In just his second start as an official member of the PGA Tour, Matt McCarty has claimed his first trophy. Reaching 23 under for the tournament, McCarty put some ground between himself and the field across four days in Utah to achieve a three-stroke victory over Stephan Jaeger at the 2024 Black Desert Championship.
With the win, McCarty has secured his playing privileges on the PGA Tour through the 2026 season. He also assures himself invitations into some of the most decorated fields in the sport including The Sentry, the Masters and the PGA Championship. McCarty recently earned a Three-Victory Promotion onto the PGA Tour from the Korn Ferry Tour after winning three times in the same season. He finished ranked No. 1 on the latter tour, which previously earned him spots in The Players Championship and U.S. Open.
Beginning the week outside the top 230 in the FedEx Cup — given he had only played once prior on the PGA Tour this season — the smooth-swinging left hander jumped to No. 95 in the season-long race with an outside chance to play himself into the Aon Next 10 and the first two signature events of the 2025 season: the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.
Starting the final day with a two-stroke lead, McCarty saw his advantage cut in half a few times throughout his final 18 holes; however, his name never dropped from the top of the leaderboard. Initially, Harris English made his presence known with an opening birdie before his playing partner Kevin Streelman began to pose as McCarty’s biggest threat.
McCarty matched English’s birdie on No. 1 to regain his two-stroke advantage and settled in nicely into his first 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour. Streelman’s surge came just before the turn as he played Nos. 7-9 in a 3-under fashion to once again trim the margin to a single stroke.
The lead ballooned back in favor of McCarty as Streelman’s third on the par-4 10th was left short of the green and resulted in a double bogey. No one on the golf course was within two of the leader at that stage, though just moments prior, Lucas Glover had put the finishing touches on a final-round 62 to get within two and post the clubhouse lead at 19 under.
McCarty appeared to be in cruise control until a three-putt bogey on No. 12 injected life back into the tournament. A couple pairings ahead, Jaeger jumped into the picture thanks to back-to-back birdies on Nos. 13-14 to get within one. It wouldn’t last long as the 26-year-old slammed the door shut on the drivable par-4 14th. Hitting his tee shot from just inside 300 yards to just inside 4 feet, McCarty put an eagle on his scorecard and put distance between himself and the chasing pack.
A couple birdies, a bogey and a par coming in was more than enough for McCarthy to secure his first PGA Tour victory and his fourth professional victory in his last 10 starts dating back to his Korn Ferry Tour days. Riding a heater into the desert, McCarty leaves Utah as a PGA Tour winner and as a certifiable name to watch as his career only grows from here. Grade: A+
Here are the grades for the rest of the notables on the leaderboard at the 2024 Black Desert Championship.
T3. Lucas Glover (-19): For the second straight Sunday, Glover surged across the finish line with a sizzler of a final round. After turning in 6 under, the former U.S. Open champion tacked on three more birdies on his inward half to tie the low round of the tournament and climb inside the top five. The move is substantial for Glover as he jumps inside the top 60 in the FedEx Cup standings and now holds the inside track to qualify for the first two signature events of the 2025 season.
“I still don’t know how any of this works,” Glover said. “I’m here because I didn’t play good the regular part of the year. I think I got three or four weeks off now and show back up in Bermuda. All the math and — I don’t know, you need a Nobel math scholar to figure it out all. Just trying to play well.” Grade: A
T5. Matti Schmid (-18): A sluggish sophomore season on the PGA Tour may have been saved with a final-round 62 at the Black Desert Championship. Schmid entered the week No. 120 in the FedEx Cup standings and in jeopardy of falling out of the top 125. Instead, he has solidified his spot as a full-time card holder these last two weeks with a T12 finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship and a top-10 result in Utah. Since the start of the 2023 season, the 26-year-old has played 70 tournaments between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Grade: A-
T35. Daniel Berger (-12): Every FedEx Cup point matters for Berger, who is slowly but surely inching his name closer to the top 125 that earn full-time status and a spot in The Players next spring. He climbs a couple spots to No. 127 after battling late Friday evening to make the cut on the number. After claiming his first top 10 since 2022 last week in Mississippi, Berger continued to display plenty of firepower out west. Unfortunately, the big numbers piled up as well and were ultimately too much to overcome to contend. Grade: C+
T35. Chris Kirk (-12): The former Georgia Bulldog was the lone player to qualify for the Tour Championship to tee it up this week. There is plenty of good to take away from his play as he ranked inside the top 10 in strokes gained approach and inside the top 15 in strokes gained tee to green. Similar to the bulk of his season, Kirk’s putter was the culprit as he failed to take advantage of his stellar iron play with birdie conversions. Grade: C-
MC. Keith Mitchell: Following his close call at the Sanderson Farms Championship was always going to be a big ask, but Mitchell came into the week as the tournament favorite only to look far from it. Carding rounds of 69-73, the big-hitting right hander struggled to maintain momentum throughout his 36 holes and failed to hit fairways consistently in his second stroll around the par 71. He only drops two spots in the FedEx Cup standings and remains on the cusp of the Aon Next 10. Grade: F
Rick Gehman, Patrick McDonald and Greg DuCharme recap the 2024 Black Desert Championship. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
