Van Pelt surprised no one at the RBC Canadian Open on Saturday, exactly one year after he was last in contention.
The 47-year-old has made only one PGA Tour cut all season (a T-24 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am). Van Pelt competed in the Rex Hospital Open on the Korn Ferry Tour last week, making the cut but finishing last with a solo-72nd, his best finish so far on the Tour this year. However, it was there that he realised his game was finally coming together.
It was good because I had two weeks free between the [PGA Championship] and the week after, during which I didn't touch a ball, "Van Pelt stated after his round at the RBC Canadian Open on Saturday. "My instructor Mark Wood caddied for me last week when I played a Korn Ferry. I sneaked in – the number cut. I believe I came in dead last. However, it was enjoyable to play four rounds. And he and I spent a lot of time on the range, just cleaning up some stuff I had.
This week, Van Pelt took his momentum north of the border to St. George's Golf Course. After making his second Tour cut of the season, he shot a 5-under 65 on Moving Day to jump 34 spots up the leaderboard. Following Round 3, he is T-15 at five-under-par, six strokes off the lead.
Despite a string of poor finishes over the past year, Van Pelt's return to the Tour is extraordinary. After a series of ailments caused him to take a 1,321-day break between Tour starts (from 2016 to 2019), he made an impressive comeback.
Van Pelt, whose lone Tour victory came at the 2009 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, was last in contention on Tour when he tied for second place at the 2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree – his first top-10 result since 2015.
Due to international COVID travel limitations, that event took the place of the RBC Canadian Open on the Tour calendar last year. Van Pelt was just delighted to cut again 52 weeks later, but with last week's clean-up, world No. 505 was able to accomplish much more.
Overall, I was delighted to play today because, as he stated, it's been a long time since I cut out here. So, to play well today, you may feel that your game is improving, but you never know. As a result, it was satisfying to put together an excellent one.
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