Chase Seiffert in action during the third round of the 2017 Travelers Championship. For the second straight year, he Monday qualified for the PGA Tour stop, this time finishing T-9. (Tim Clayton – Corbis)

By Ryan Herrington
Bubba Watson won the Travelers Championship with a closing 63 at TPC River Highlands, rallying from six strokes back to take the title. Yet you could argue it was not Sunday’s most career-impactful round.

That honour could go to another Florida native, Chase Seiffert. The 26-year-old Monday qualifier who has no status on any tour posted a final-round six-under 64 to move from T-22 to T-9. In turn, he lived to play another day on the PGA Tour as his finish earned him an automatic spot into The Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in two weeks.

A former Florida State golfer (whose teammates in Tallahassee included Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger), Seiffert made three birdies and an eagle on the front nine, then added two more birdies on the 10th and 13th holes to move briefly into a share of second place. A bogey on the 17th was his one blemish on a day in which Seiffert hit 12 of 14 fairways and 11 of 18 greens in regulation, to finish at 12-under 268 for the tournament and earn a check for $189,000, easily the largest of his professional career.

“I was telling my instructor and caddie, today is my Monday qualifier for The Greenbrier,” Seiffert said. “If I play well today, I can kind of get myself in, so I went out that and tried to attack.”

Seiffert’s big week began six days earlier at Ellington Ridge Country Club in Ellington, Conn., when he shot a course-record 63 to earn one of the Monday qualifier spots into the Travelers. It was the second straight year Seiffert, who lives in Panama City Beach, Fla., qualified for Connecticut’s PGA Tour stop via four-spotting.

With last year’s tournament experience to fall back on—he was in fourth place, two strokes off the lead, through 36 holes before finishing T-43—Seiffert felt comfortable at TPC River Highlands and it showed when he opened with a 66 on Thursday.

This was just the fourth PGA Tour start in Seiffert’s career, although he’s made the cut in each. He also Monday qualified for the Web.com Tour’s Rex Hospital Open, where he finished T-48.

Suffice it to say, he has been planning on a summer “full of Mondays” this year, too.

Having time to prepare for his next start, with the Quicken Loans Invitational played this week ahead of The Greenbrier, Seiffert has the chance to improve on a few things. Confidence, however, isn’t among them.

“It feels really good,” Seiffert said. “I feel like my game’s good enough to be out here full-time and [this] kind of confirms that with the way I’ve been playing this week and last year here as well.”