Tampa, Fla. – The 77th Florida Open heads to Fort Myers where the best professionals and amateurs in the state will look to take on The Golf Club at Crown Colony and Cypress Lake Golf Club. The professionals will also be competing for the largest purse in the championship’s long history. Here are five things to know before action begins on Thursday.
By the Numbers
Crown Colony and Cypress Lake both are par-71 golf courses, however, they will play very differently. Cypress Lake plays to 7,015 yards, has wide fairways, and elevated greens surrounded by bunkers while Crown Colony is 6,800 yards with out of bounds and water lining the fairways.
The youngest player in this year’s field is Mingbo Jiang who is 15 years old. Jiang is no stranger to tough competition. The Orlando native is a two-time FJT Champion and has been competing in FSGA events starting at the age of 11 years old. The junior golfer looks to make history at this year’s Florida Open Championship.
Mark Mielke is this year’s most experienced golfer in the field being 61 years old. Coming off of a second place finish at the 45th Senior Open Championship, Mielke is ready for a challenge.
There will be 98 professional golfers competing for the $125,000 purse, the largest in the history of the event, while the other 57 amateurs are vying to add their name to the short list of amateurs that have won the championship. 1 player will be competing in the Championship as an Amateur Awaiting reinstatement.
Past Champions Back for More
This year there will be six past champions competing in the field, with JC Deacon being the only two-time champion. Leading his Florida Gators to their first NCAA Championship since 2001 while also being named head coach of the year, Deacon has competed in this event every year since 2015 and has only finished outside of the top 25 once.
Coming off of his win last year at Bradenton Country Club, Andy Pope looks to become a back-to-back champion.
Other past champions competing this week include Joe Alfieri (2003), Tommy Murray (2009), Rod Perry (2011) and Connor Arendell (2021).
Many Expected to Contend
Although there are many amateurs in the field for the 77th Florida Open, there are a few names that stand out.
- The first should come as no surprise. Marc Dull is coming off of a record breaking win at the 106th Amateur Championship where he proved that age is just a number and that he can compete with the best of the best.
- Another name that should surprise nobody as a contender is five-time player of the year, Joe Alfieri. After playing in the final group of the 25th Public Links Championship and coming up short, Alfieri will look to raise the Florida Open title for a 2nd time, 20 years after his first triumph!
- 2023 Mid-Amateur champion Jay Halverson will look to continue his succesful season
- Last year’s low-amateur Nathan Bertsch will look for another top 10 finish
- 2022 Amateur Match Play champion John Houchin will look to build momentum entering his Senior year at Stetson University
- Cypress Lake Member, Jake Sherwin, earned an exemption by finishing top 5 in last year's Player of the year points list. His year included qualifying for the US Amatuer & Florida Cup South Team. He reached the finals of the Mid-Amateur Championship and Semifinals of the Amateur Match Play
On the professional side, some to watch for are:
- Austin Davenport, PGA Head Professional at The Dye Preseve, earned his way into the field capturing the EZ-GO South Florida Open at Miromar Lakes in June, highlighted by a final round 62
- Tyler Collet, of John's Island Club and reigning South Florida PGA Player of the Year found his name near the top of the leaderboard during Day1 of the Honda Classic. Collet would post an opening 68 (-2) at the Champion Course and get to -4 at a point in Round 2, but eventually would fall short of the cut-line.
- Jorge Garcia, former Florida Junior Tour stand-out, found success last fall in Stage 1 of Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School at The Golf Club at Crown Colony. En route to victory, Garcia set the course record of 63 in Round 3, then broke his own record in the final round with a 62!
PGA Championship Competitors
Among the star studded field this year, four players competed in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. The first of these players is Jeremy Wells, who will have a hometown advantage. Wells is the Director of Instruction at co-host site, Cypress Lake, and has showed previous Florida Open promise, finishing in third place finish at the 2021 Florida Open. He looks to use his course knowledge and comfort with the Florida Open in his hometown to contend this year.
Adding to this list is Greg Koch. The former Florida Southern standout and two-time North Florida PGA Section Champions other highlight of his 2023 season is a made cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, in his hometown of Orlando at Bay Hill Golf Club, just down the street from the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes where he is the Head of Instruction.
Matt Cahill, of Seminole Golf Club earned his PGA Championship & Corebridge Financial PGA Team birth by finishing 2nd in the 2023 PGA Professional Championship. Cahill will look to use the experience he gained down the stretch in that Championship to improve on his T44 (2021) & T12 (2022) finishes in the last two Florida Opens.
The final player who competed in the 2023 PGA Championship is John Somers of Southern Hills Plantation Club. Somers was arguably the longest player in the field at Oak Hill. Before entering the club professional side, Somers found success on the PGA Tour LatinoAmerica in 2019, capturing the Chilie Open, holding off Joaquin Niemann, Mito Pereria & Alexandre Rocha down the stretch.
Hurricane Recovery
The Fort Myers area is still recovering from the devastation that Hurricane Ian brought. Along with the destruction of houses and beaches in the area, the golf courses received catastrophic damage as well. If not for the incredible maintenance crews at both golf courses this week, this championship would not have been able to make its way to Fort Myers. Both courses took time, but recovered tremendously, and are just as good if not better than before the hurricane took landfall.
