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Denny McCarthy Reaching New Heights on PGA Tour

By Tim Letcher

ST SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 21: Denny McCarthy of the United States plays a shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the RSM Classic on the Plantation course at Sea Island Golf Club on November 21, 2019 in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
ST SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 21: Denny McCarthy of the United States plays a shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the RSM Classic on the Plantation course at Sea Island Golf Club on November 21, 2019 in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Denny McCarthy finds himself in brand new territory on the 2020 PGA Tour. Can he keep up his solid play when the tour returns?

Denny McCarthy is in his third year on the PGA Tour and seems to be getting more comfortable in that role. He hopes that his familiarity with the tour can translate into a big season in 2020.

McCarthy is from Maryland but played his collegiate golf at the University of Virginia. There, he was the ACC Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-American for the Cavaliers.

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Upon his graduation, McCarthy turned pro and he played the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017. There, he made 23 starts and made 18 cuts, which included four top 10 finishes. His best result of the year was a tie for fifth at the Utah Championship. At the end of the season, McCarthy was 12th in the KFT finals, securing his PGA Tour card for the 2018 season.

McCarthy made 22 starts on the PGA Tour in 2018, making 13 cuts in the process. He had only one top 10 finish, which was a tie for fourth place at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.

However, he was only 149th on the money list at the end of the season and had to go back to the Web.com Tour to play in the finals. There, he found a ton of momentum as he finished in the top 15 in all four playoff events. That included his first win on the tour, which came at the Web.com Tour Championship. With that finish, McCarthy earned his way back to the PGA Tour in 2019.

Last season, McCarthy made 28 starts on the tour, making 16 cuts. He had a pair of top 10 finishes on the season, including a tie for seventh at the Sanderson Farms Championship and a tie for ninth at the Valspar Championship. Those two finishes, along with six other top 25s, allowed McCarthy to make the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time. His stay was short-lived, but he did finish 111th in the final standings.

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This season, McCarthy is off to a faster start. Through 13 events, he has made 11 cuts, with three top 10s and five top 25s so far. His best finish is a tie for eighth at the RSM Classic in November, but he also had a tie for ninth at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and at the Houston Open, both in October.

McCarthy is up to 56th in the FedEx Cup standings and hopes to continue that upward trend when play resumes in June. At this point, McCarthy is in unchartered territory, at least for him. It will be interesting to see how he handles those new experiences when the tour returns.

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