From 'Bama to Canada: Canon Claycomb, Thomas Ponder debut this week as pros

University of Alabama men’s golf coach Jay Seawell has cultivated a tradition of celebrating victories with milkshakes. Simple, delectable and memorable.

Canon Claycomb and Thomas Ponder, recent Alabama grads and three-year roommates, intend to continue that tradition in their professional careers – which begin concurrently this week on PGA TOUR Americas.

“Yeah, I think that one’s gonna stick,” Claycomb said.

“No, I think that one’s gonna stick for a while,” Ponder agreed.

Claycomb earned his PGA TOUR Americas card via the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking; he finished No. 18, comfortably inside the top 25 to earn status. Ponder took the less-certain route of Q-School, but it was also effective; he earned status in Ocala, Florida. Their paths diverged slightly, but they quickly reconverged for this week’s The Beachlands Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist, the first event on PGA TOUR Americas’ North America Swing.

Claycomb shot an even-par 70, good for T103 in Thursday's first round, while Ponder fired a 6-under 64 and stood T4.

The top 10 on PGA TOUR Americas’ season-long Fortinet Cup standings will earn 2025 Korn Ferry Tour membership, a massive step toward the PGA TOUR. Claycomb and Ponder will employ their individual checklists and processes as they pursue their goals – pro golf is one of the most individualistic competitive pursuits, after all. But they’ll do so with each other’s friendship and support, an intangible advantage.

“It’s going to be so nice to have a familiar face up in Canada.. ... There’s just that extra comfortability about finding Pondi and being like, ‘Hey bro, do you want to go to dinner? Or do you want to just come over and watch TV?’’’ Claycomb said. “It is really, really nice because I wouldn’t imagine that there are a ton of schools that have that opportunity to send a couple guys out on the same tour at the same time. So I think it gives us a leg up that we’ll have an already built-in friendship that we won’t have to juggle golf and trying to make friends at the same time.”

The duo logged countless hours together in Tuscaloosa – weeks spent traveling from tournament to tournament as a team, attending football games together and hanging out. A Kentucky native, Claycomb attributes his love for the Tide to Ponder and counts their shared experiences in Bryant-Denny Stadium as top-tier memories.

“Pondi built me up to the Alabama fan I am today,” Claycomb said. “Because I came from Kentucky, I had no rooting interest in Alabama except for the fact that I was a student and an athlete there. Pondi is like a die-hard, always been an Alabama fan … I thought it was really easy for me to buy in with the support of Pondi, (Austin) Coggin in my later years and JP Cave. They all were just the biggest ‘Bama fans and I think that helped me become a bigger Alabama fan and advocate for basically all sports.”

As the two neared graduation, it became evident the sport that consumed most of their time on campus would offer a shared future. Claycomb, who received his first college offer from Alabama in eighth grade, arrived on campus at the same time as Ponder, and their first two seasons were spent alongside current TOUR member Wilson Furr and Korn Ferry Tour member Davis Shore. Nick Dunlap later joined, and he actually beat them to the pro ranks after a historic victory at The American Express as an amateur.

“Freshman year, sophomore year (of college) seeing the guys on the team with me graduate, leave and go on and play professional golf, it seemed like an obtainable goal,” Claycomb said. “Junior year, for me, I started really trying to play professional golf. Starting at Alabama, everything we were doing was for the team but it was also trying to build to become a professional golfer at that point.”

Alabama has produced a stream of accomplished pros, from eight-time TOUR winner Jerry Pate in the 1970s to current TOUR members like Justin Thomas, Lee Hodges, Davis Riley, Furr and Dunlap. Seawell fosters an open-door environment that welcomes back alumni and allows for them to pour into the current players. “It’s just really cool how Alabama golf is; it really is a family,” said Ponder, who hopes to someday pay the knowledge forward.

Being a part of the Alabama family has landed Claycomb and Ponder in some pretty cool places, like a meeting with former football coach Nick Saban and his wife Terry in March, when the golf team traveled to Florida for a tournament.

“Ms. Terry told me ‘to be where my feet are,’ and that was my screensaver for like three months,” Claycomb said. “That advice was like really good, especially for me … I like to get ahead of myself sometimes and it sounds super simple, but I made that a point to be present and in the moment.”

Claycomb held those words close as he navigated his final stretch of college golf, maintaining a team-first mentality while also pursuing professional status via PGA TOUR University.

Ponder, who became the first medalist of the PGA TOUR Americas Q-School cycle at the Ocala, Florida site, attributed the same advice on the journey to his pro debut, as well as turning to his Alabama golf family.

“I reached out to Wilson (Furr) this semester, and he gave me some really good putting advice,” Ponder said. “Just the way you can reach out to old guys is just really, really special and I don’t think you find that in too many programs.”

As the two head to Canada to take on a new adventure, they both can agree that, though many things are changing, their friendship will stay the same as they both take on a new milestone together.

“I think Pondi would agree that Alabama was a blessing for both of us and I’ll always have the Alabama script ‘A’ on my golf bag, and it will always be part of my brand moving forward so I’m very thankful for all of those things.”

He was right. Ponder agreed.

“For me, it wasn’t necessarily just one week or just any certain event. I think it was just encompassing everything, playing with your teammates and also football games and getting to hang out,” Ponder said. “I think the biggest thing that we’ll remember like 10 years down the road is just the camaraderie we had and just being able to hang out and being able to bond. I think that’s really what I’m going to take away, I’m not really going to remember how we played in The Hayt tournament three years ago; I don’t even know what we shot three or two years ago. But the relationships we’ve made are long-lasting for sure.”