20-yo Luke Clanton details his ‘fun’ simulators-filled ‘meathead’ phase before his PGA Tour debut

Luke Clanton is having a very successful season this year. After finishing second in the 2024 NCAA Men's Golf Championship with Florida State, Clanton made his PGA Tour debut this year. Until now, Clanton has done very well on the tour and he recently spoke about the 'meathead' phase before his PGA Tour debut.

During an appearance on "The Smylie Show", Clanton spoke about the preparation leading up to his PGA Tour debut and also revealed what he and his friends would do. Detailing the entire process, the 20-year-old golfer said:

"It was a ton of caffeine for sure. It was a lot of caffeine a lot of protein shakes, a lot of simulators. It was fun because I know all my buddies we would go we wake up early work out. Probably 5 a.m. go workout for a couple hours, go basically tear the body up as we could, and then literally stipes the range, drop balls, and hit as hard as we can for about an hour." [17:11 onwards]

He further added:

"And it was good for sure to be where I'm at now, but in the moment it was crazy. Just a bunch of bunch of idiots basically trying to hit as hard as we could. But again I think it led me to where I'm at now being able to kind of hit it, if I want to hit it hard I can actually still square it up which is pretty sweet."

Given his run on the amateur circuit, Clanton's good performances on the PGA Tour do not come as a surprise. Even though Clanton did not have the best finish to his NCAA campaign this year, he has won several events like the Junior PGA Championship and has made a name for himself.

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Which position did Luke Clanton finish in during his last outing on the PGA Tour?

In his last outing on the PGA Tour, Luke Clanton played at the 2024 John Deere Classic and did extremely well. He finished T2 with a score of 8-under, which is considered a phenomenal finish for an amateur.

Here is the list of the top 20 finishes at the 2024 John Deere Classic ft. Luke Clanton:

• Win: Davis Thompson, -28
• T2: Michael Thorbjornsen, -24
• T2: Luke Clanton (amateur), -24
• T2: CT Pan, -24
• T5: Ben Griffin, -23
• T5: Carson Young, -23
• T7: Aaron Rai, -21
• T7: Andrew Novak, -21
• T7: Denny McCarthy, -21
• T7: Hayden Springer, -21
• T7: Eric Cole, -21
• T12: Brendon Todd, -20
• T12: Sungjae Im, -20
• T12: Chan Kim, -20
• T12: Harry Hall, -20
• T12: Sami Valimaki, -20
• 17: Seamus Power, -19
• T18: Ben Silverman, -18
• T18: Keith Mitchell, -18
• T20: Mac Meissner, -17
• T20: Kevin Yu, -17
• T20: Jhonattan Vegas, -17

While golfers who finished T2 took home $900k, Luke Clanton did not get a cash prize since he is an amateur. However, he became the first amateur to record back-to-back top 10 finishes on the tour in 66 years. Before the John Deere Classic, he finished T10 at the Rocket Mortgage League.