Pierceson Coody’s strong start to the season continued at the WM Phoenix Open, where the 26-year-old Coody tied for 10th. He and Si Woo Kim are the only players to finish top 25 in each of the first four events of the year.
Coody will keep playing, too, as he qualified for his first two signature events via the Aon Swing 5.
Coody, who tied for second at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, was the dominant top finisher in aggregate points from the Sony Open through the WMPO among players not already exempt. He will be joined at next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the following week’s Genesis Invitational by Ryo Hisatsune, Jake Knapp, Matt McCarty and Patrick Rodgers.
Knapp placed solo eighth at TPC Scottsdale to move into the top five, bumping Andrew Putnam, who fell to seventh behind Sahith Theegala, who was the first player out. Michael Thorbjornsen was eighth after leading the WMPO outright with three holes to play. Thorbjornsen eagled No. 15 but bogeyed each of his next two holes and ended up a shot out of the playoff.
“I don’t think I failed out there,” Thorbjornsen said. “I’m just learning. So, yeah, I put myself in that position. I was leading after what, 69 holes ... I mean, we’re inching our way closer and closer. It’ll happen at some point.”
There is an alternate list for Pebble, which needs to be 80 players for its pro-am format. Alex Smalley is currently first alternate.
The next Swing 5 will be for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which will take the top earners from Sony through Cognizant as there is just one event between Genesis and API. It will also take an updated Next 10 (Pebble and Genesis use last year’s FedExCup Fall standings for their Next 10).