Frankie Capan III shot a 5-under 66 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.
Capan is at 12-under after three rounds, one stroke ahead of Kevin Roy and two ahead of Thomas Rosenmueller and Pontus Nyholm.
Capan, who played at Florida Gulf Coast University, earned his 2025 PGA Tour card last week with a 12th-place finish at the Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tennessee.
A native of Stillwater, Minnesota, Capan started his collegiate career at Alabama. He transferred to FGCU for his final two seasons. His career scoring average of 72.35 ranks among the top-five in FGCU history. Capan opted to forgo an extra season of eligibility at FGCU and began his professional golf career.
He entered this week’s tournament ranked 14th on the Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. In 23 starts this year, he has five top-10 and two runner-up finishes, losing in a playoff to Harry Higgs at the Visit Knoxville Open in May and finishing three shots behind overall Points Leader Max McGreevy at last month’s Magnit Championships.
Capan also made some Korn Ferry history in the opening round of the Veritex Bank Championships in May by shooting a 13-under 58, breaking Scottie Scheffler’s course record by one shot. It was matched the second-lowest score in the tour’s history.
Capan has earned nearly $350,000 this season on the Korn Ferry Tour and more than $580,000 in his two years on the circuit.
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship is the third of four Finals events on the Korn Ferry Tour, and the field was cut to the top 76 players on Friday.
After Sunday’s final round, only 75 will get a chance to play next week in the tour’s championship in French Lick, Indiana, after which the top 30 on the season-ending points list will receive PGA Tour cards for 2025.
Fourteen players already wrapped up their cards, leaving 16 more to be had.
The Finals also locks in the top-75 players for exempt Korn Ferry status next season and the top-100 for conditional Korn Ferry status.
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship field includes the top 25 on the Korn Ferry points list. The purse is $1.5 million with the winner collecting $270,000 and 600 points toward his season total.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship: Frankie Capan III leads
