One of the Korn Ferry Tour’s most accomplished players wins Albertsons Boise Open
Stephan Jaeger called golf a “weird” game during the Albertsons Boise Open — and he’s as good of evidence of that as you’ll find.
Jaeger played rock-solid golf all week at Hillcrest Country Club and won the Boise Open by two shots Sunday, earning his fifth career victory on the Korn Ferry Tour with a 22-under-par total.
He only has six other top-10 finishes in 97 career starts, and he missed the cut last year in Boise. The three weeks before he arrived in Idaho this year, he hadn’t shot a score lower than 71.
But when his game is right, he’s difficult to beat — and he says a substitute caddie and some hard work on the practice range got him back to that position at Hillcrest.
He and Brett Waldman, who has caddied for some big-name PGA Tour players, corrected Jaeger’s alignment in Boise. This was the first time the longtime acquaintances worked together.
“It’s going to take a couple hours to write all this stuff down,” Jaeger said. “So when we get lost again — which is gonna happen … you can go back and be like, ‘Hey, this is what I need to be able to control my golf ball and to be in contention.’ ”
Jaeger moved into a tie for sixth for most wins on the Korn Ferry Tour. Three of the five guys ahead of him also won in Boise — Jason Gore (seven wins), Matt Gogel (six) and Martin Piller (six). Kevin Johnson and Sean Murphy also have six wins.
Because of the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on tour golf this year, the 31-year-old Jaeger will have to wait at least another year to return to the PGA Tour, where he played during the 2018-19 seasons. There won’t be any promotions until the end of the 2021 season.
The win in Boise — which has more points available than the average Korn Ferry tournament because of its status as a playoff event — puts Jaeger in prime position to make that jump. He soared from 74th on the points list all the way up to 12th.
He also is in strong position to grab a spot in the U.S. Open next month.
“It’s obviously a great accomplishment,” Jaeger said of his five wins in four years. “… But on the other hand, I want to get on the PGA Tour and compete and win five in four years. That’s the real goal of mine.”
Jaeger came to the U.S. from Germany as a foreign-exchange student during his junior year of high school, hoping to improve his English. He played for a high school golf juggernaut in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and finished school there, then went on to Tennessee-Chattanooga for college. Chattanooga remains his home base.
He has played regularly on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2013, except for his two years on the PGA Tour, with a win in 2016, two wins in 2017 and one win in 2018.
That experience gave him the poise not to panic when the birdies that came so frequently the first three days vanished during the final round. He made an eagle on No. 2 but otherwise all pars through the first 13 holes. At one point, he asked Waldman how many strokes he’d fallen behind only to be told he was still leading.
Jaeger made a 30-footer for birdie on No. 14 and scrapped together another birdie from deep in the trees on the par-5 16th, which gave him a three-shot edge. He made a stunning bogey on the short, par-3 17th, but none of the other players near the top of the leaderboard were able to mount a charge. He closed out the win with a routine par on No. 18 for a 3-under 68.
Dan McCarthy, who shot 64 from back in the pack, and Brandon Wu, who shot 68, tied for second at 20-under.
Cameron Young, who played in the final pairing with Jaeger, opened birdie-eagle to tie for the lead but made five bogeys on his way to a 71 and tie for sixth.
Hillcrest’s greens were at their firmest Sunday, Jaeger said, which required a more conservative approach.
“I was thinking somebody in the last couple groups was going to shoot 6-, 7-, 8-under,” he said. “… Nobody really went that low today, so it might have just played a little tougher.”
