Local golfers Shipley, Goetz, Jackson moving up ranks on respective pro tours

It has been a productive summer for golfers Palmer Jackson, Neal Shipley and Mark Goetz.

The trio are playing one level below the PGA Tour and the DP World (European) Tour.

Jackson, the Murrysville native and Franklin Regional and Notre Dame grad, and Shipley, the Mount Lebanon native and Central Catholic, James Madison and Ohio State product, have won on their respective tours.

Jackson, 23, won on the HotelPlanner Tour on June 15 at Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge in Brno, Czech Republic. The victory put him at No. 16 in the tour rankings.

“I do not look at the rankings,” Jackson said. “I want to win every time I enter a tournament. I have trained my brain to win.

“I am a competitor. I do not want to pressure on myself to finish in a certain spot.”

After winning, Jackson missed the cut in his next tournament. But he had a top-20 finish last week to up his ranking.

“I played pretty well the final two rounds,” Jackson said. “I felt like I did when I won. Things started to click for me in the tournament I won. I figured some things out. The course in France was extremely difficult, and it surprised a lot of players.”

Jackson’s week starts Sunday and Monday with a travel day to the next location. He tries to get to the course by 5 p.m., and he walks nine holes with his wedge.

Jackson plays nine holes and practices Tuesday, and, now that he has won, he must play in the Pro-Am on Wednesday.

“That was something I had to get used to,” Jackson said. “It is a disruption to your routine. The advantage is getting to play the course.”

The tournament then starts Thursday.

“The key is keeping your body healthy,” Jackson said. “It is difficult because of travel and other problems that may arise.”

Jackson said the key is to continue to play well and keep getting better. If he would happen to win two more times this season, he would be elevated to the DP World Tour.

Jackson is playing in the Interwetten Open in Oberhaus, Austria, this week.

Shipley is in the same boat as Jackson. Two more wins and he gets moved to the PGA Tour. If he stays in the top 20 at the end of the season, he will get moved up in 2026.

Shipley is ranked No. 8. His win on the Korn Ferry Tour came at the LECOM Suncoast Classic on April 19.

“I am in a good spot,” said Shipley, who has two weekends before his next event. “I am excited about the rest of the season. I am heading to a good stretch starting in Colorado.”

Shipley is coming off a fifth-place finish in his most recent event.

“I am super happy,” Shipley said. “People do not realize how tough the Korn Ferry Tour is. There are a lot of PGA winners playing in the Tour. The level of golfers is so much better. This tour is going to get a lot stronger.”

Shipley said the start of the season was difficult because the tour started in the Bahamas, Panama, Columbia, Argentina and Chile.

Shipley, 24, is coming off an amazing 2024 season during which he was low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open. He qualified for both tournaments when he finished as runner-up at the 2023 U.S. Amateur.

He also played in PGA events and earned some serious cash after becoming a pro.

Goetz, 26, is ranked 107th on the Korn Ferry Tour, and his best finish is seventh June 8 at the BMW Charity Pro-Am when he went 17-under. He has made the cut in three of his past four events.

Goetz is a Kiski School and WVU grad and Greensburg native.

Shipley and Goetz return to action July 10 at The Ascendant at TPC Colorado.