David Ford, the 2023 ACC Player of the Year and a first-team All-America, is making his PGA Tour debut this week at The Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.
Ford, a rising junior at the University of North Carolina, will be competing on a sponsor’s exemption at Barbasol, which will be contested at the Champions Course at the Keene Trace Golf Club.
The Peachtree Corners, Ga., native is an automatic qualifier for the 2023 Walker Cup team that will represent the United States against Great Britain and Ireland at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland on September 2-3.
Ford is scheduled to compete in three upcoming PGA Tour events, including The Barbasol Championship.
By virtue of winning the Jones Cup, a top amateur event, in January, Ford will play in the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Ga., on November 16-19.
He also earned an invitation to play in the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla., next March. Ford was selected to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational by a vote of his teammates at the Arnold Palmer Cup in June. Ford was a member of the United States team that defeated an international squad in Ligonier, Pa.
Beginning in 2017, the winning team in the Palmer Cup has voted for one individual to receive an exemption to play in the API based on the teammate who best represents the legacy and values of Arnold Palmer.
Some of the players who received previous exemptions include 2023 National Player of the Year Ludvig Aberg, 2022 U.S. Amateur champion Sam Bennett and two-time professional major champion Collin Morikawa.
The last current Tar Heel to play in a professional event was Dylan Menante, who played in the 3M Open in Blaine, Minn., in 2022.
Austin Greaser, also a teammate of Ford’s at UNC, played in the 2022 Masters and U.S Open.
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