Keith Mitchell eager for more success after last week's 11th-place PGA Tour finish

Former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Keith Mitchell made his PGA Tour debut last weekend and tied for 11th at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla.
Former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Keith Mitchell made his PGA Tour debut last weekend and tied for 11th at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Keith Mitchell made quite the splash last weekend in his PGA Tour debut, finishing tied for 11th with Chad Campbell and Jason Dufner at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Mitchell earned $144,900 with his 6-under-par 278 on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, having earned a Valspar invitation two days earlier by winning the qualifying tournament in Brooksville, Fla., in a sudden-death playoff. The former Riverview resident is turning his attention back to the Web.com Tour with the hope of finishing among the top 25 to earn full-time status on the PGA Tour for 2018.

The 25-year-old Mitchell is currently 21st in the Web.com standings, having earned $29,888 this season, and he was a guest this week on "Press Row" on Chattanooga's ESPN 105.1 FM.

Q: How has your life changed since last weekend?

A: "My phone hasn't stopped ringing. I have a lot of family and close friends who have been sending me a lot of nice texts. It's been pretty crazy, and I've been trying to come back to earth."

Q: You were among three Baylor grads in the Valspar. What kind of bond do you have with Harris English and Luke List?

A: "Harris and I have become close over the years, having gone to Baylor and Georgia, and we both practice and train down here at Sea Island, Georgia. Harris has been very helpful to me in my golf career, and Luke is obviously a heck of a guy and was great to me last week. He talked to me about some of the holes and where to hit it."

Q: You led the field last weekend in driving distance. How does Baylor produce so many guys who can crush it off the tee?

A: "I wish I knew the secret, but my secret last weekend was just hitting more drivers than everybody. I may have hit a few in the trees, but I found most of the fairways, which was good."

Q: Given that Stephan Jaeger (Web.com) and Derek Rende (PGA Tour Latinoamerica) won events last year, this is quite the run for Chattanooga golf, isn't it?

A: "There has always been just a great breed of golf to come from Chattanooga. Baylor has always been good. McCallie has won its share of state titles. When Derek was at Soddy-Daisy, they were pretty unbelievable as well.

"Also, it wasn't that long ago when UTC was ranked No. 1 in the country."

Q: What went through your mind last Sunday when you closed the Valspar with a 48-foot birdie?

A: "I don't even know if I had any kind of feeling given that I pretty much went numb when I saw the ball go in the hole. Coming down the stretch, the money difference in a shot or two is incredible, and I'm thinking about trying not to three-putt and just getting it as close as I can.

"When it went in, I knew I had a chance to get in the top 10, which would have gotten me into the next tour event, but Charl Schwartzel made a birdie or two coming in and put me in 11th."

Q: You qualified for the Valspar two days before the tournament started. What will you remember most about that experience?

A: "I'll never forget all my buddies helping me when I didn't have everything I needed. I didn't have my golf shoes because of a travel situation, and I had a buddy let me borrow his golf shoes. My roommate drove my clubs down from St. Simons to Tampa, because he was playing in the same qualifier, so he grabbed my clubs and threw them in his car with his.

"I only had the clothes I wore in the qualifier, so the night before the playoff, I literally took my clothes off, put them in a washing machine at a Hampton Inn and waited for them to wash and dry so I could go to sleep and then wake up at 5 to go to the playoff."

Q: Where do you go from here?

A: "You have to play the Web.com Tour to play a full PGA Tour card, because you can't just do it through qualifying school, so I'm going to focus a majority of my time on the Web so I can hopefully play a full schedule on the PGA Tour next year instead of just a sporadic Monday qualifier here or there. Your goal is to have full status on the PGA Tour and to keep it as long as you can, because that's how you can make a living and start playing in majors.

"There is a chance I will play one or two more events on the PGA Tour this year, but it will have to be on a week when the Web is off. I can't risk missing one of the Web tournaments, because if you finish in the top 25 on the money list, you earn a PGA Tour card, and right now I'm 21st."

Q: Turning to our rapid fire, who was your favorite golfer growing up?

A: "Sergio (Garcia) was my favorite, but you had to look up to Tiger (Woods)."

Q: What's the biggest splurge you've made since last weekend?

A: "I had to fix the driver-side door handle on my Tahoe."

Q: Who is the coolest guy on the PGA Tour?

A: "I've got to go with Hudson Swafford."

Q: If you weren't a golfer, what would you do for a living?

A: "I would probably be in finance somewhere."

Q: Who is your favorite Georgia football player of all time?

A: "Todd Gurley."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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