This Thursday, the Bank of Utah Championship kicked off at the Black Desert Resort, the fourth tournament of the autumn series of the PGA Tour, where a good handful of players are fighting to retain their playing rights on the circuit for 2026. Among them are Danish player Thorbjorn Olesen (-6), Swedish player Jesper Svensson (-6), and American Austin Cook (-6), who, after the first 18 holes, share the lead with David Lipsky (-6), who is fighting to finish between 51st and 60th in the FedEx standings to earn a spot in the first two designated events of the next season.
The first three have submitted scorecards of 65 strokes; the fourth couldn’t complete his round due to lack of light, after thunderstorms delayed the afternoon tee times, and will have to play the five holes he left unfinished early this Friday, starting with a six-metre birdie putt on the 14th. Like him, 37 other players didn’t have time to play the full course, so we’ll have to wait until this Friday for the first-round standings to be finalised.
No matter what happens, both Olesen and Svensson, 116th and 115th respectively in the FedEx standings, will finish well-positioned in pursuit of that result that will guarantee them a card for next year. Similarly, Alex Noren (-4), 111th in the circuit standings, with 67 strokes to start the week, is one step away from the top 10. However, the big story on Thursday in Utah was another player seeking to secure another year among the best, after his rookie season: American Frankie Capan III (-5).
The race for PGA TOUR status in 2026 is on 📈
Eight of the top 10 players @BOUChampionship started the week outside the top 100 in the FedExCup Standings.
T1. Thorbjørn Olesen (No. 116)
T1. Jesper Svensson (No. 115)
T1. Austin Cook (No. 204)
T5. Paul Peterson (No. 136)
T5.… pic.twitter.com/yyE27MiT0v— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 24, 2025
Capan made birdies on three of his last five holes to get within a stroke of the leaders. But for the golfer from Minnesota, who made eight birdies in total in his round, with three bogeys, this Thursday was not just another day at the office. A severe infection in his right eye, detailed by Golf Digest, severely compromised his participation in the tournament, forcing him to be examined by doctors on the eve, and necessitating playing with sunglasses he had to purchase after his visit to the Intermountain Health St. George Regional Hospital.
“It was quite a good round considering the adversities of the week,” he said. Because Frankie, 137th in the FedEx standings, cannot afford not to keep adding points, with just three more tournaments ahead until the season ends, and had to push to the limit in a delicate situation. At the end of last week, he noticed redness in his eye and thought he had contracted conjunctivitis, so he treated it with drops. He travelled to Wisconsin over the weekend to celebrate his grandfather’s 90th birthday, but his eye kept getting worse…
In Wisconsin, he consulted a doctor who prescribed different drops and an antibiotic. On Monday, he had serious difficulties playing the pro-am, with his eyes increasingly sensitive to light. And after rushing to the hospital just hours before the tournament started and undergoing several tests and a CT scan, he discovered he had contracted a staph infection that required a stronger antibiotic, azithromycin, and steroid eye drops.
“I’m left-eye dominant, so on Tuesday, I practised some shots with my right eye closed to see if I could play that way. My right eye was so swollen it was almost closed anyway, I looked disgusting,” he confessed yesterday after his round. He had never played an official round of golf with sunglasses, but he adapted so well that he ended up delivering one of the best rounds of the day. Interestingly, it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to him… nor the most serious problem he has faced in an official event.
In the 2024 Veritex Bank Championship, he set the scoring record for the Korn Ferry Tour with a 13-under-par round, 58 strokes, at the Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington, Texas, breaking the course record held by Scottie Scheffler and playing most of the round with blurred vision. And in Japan, he won a tournament with a hip injury that clicked with every swing: “After that, I had to take eight months off.” As if that weren’t enough, he claimed to have played once for two days after tearing the labrum in his right shoulder, “thanks to ibuprofen.” Quite the hard-luck story…
“I’ve played with all sorts of problems. I used to play football, so I’m used to aches and pains. I can handle it,” he concluded. Today, he will try to take the first step towards his goal of achieving a good result that brings him closer to the top 100 in the circuit standings by making the cut. Maybe those sunglasses will continue to bring him luck, and this will be his week… with the permission of the long list of players speeding up before the countdown begins with the last three events of the season in the PGA Tour that will decide everything.
