VanArragon 1 Back Going into Final Round at Veritex Bank

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Caleb VanArragon has been killing par for the first three days of the Veritex Bank Championship. The former two-time MGA Player of the Year (2022 & '23) followed a second-round 62 at Texas Rangers Golf Club with a 7-under 64 on Saturday, but he's still one behind the tournament leader, Johnny Keefer, who followed a 61 with a 66, after a first-round 63. 

That put Keefer at 23-under 190 for 54 holes. VanArragon is at 191, tied for second with Austin Greaser and Rick Lamb for second place. Lamb opened the tournament with a 60, then shot 66 and 65. Greaser's worst score so far has been 64. He shot that twice, in the second and third rounds, after a first-round 63.

Keefer concluded his college career at Baylor last spring, after putting up the lowest scoring average in school history -- 71.45. That broke the record of 71.55 set by Jimmy Walker, who went on to win six times on the PGA Tour, including the 2016 PGA Championship. By virtue of his PGA University ranking (No. 25), Keefer got status on the PGA Tour Americas right away, and ended the 2024 season at No. 1 on the money list with $161,708. That got him a promotion to the Korn-Ferry Tour for 2025.

The top 20 players on this year's Korn Ferry points list -- which is pretty much the same as the money list -- will earn status on the PGA Tour next year. It appears that Keefer will do that. He is currently No. 11 on the money list with $166,700, and he should move up based on his finish this week.  

On Friday, he played the last 10 holes in 7 under, and that included a bogey on the par-4 17th hole. But that stretch also included an eagle at the 504-yard, par-5 ninth hole, and he birdied the 13th through 16th holes.   

VanArragon won the Minnesota State Amateur and State Open in 2023 and then turned professional last spring, after finishing his senior year at Valparaiso. (He was the Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Year and the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.) He promptly won his first tournament as a pro, the Twin Cities Open and  nearly won the State Open again, losing to Carson Herron in a playoff. (That second-place finish was worth $13,000.) Playing mostly on the Dakotas Tour last summer, he didn't win but had three seconds and made $24,645. He got into one PGA Tour Americas event, the CRMC at Brainerd, tied for 50th and made $2,934. 

He is on the Korn Ferry Tour this year by virtue of having made it all the way through the four-stage PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Q-School ordeal and finishing 36th in the Final Stage. So far, VanArragon has played in nine tournaments, not counting Veritex, and made  $19,890. That ranks 107th on the money list, but he now has a chance to make a substantial improvement in that ranking with a good round on Sunday.  
 

Veritex Bank Championship

At Texas Rangers Golf Club

Par 71, 7,110 yards

Arlington, Texas

Third-round results 

1. Johnny Keefer              63-61-66--190

T2. Caleb VanArragon    65-62-64--191

T2. Austin Greaser            63-64-64--191

T2. Rick Lamb                   60-66-65--191

5. Tyson Alexander            64-67-61--192

Missed cut -- 133

Thomas Longbella             69-66--135