PGA Tour: Luke Clanton earns huge gift of two major starts with newest honor

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that Luke Clanton is the 2024 Mark H. McCormack Medalist.

Two governing bodies, the R&A and USGA, award the top golfer in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, following the U.S. Amateur.

He earns a U.S. Open and Open Championship start in 2025, which means Clanton will be at Oakmont and Royal Portrush.

“Winning the McCormack Medal is an honor I will cherish forever,” Clanton said in a USGA press release. “This award represents not just my efforts but also the incredible family support I have. This will inspire me to keep pushing boundaries and to pursue my dreams with even greater determination. I’m proud to join the ranks of those who have achieved this distinction.”

Clanton started his run back at this year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. Neal Shipley beat him for low amateur that week. He finished T-41 at Pinehurst, then fired off two top-10s on the PGA Tour at the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a T-10 and the John Deere Classic with a T-2.

The Florida Seminole also played all four days at the ISCO Championship, finishing T-37 that week. Clanton earned his third top-10 finish at the Wyndham Championship earlier this month, claiming a solo fifth-place finish.

He immediately flew from Greensboro, N.C., to Minnesota for the U.S. Amateur. Clanton advanced out of stroke play into the match play portion before he fell to Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan in the round of 32.

The rising Florida State junior is on the fast track to joining last year’s McCormack Medal winner, Gordon Sargent, as a future PGA Tour member.

Last fall, Sargent earned 20 PGA Tour University Accelerated points and had the choice to accept a PGA Tour membership at the end of his junior year. However, Sargent chose to stay on for his senior year.

Clanton has 14 accelerated points toward the 20 points he needs to earn an automatic membership. He must hit that number by the end of his junior year, which would be May 2025.

The 20-year-old earned five points for being No. 1 in the World Amateur rankings, and the other nine came from his performances on Tour this summer.

His two major championship starts next year will not go toward the Accelerated points because they will be after the end of his junior year.

Clanton joins Patrick Cantlay (2011), Matt Fitzpatrick (2013), Jon Rahm (2015), Maverick McNealy (2016), and Sargent among the distinguished players to win the Mark H. McCormack Medal.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.