These PGA Tour rookies went from standard bearers to in the field at WM Phoenix Open
These PGA Tour rookies went from standard bearers to in the field at WM Phoenix Open
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Shooter McGavin crashes Justin Thomas interview at WM Phoenix Open
Shooter McGavin, aka Christopher McDonald, crashed Justin Thomas' interview at the 2025 WM Phoenix Open.
Matt McCarty is making his debut at this week's WM Phoenix Open, but it won't be his first time seeing the famed par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale up close and personal. As a teenager growing up in the Valley of the Sun, the 27-year-old PGA Tour rookie used to sneak on the course with some help from a friend working in the bag room.
'We kind of like would weasel our way in, always create a little gap in the fence," he recalled, "so we'd show up on 16 at like five in the morning for a couple years, be like the first ones out there.'
McCarty doesn't have to sneak on anymore. He was the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year after winning three times and leading the season-long money list, and he isn't alone among rookies in the field with a strong connection to the WM Phoenix Open held in Scottsdale, Arizona. Frankie Capan III, 25, was born in Minnesota, but he spent the majority of his childhood about 15 minutes from the course, where his parents still live. He shot 59 at Omni Tucson National to win the state championship in high school, too. Capan has made the cut in his first three starts as a rookie this season but his number wasn't going to get called for the 120-man field. So, he wrote a four-page letter to WM Phoenix Open tournament director Chance Cozby, detailing his ties to the tournament. When Capan was in elementary school, he served as a Phoenix Open standard bearer for Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Bill Haas. He and his two sisters participated in the area's junior version of the People's Open, the Itty Bitty Open, where top finishers were later honored at TPC Scottsdale during the big tournament. Cozby told him it was the longest letter he'd ever received and granted him one of the tournament's four sponsor exemptions.
'For me, that was kind of cool but I didn't try and add unnecessary information. I just kind of wanted them to learn a little bit about me and my past,' said Capan, who shot 58 and won the Korn Ferry Tour's Veritex Championship among seven top 10s last season. 'I just wanted to highlight that a little, and then just all the relationships that my family and I have formed in the valley. Other than that, mainly just kind of updating him a little bit about how the last couple years have gone for me and just given him a little bit of insight into my golf career so far.'
McCarty, who won the PGA Tour's Black Desert Championship last fall in Utah, was a Phoenix Open standard-bearer, a volunteer who follows a group of players on the course and displays their scores on a sign for spectators, as a junior golfer, too. He recalled Ken Duke, who currently plays on PGA Tour Champions, making an impression.
'A lot of guys are locked in out there, but I remember he was kind of talking to us walking down the fairways and stuff, and I thought that was a really cool experience,' McCarty said.
Every once in a while, being a standard bearer inspires a kid to chase the dream of making it to the pro ranks. It panned out for Korn Ferry Tour pros Jimmy Stanger and Nick Gabrelcik, who both worked the practice range and as standard bearers at the Valspar Championship. And it's not lost on Capan and McCarty that it wasn't long ago that they were the star-struck kids on the other side of the ropes living and dying with every autograph they got.
'I'm not crazy far removed from wanting golf balls and gloves and whatever,' McCarty said. 'Just to have fun and kind of interact with the crowd this week is kind of a good goal for me.'
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