GolfNewsRI

What a time for Rhode Island golf. 

Patrick Welch is just hours away from teeing it up at the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open. 

The number of Rhode Islanders who have teed it up on the PGA Tour in recent history are few and far between. 

Davis Chatfield and former University of Rhode Island star Chris Francoeur have advanced to stage 2 of Korn Ferry Tour Q School. 

Will Dickson, the only Rhode Islander to ever win four straight High School State Golf Championships (so far), turned pro and is playing the mini tours with a few Korn Ferry Tour appearances under his belt. 

He has pocketed roughly just over $100K to this point in his career. 

Rhode Island also has about a dozen kids (boys and girls) playing college golf all across the country, a good portion of which are at the Division I level. 

With a handful more to come.

I’m not sure RI golf has ever seen a time like this, perhaps Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon, then Brett Quigley shortly after that. 

I wrote about the impact they had on Rhode Island Golf in The Woonsocket Dynasty, and these four can have the same, if not more of an impact. 

That’s why it is important for them to keep going forward despite the inevitable rough patches ahead. 

The Impact They Have 

In my previous job, I covered Providence College basketball for another online news website. 

Kris Dunn played at PC for four years and then got drafted fifth overall in the NBA. 

Many basketball minds at the time said Kris getting drafted high was a big deal for PC because it showed recruits that you can get to the NBA from little Providence College. 

Couple of years (or so) later, David Duke, another Classical star, decided to stay home and go to PC. 

Now Duke didn’t get drafted, Covid kinda derailed his PC career a bit, but he signed as an undrafted free agent, and recently just re-upped his contract with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. 

Since then, PC has had a number of highly ranked recruiting classes and players transferring in. 

While it is not apples to apples (obviously), I feel that Patrick, Davis, Chris and Will can have a similar impact on this young crop of Rhode Island golfers. 

Rising star Max Jackson has said multiple times that he looks up to those guys and wants to follow their lead.

‘Hey you can get to the pros from Classical High School, from URI etc..” You don’t necessarily have to move your entire life to Florida or any warmer climate to get there.

And that is the importance of Patrick Welch, Davis Chatfield, Will Dickson and Chris Francoeur. 

Does this mean RI is suddenly going to have dozens of kids turning pro? no, of course not. I’m not saying that.

It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of work. 

Bobby Leopold said on the RI Amateur Series Podcast, “if I’m on the range practicing for an hour, Davis is there for five hours.” 

However, for the select few that decide to put in the work and go down that road, the path is there. 

So keep going boys.