Holmes, McDaniel to Team Up at Northern Trust on Monday

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sophomore Tyler ‘Chip’ McDaniel will team up with UK Athletics Hall of Famer, J.B. Holmes, in the second-annual Northern Trust Open Collegiate Showcase on Monday, Feb. 15 at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. A season ago, this event was the first-of-its-kind in which collegians will play alongside top PGA Tour professionals. McDaniel and Holmes will represent the Wildcats for a second consecutive year. 

The professional and two amateurs (not the collegian) will team up in a best-ball competition and compete for the Collegiate Showcase Trophy and a donation of $50,000 to the university’s golf program. Each collegian will play his own ball with the low medalist earning a spot in the Northern Trust Open just three days later.

What McDaniel is Saying:

“Returning to the Northern Trust Collegiate Showcase is a huge honor to me. Competing against the best talent is why I play the game, and not everybody gets to pursue that. I look forward to playing with J.B. for a second straight year and getting to learn from him.”

About the Duo:

McDaniel led the Wildcats in four fall tournaments with a stroke average of 71.09. He finished with four top-5 finishes, including a win in the team’s final event, the Intercollegiate at The Grove. McDaniel posted eight par or better rounds out of 11 total rounds during the fall campaign and was selected as a 2015 All-Southeastern Conference Freshman Team member. McDaniel ranked second on the team for stroke average in his freshman season. 

Holmes led UK to an SEC Championship in 2005 en route to being named the SEC Golfer Of The Year. During his career, Holmes earned six first-place finishes and 35 top-10 finishes, more than any other player in the Brian Craig era. An All-American at Kentucky, he has surpassed more than $10 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.

The Tournament Field:

Other schools competing in this year’s competition include Arizona, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pacific, Pepperdine, Southern Calif., Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, UC Riverside, and Wake Forest. 

The professional field consists of major tournament champions Jim Furyk and Jordan Spieth.

The Northern Trust Open is one of the longest-running tournaments on the PGA Tour. Debuting in 1926 at Los Angeles Country Club, the event had been staged at various courses throughout the Los Angeles area before permanently settling at The Riviera Country Club in 1973.

The Northern Trust Open boasts an impressive list of past champions that includes 25 World Golf Hall of Fame members such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Phil Mickelson.

Players will tee off beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT on Monday for the 18-hole event.