Seismic shift for Austin Eckroat after AT&T Byron Nelson runner-up

Austin Eckroat knew the final round of the AT&T Byron Nelson would bring new experiences.

When the PGA TOUR rookie arrived at TPC Craig Ranch on Sunday, primed to compete in the final grouping, Eckroat was greeted by cameras.

“Am I just supposed to walk and talk here?” Eckroat asked the video crew. “I haven’t been here yet.”

The Oklahoma State alum took the setting in stride. He fell just short of his first TOUR title, but a final-round, 6-under 65 was good for a runner-up finish, one stroke back of winner Jason Day, who needed a closing 62 to edge Eckroat and Si Woo Kim by one.

Eckroat, bidding to become the first PGA TOUR University alum to win on TOUR, needed eagle at the par-5 18th hole to match Day, who posted 23-under total at TPC Craig Ranch from one group ahead. The Oklahoma native didn’t hold back, splitting the fairway and ripping his 267-yard second shot to the fringe just off the back left of the green. He couldn’t get the 68-foot eagle try to drop, but he made birdie to match Kim and accrue 245 FedExCup points.

“Really surprised myself with how I felt,” Eckroat said after signing his final-round scorecard. “I really felt like I played well enough to win; it’s just hard to beat a guy that goes out and shoots 9 under. A lot of positives to build off of.

“I looked at hole 9 … 10, 15 guys had a chance to win realistically, and it was crazy. You're just trying to get up there, and it was fun to get some separation at the end and see if you could get a chance to win, like I did, and it was a really fun battle on the back nine.”

For Eckroat, who began the week at No. 137 on the season-long FedExCup standings, the result marks a seismic shift in his season outlook. He moves to No. 77 on the FedExCup; the top 125 after the FedExCup Fall will be exempt into all 2024 Full-field events on TOUR.

The top 50 after the FedExCup Playoffs will gain access to next year’s Designated events, as well.

Eckroat finished No. 3 on the inaugural PGA TOUR University Ranking in spring 2021, earning direct access to the Korn Ferry Tour, but he entered the 2022 season with conditional status after finishing outside the top 40 at Final Stage of Q-School. He made just two starts before mid-May but found a groove in the late spring and early summer, taking advantage of opportunities to the tune of nine consecutive made cuts, featuring eight top-25s in that span. He earned a spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and clinched a TOUR card with a runner-up finish at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance.

Eckroat arrived at TPC Craig Ranch with just two top-25s in 18 TOUR starts as a rookie. But one was a fifth-place finish at the Corales Puntacana Championship in late March, helping prove that he could hang at this level. And this time of year was good to him a season ago.

He continued that trend with a scintillating showing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Seems those cameras could be a common occurrence down the road.

“I had a ton of family here, a ton of friends. It's only three hours from home,” said Eckroat on a soggy Sunday evening. “If I would have gotten it done, it probably would have been about the perfect place to do it with everybody being here. But still, I'll take the second-place finish with family. They're all proud of me, and it was just a great week.”