LOUISVILLE, KY. – A pair of Campbell graduates tee off with the world's greatest golfers this week in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.
 
Jesper Svensson '19, who is ranked third on the DP World Tour, and Ben Polland '13, the winner of the PGA Professional Championship, are among 156 players in the field competing for the $17.5 million purse, including a $3.15 million winner's share.
 
The second of four major championships in the pro men's golf calendar along with the Masters, U.S. Open and The (British) Open, the PGA Championship is being contested at Valhalla for the fourth time since the Jack Nicklaus design opened in 1996.
 
Svensson enters the PGA Championship standing No. 110 in the World Golf Rankings.  Already this season, he has won the 2024 Porsche Singapore Classic in March and finished T2 at the Bahrain Championship presented by BAPCO Energies.
 
A two-time Big South Conference golfer of the year and Big South individual champion, Svensson won four tournaments during his Campbell career that spanned 2015-19.  He finished 14-under-par (67-66-69—202) to win the 2017 league title at The Patriot GC and break the conference record of 204 set by eventual World No. 1 Dustin Johnson of Coastal Carolina.
 
A native of Uppsala, Sweden, Svensson turned pro in the summer of 2019 after competing in four NCAA regional championships for Coach John Crooks' team.
 
In 2023, he finished fifth on the Challenge Tour to graduate to the European Tour, where he produced runner-up finishes in the Investec South African Open Championship and Bahrain Championship before earning his first win on the top level in Europe.
 
A native of St. Paul, Minn., Polland is playing in his fourth PGA Championship.  He finished as the runner-up in the 2015 PGA Professional Championship followed by a T13 result in 2016 and a fifth-place finish in 2021.
 
Now PGA Director of Golf at Shooting Star in Jackson Hole, Wyo.  A member of the Campbell golf team, he graduated from the University's PGA Golf Management program and helped CU win the 2012 PGA Jones Cup.
 
The 2024 PGA Championship is televised by ESPN on Thursday and Friday, with weekend coverage on CBS.