Vermeer To Compete at Pinnacle Bank Championship
May 23, 2019
OMAHA, (Neb.), May 23, 2019 – The 2018 PGA Professional Player of the Year, Ryan Vermeer, will compete in the 2019 Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Chevrolet at The Club at Indian Creek.
The Board of Directors, who administer the Pinnacle Bank Championship, has decided to award Vermeer one of the unrestricted spots into the competition.
The spot comes from the Nebraska Qualifier that was scheduled for Thursday, June 27 at ArborLinks in Nebraska City. The Nebraska Qualifier will not take place this year.
Vermeer, who is also director of instruction at Happy Hollow Club in Omaha, recently competed in and made the cut at the 101st PGA Championship last week at Bethpage State Park Black Course in Farmingdale, New York. He is the first Nebraska PGA Professional to have accomplished that feat and follows his win at the 2018 PGA Professionals of America Championship and his honor as 2018 OMEGA PGA National Player of the Year, awarded by the PGA of America.
“What Ryan has accomplished on the golf course in the past 12 months is unprecedented in Nebraska golf history and he continues to perform at the highest level of his professional career,” said David Honnens, CEO of the Nebraska Section PGA.
There will be a Nebraska Qualifier in future years. Professional golfers will still have an opportunity to compete in the Pinnacle Bank Championship by earning a spot through the Korn Ferry Tour Monday Qualifier at Bent Tree Golf Club in Council Bluffs, Iowa or at Wilderness Ridge Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb., on Monday, July 15. The state’s top amateur golfers can earn one of the unrestricted spots through the Indian Creek Invitational July 13-14 at The Club at Indian Creek or through the Korn Ferry Tour Monday Qualifier.
“We’re happy that we are able to provide Nebraskans and amateurs the opportunity to compete in one of the Korn Ferry Tour’s premiere events in the Pinnacle Bank Championship,” said Jessica Brabec, the Pinnacle Bank Championship tournament director. “Securing arguably the top golfer in the state in Ryan Vermeer just adds to the growing excitement surrounding the tournament.”
ABOUT THE PINNACLE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP
The Pinnacle Bank Championship, presented by Chevrolet, is a stop on the PGA TOUR’s Korn Ferry Tour and will be held July 15-21, 2019 at The Club at Indian Creek. The event features a purse of $600,000 and was awarded the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour’s Truck Award and 2017 Korn Ferry Tour’s Tournament Rookie of the Year Award in its inaugural year. The 2017 champion, Sam Ryder went on to compete on the PGA TOUR, following in the footsteps of previous winners of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Omaha event, including Bo Van Pelt, Johnson Wagner, Heath Slocum and Jason Gore. The 2018 champion, David Skinns, is currently 111 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list. The tournament’s charity partner, TeamMates Mentoring Program, receives proceeds from the event to help fund education and mentoring programs for Nebraska youth. In 2018, that donation totaled $40,000, bringing the tournament’s total charitable contribution amount to more than $140,000 since its inception.