Frank Esposito.earns Eligibility For All Champions Tour Qualifiers
On Nov. 22, State Open champion Frank Esposito Jr. of Brooklake placed in a tie for 23rd in the final qualifying stage at TPC Scottsdale for next year’s Champions Tour.
By finishing among the top 30, Esposito (66-69-70-72-277) became eligible to compete for spots in open qualifiers at all co-sponsored events on the Champions Tour in 2014.
Two weeks earlier, Esposito, 51, placed in a tie for fourth among 75 golfers, age 50 and over, in Champions Tour Regional Qualifying at Orange County National in Winter Garden, Fla.
The top 20 players from the field of 75 golfers advanced to the Final Qualifying Stage at TPC Scottsdale’s Champions Course (Nov. 19-22), in a field of 78 players. The top five players will receive full exemption status, and the next seven will be conditionally exempt. Conditionally exempt players are accepted in tournaments on a space-available basis.
“I’m excited about going to Scottsdale. I’m comfortable and I’m confident. It’s a matter of getting out there and just playing. You don’t want to put any added pressure on yourself,” said Esposito, who will have former State Open champion Charlie Cowell on his bag. “You just want to go out there and play.”
At Orange County National, Esposito shot 10-under-par (72-68-68-70-278) and finished behind last year’s Qualifying School medalist Gene Jones (275), who won by a stroke over Bob Friend (276), a former LSU teammate of major champion David Toms. A further shot back was Doug Dunakey (277), who shot 59 on the Web.com Tour in 1998.
Damon Green (284), caddie for former Masters champion Zach Johnson, also advanced to the final stage via the Florida site. Other qualifiers were conducted Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif., and Woodforest Golf Club at Fish Creek in Montgomery, Texas.
“I went down to Orange County National a little early. I was hitting the ball nice. I had my coach, Lenny Siter, on the bag and that helped. We would work on things afterward. I hit it consistent all week, although I didn’t make a lot of putts,” said Esposito, who leaves for Scottsdale three days before the tournament begins.
Esposito, who also won the State Open in 1999, and was named New Jersey PGA Player of the Year, this year also won the PGA Section Championship and the New Jersey PGA Senior Championship. He was also New Jersey PGA Player of the Year in 2010.
He said his consistency this year was derived from “working on my alignment, and utilizing a different release point. I’m addressing the ball well, not standing too close to it. It was nothing really about my swing and I think it made a difference this year,” he said.
