Aug. 29, 2016
NORTH PLAINS, Ore. – Former San Diego State men's golf star J.J. Spaun officially received his PGA Tour card for the upcoming 2016-17 campaign on Sunday by finishing among the top 25 on the Web.com Tour money list after completing the final round of the season-ending WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by Kraft Heinz at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.
In his first season on the Web.com Tour, Spaun ranked third with $350,832 in prize earnings after competing in 20 events. The Los Angeles, Calif., native posted seven top-10 finishes overall, including a victory at the News Sentinel Open presented by Pilot on Aug. 22 in Knoxville, Tenn. He also logged a pair of runner-up placements earlier this summer at the Air Capital Classic in Wichita, Kan., and the Utah Championships presented by Zions Bank in Lehti, Utah.
At the WinCo Foods Portland Open on Sunday, Spaun landed in an eight-way tie for 11th place at 11-under-par 273 after firing a final-round 67 on the Witch Hollow Course. He offset a bogey at No. 3 with five birdies, including back-to-back conversions on the 10th and 11th greens, to climb eight spots on the individual leaderboard.
A total of 19 players out of Sunday's 25 card earners will be rookies on the 2016-17 PGA Tour season, which gets underway during the week of Oct. 10-16 at the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif. An additional 25 cards will be awarded following the conclusion of the four-event Web.com Tour Finals, which begin the week of Sept. 5-11 with the inaugural DAP Championship, to be held at Canterbury Golf Club outside of Cleveland, Ohio. The second 25 cards will be based on money earned solely in the finals.
As a collegian, Spaun twice received All-America recognition by both the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and Golfweek. He won five tournaments during his career at San Diego State, which is tied for the most in school history with Aztec Hall of Famer Lennie Clements.
In addition, Spaun garnered Mountain West Player of the Year accolades as a senior in 2012 and collected three consecutive all-conference certificates. He ended that season ranked 17th by Golfstat.com and 21st nationally by Golfweek after leading SDSU to its best-ever Division I team finish with a fifth-place tie in the match-play portion of the NCAA Championships.
San Diego State opens its 2016 fall schedule next month when it travels to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for the Gopher Invitational, Sept. 10-11, in Independence, Minn.