The Web.com Tour announced Tuesday that 2017 National Basketball Association (NBA) Champion and Golden State Warriors All-Star Guard Stephen Curry will make his professional golf debut Thursday, August 3 beginning at 8:55 a.m. PT off the 10th tee at the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae. Curry will be paired alongside recent Web.com Tour winner Sam Ryder and defending champion Stephan Jaeger in each of the first two rounds, with the trio set to tee off in Friday’s second round at 2:15 p.m. PT.
“Anytime you can play with a world-class athlete at the top of his sport, I think it’s a good thing,” Ryder said. “I’m really excited to play with him. I think it’s going to generate a lot of great publicity for our Tour and I’m looking forward to it.”
Curry will maintain his amateur status in the event as he competes on an unrestricted sponsor exemption. Curry, a member of the Warriors since 2009, is a two-time winner of the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons, and has appeared in the last three NBA Finals with the Warriors, helping lead the team to Championships in 2015 and 2017. The 29-year-old is also currently the Warriors’ all-time leader in three-pointers made, and has been selected to three All-NBA Teams.
Ryder and Jaeger are the two highest-ranked players in the field at No. 2 and 3 on the money list, respectively. In his first career victory at last month’s Pinnacle Bank Championship Presented by Heartland Chevy Dealers, Ryder tied the fourth-largest margin of victory in Web.com Tour history with an eight-shot win to secure his PGA TOUR card for the 2017-18 season.
“I expressed my interest after I won in Omaha that I would love to play with Steph, and I think it’s all good things for our Tour. He’s such a high-profile athlete and the best in the world at what he does, so I’m looking forward to it,” said Ryder. “I have a friend that has spent some time with him at the American Century in Tahoe, and he says he’s a great guy. I’ve heard he’s a good dude, and I just met him today and told him I’m looking forward to playing with him. So, I’m excited.”
At last year’s Ellie Mae Classic, Jaeger was responsible for one of the most memorable weeks in the Web.com Tour’s 28-year history. The 28-year-old posted a PGA TOUR-record 58 in the opening round at TPC Stonebrae on his way to a record-setting 30-under-par 250 total and a seven-shot victory. This season, Jaeger has already won the BMW Charity Pro-Am and the Rust-Oleum Championship, putting him one win away from securing the Tour’s coveted Three-Victory Promotion.
“It’s not every day you get to hang out with a two-time NBA MVP,” Jaeger said. “I think it’s great for the tournament and for the Web.com Tour to have a superstar playing, and will hopefully help raise a lot of money for the Golden State Warriors Foundation.”
The Warriors Community Foundation serves as the event’s main charitable beneficiary, as charity continues to play a key role in every PGA TOUR-sanctioned event, with other Ellie Mae charities also benefiting. The TOUR and its tournaments generated a record $166 million for charity in 2016, in turn elevating the all-time total donated to charity to $2.46 billion.
Since purchasing the Golden State Warriors in 2010, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have continued the club’s longstanding tradition of community involvement. The Warriors Community Foundation, established in 2012 under the new ownership group, serves to expand the team’s impact locally.