitimacha Louisiana Open returns for 30th year

PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Tour back after 2020 virus cancellation with strong field, record purse

BROUSSARD – It has been Acadiana’s premier professional sports event for nearly three decades, and after missing its 2000 renewal due to the pandemic, the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS will once again bring high-level professional golf to South Louisiana this week.

For the 30th year, the Korn Ferry Tour returns to Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club beginning Monday with pro-ams and practice rounds as a field of 144 professionals takes aim at a tournament-record $600,000 purse. More importantly for the Korn Ferry Tour field, success at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open provides the opportunity for advancement to the PGA Tour.
Championship competition begins Thursday over the 7,061-yard par-71 Le Triomphe layout, with the final round of the 72-hole event set for Sunday, March 21, when one winner will receive an all-time-high $108,000 first-place check.

There are differences in this year’s event over every other Louisiana Open since its founding in 1992. Because of COVID-19 protocols and following federal, state and local guidelines as well as the direction of the PGA Tour, the Open will not be staging most of its activities outside of championship competition. No spectators will be allowed on the course with the exception of necessary tournament volunteers.

“It’s been overwhelming at times, it’s been different and it’s been logistically challenging,” said Louisiana Open executive director Danny Jones. “When people heard that we’ll have no spectators this year, they told me my job got easier. I’ll gladly trade these COVID issues and these protocols for spectators any day. It’s fun to have golf back here, but it’s not fun to do it without people and those who have supported us for so long.”

The tournament will be allowed to stage its pro-am events, including the Lourdes Legacy Tournament on Monday and Wednesday’s First National Bank of Jeanerette Pro-Am (morning) and Dwight Andrus Insurance Pro-Am (afternoon). All pro-am participants are being required to go through COVID testing.

The other major change is the absence of the Korn Ferry Tour’s traditional early-season “international” segment. This week’s Louisiana Open is the second event of the calendar year, following the LECOM Suncoast Classic held in February in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. The Open is the first of three Gulf Coast area tournaments in a three-week period, including the Club Car Championship at The Landings Club in Savannah, Ga., March 25-28 and the inaugural Emerald Coast Classic at Sandestin, April 1-4 in Destin, Fla.

Hayden Buckley, who got into the Suncoast Classic field as an alternate, won that event three weeks ago and will be going for two in a row against a field that includes eight of the top 10 players in the Korn Ferry Tour standings. Because of the COVID pandemic which forced cancellation of several tournaments last spring and summer, the Tour is playing a combined 2020-21 season. The Louisiana Open, even though it’s the second tournament on the 2021 calendar, is the 25th event of what will be a combined 43-tournament schedule.

At the end of that regular-season schedule, 25 PGA Tour cards will be awarded to the top 25 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings. Another 25 PGA Tour cards will be awarded based on results of the three-tournament Korn Ferry Tour Finals in August and September.

In all, there are 17 winners from the current season scheduled to take part in this week’s Louisiana Open, along with 23 of the top 25 in the Korn Ferry Tour standings including No. 2 Taylor Pendrith and No. 3 Davis Riley.

“We’re going to have a strong field since we’re just the second tournament after a long break,” Jones said, “but that’s not anything unusual. We know that’s always going to be the case since the Tour players love coming here. They love the hospitality even though that looks a lot different this year, they love the course and they love the fact that we can usually play here in mid-March without a lot of weather concerns.”

Four past champions – Julian Etulain (2018), Kris Blanks (2014), Fabian Gomez (2010) and Steven Alker (2002) – are scheduled to be in the field. Also returning is 2019 runner-up Justin Lower, who lost on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff to champion Vince Covello when the last Louisiana Open shots were struck almost two years ago. Lower, who also finished tied for third in the 2018 Louisiana Open, was the 54-hole leader in that last event before Covello birdied two of the last three holes to force a playoff.

That same year, Gomez came close to becoming the third player to win two Louisiana Open titles when he shot a blazing final-round nine-under-par 62 and missed a putt on the 18th green that would have set up a three-man playoff.
In addition to Lower and Gomez, five of the top 10 finishers from the 2019 event are slated to return after Erik Barnes finished tied for sixth, Greg Yates ninth and Joshua Creel tied for 10th that year.

The Chitimacha Louisiana Open is one of only two PGA Tour-sanctioned events in Louisiana, along with the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which was cancelled during the pandemic last year and is scheduled April 22-25 at TPC Louisiana in Avondale.

Championship play will begin at approximately 7:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday with 128 players locked into the field courtesy of their Tour status and results of the Tour’s first event, and four players given sponsor exemptions. Among those exemptions are former LSU standouts Andrew Loupe and Brandon Pierce, while another former Tiger, Curtis Thompson, has already won in the current season by capturing the Evans Scholars Invitational in Westchester, Ill., last September.

Twelve more spots will be filled by open qualifying Monday at Oak Wing Golf Club and Links on the Bayou in Alexandria. The field will be cut to the low 65 and ties for the final two rounds.

In addition to bringing championship golf to South Louisiana, the Chitimacha Louisiana Open is one of Acadiana’s biggest supporters of local and regional charities. More than $5 million has been raised for charities and youth groups in the tournament’s 29-year history.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE (all events at Le Triomphe Golf & Country Club)
Monday, March 15 Lourdes Legacy Tournament, 9 a.m.
Player practice rounds, afternoon following Lourdes tournament
Tuesday, March 16 Player practice rounds, all day
Pre-tournament press conference, 11 a.m., adjacent to 18th green
Wednesday, March 17 First National Bank of Jeanerette Pro-Am, 8 a.m. shotgun start
Dwight Andrus Insurance Pro-Am, 1:30 p.m. shotgun start
Thursday, March 19 Championship First Round, approximately 7:30 a.m. off #1 and #10 tees
Friday, March 20 Championship Second Round, approximately 7:30 a.m. (field cut to low 65/ties)
Saturday, March 21 Championship Third Round, time TBA
Sunday, March 22 Championship Final Round, time TBA
Trophy and check presentations, 18th green following final round