Chris Clogston entered the ETGL in 2014 the way a lot of good players do — quietly, with a handicap nobody quite believed and a swing nobody had a good answer for. Twelve seasons later, he sits at the top of the 2026 board in both Commissioner's Cup and Green Jacket standings, defending back-to-back gross titles and chasing his second net.
The Maplewood Open in April was the kind of round his game is built for: cold, defensive, the field giving up nines in a hurry. Clogston posted 73 for gross honors while Jon Hayenga and Chris Tank shared net duty at 70. It was his third top-five finish in three starts. Nobody has yet figured out how to keep up.
A swing built on repetition, a short game built on patience, and the cold-blooded ability to make par when nobody around him is willing to admit it's still possible. He does not chase shots he can't realistically pull off, and he does not give the field a single hole back once he has the lead. Hence the nickname.
Strongest part of his game: course management on the front nine of a round he doesn't yet know he's going to win. Weakest part: pretending he's not paying attention to the scoreboard.
"I just kept making fives. Eventually nobody was making fours." — Clogston, post-round, 2025 SONY Gross
Clogston vs. Tank has quietly become the defining rivalry of the modern ETGL — three Match Play meetings, two head-to-head runner-up finishes, and a long-running back-and-forth at the top of the leaderboard that has shaped the last decade of the league. They are the league's Tiger and Phil, if Tiger and Phil had also occasionally shared a cart.
"I'm not playing the course. I'm not playing the field. I'm playing my last seven holes. If those go okay, the rest tends to work out." — Clogston, on his approach
Players Clogston is currently chasing — or being chased by.