Two months ago, Anders Larson had some concerns about his golfing future. He was ready to enter the NCAA transfer portal after two seasons at Division I Tennessee Tech, uncertain about what college golf opportunities might be there for him. Of more worry was a hand injury, which he and a team of trainers and doctors felt initially was tendinitis.
In mid-April he hit his driver on a tee box at a meet in West Virginia and felt something "pop" in his left hand. He attempted to play through it, but a week later, he again hit driver on a tee shot at a meet in Alabama and pain shot through his hand and forearm. It was the last shot he'd hit for Tennessee Tech.
A few days later, a surgeon cut a 2-to-3-inch zig-zag incision into Larson’s hand, took out a broken bone and fused his ligaments and tendons onto another bone. Fast forward to Monday, July 1. ADVERTISEMENT Larson's college golfing future is set — he has transferred to fellow Division I program Eastern Kentucky — and his hand is healed.
The latest and best evidence of the latter? For a second consecutive year, Larson has accomplished the rare feat of qualifying for a PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic, as an amateur. Just as he did a year ago, he qualified in dramatic fashion on Monday. He shot a round of 5-under-par 67 at Pinnacle Country Club in Milan, Ill.
, to finish in a four-way tie for third place. That left him in a four-man playoff for two remaining spots in the John Deere. No problem for Larson, who showed .