Former Texas A&M star Ryan Palmer is all Texan, and now he's in state's Golf Hall of Fame

As a PGA Tour member for 20 years, Ryan Palmer gets to walk some of the most sacred and grandiose landscapes in the world.

But while you can take the boy out of the Texas ranch, you can't take the Texas ranch out of the boy.

Just ask Mike Chisum, a former University of Texas golfer who has managed Palmer’s career.

“He may be on the course and on TV looking like he’s a country club boy, but down deep in his heart, it’s jeans and boots and football and barbecue. He is a true Texan at heart,” Chisum said in a video introducing Palmer on Monday as one of six inductees into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame's Class of 2022. The event was held in San Antonio.

Palmer, who hails from Amarillo and played for Texas A&M, has played in 467 PGA Tour events, made the cut in over 300 of them and is now in the top 40 in PGA Tour career earnings.

Others honored during the ceremony included former University of Texas star Brad Elder, a pair of golf pros in Gordon Johnson and Ronny Glanton, as well as Barney Adams, the founder of Adams Golf, which founded the Tight Lies club series. Houston Country Club was also honored.

More:City of Austin election, politics to likely play a role in Lions Municipal's fate

“Our six inductees are incredible additions to the Texas Golf Hall of Fame. The induction dinner was sold out two months prior to the event, a testament to how many people care for, and want to celebrate, this special Class of 2022." said Reid Meyers, the Hall’s board chair.

Also included in the day’s activities was the unveiling of a marker on the Texas Golf Hall of Fame's Walk of Fame at historic Brackenridge Park Golf Course. And it was announced by the Mayor Pro Tem of Amarillo, Freda Powell, that Oct. 17, 2022 was officially "Ryan Palmer Day" in his hometown.

“I will forever be indebted to this great state and to the game of golf,” Palmer said. “I’ll choose Texas over and over. It’s God’s country.”

Jordan Spieth gets taste of being worst in foursome

During an off week spent at home in Dallas, Jordan Spieth experienced something he wasn’t used to — being the worst player in a foursome.

This wasn’t golf — that would be near impossible for the three-time major winner and former World No. 1 — but a doubles pickleball match with partner Scottie Scheffler in the Celebrity Battle of the Paddle exhibition in Frisco. The PGA stars took on former Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki and John Isner, one of the top American tennis players during the Professional Pickleball Association’s PPA Tour Round Up.

More:Austin-based Yeti ramps up golf connection with a funny (and cool?) new idea

“It was a really weird feeling going in front of a big crowd knowing you were the worst on the court, and I didn’t like that at all,” said Spieth, noting that Scheffler plays pickleball, a combination of tennis, Ping-Pong and badminton, nearly every day and he had played less than 10 times. “I’m fine in front of a crowd if I know that I’ve practiced and I’m good at what I’m going to do. But I wouldn’t say like I’m bad, but when you’re the worst of the ones that are going to be on there and there’s like 500 people there, you’re like this kind of stinks, I don’t really enjoy this.”

The good news is, Spieth’s golf game has been trending in the right direction as he prepares to make his season debut at the CJ Cup in South Carolina at Congaree Golf Club this week. When he last competed, Spieth was a perfect 5-0 in leading Team USA to victory at the Presidents Cup, including his first victory in singles at either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. (He was previously a combined 0-6-1.) Spieth, who won an hour’s drive away in April at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island and enters the week at No. 13 in the world, said he has found more joy in the actual work involved in improving than he has in the past while conceding there is more work to be done to achieve the lofty goals he still has for his career.

“I had some inconsistencies this year. Sorry, this last season. I didn’t have a great putting season by any means, but I also felt that ball-striking was a little more inconsistent than the previous year, and I knew why and I just needed a few weeks at home to try and figure it out. I kind of got to work right after East Lake and really tried to nail a lot in pre-Presidents Cup,” he said. “Then kind of the week leading in, I really started to kind of have things click a bit.”

More:A second Ryder Cup in Texas? It’s all but cemented at Frisco’s Fields Ranch

Texas events not among those ‘elevated’ by PGA

The PGA Tour is set to announce four additional tournaments with elevated status for 2023, Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch reported this week. The additions will bring to 13 the total number of Tour events designated as “elevated,” meaning the presence of the game’s biggest stars will be guaranteed as they compete for lucrative purses of at least $20 million.

In August, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced the first nine elevated events for the 2022-2023 season. Those were the Players Championship; three FedEx Cup playoff stops (FedEx St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship, Tour Championship); the three invitationals (Genesis, Arnold Palmer, Memorial); Austin’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The four additional tournaments to be elevated this season are the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Travelers Championship.

What’s missing from the current list of elevated events is another Texas stop, meaning the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth, the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney and the Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park all missed the cut.

While the nine previously announced events will have elevated status every year, it’s expected that the four unveiled this week will rotate between tournaments each season, ensuring that every sponsor interested in paying for elevated status would be guaranteed the best possible field every few years.

More:As golf booms, Austin leagues help players get tee times

Hancock Golf Course back open for play

Hancock Golf Course was closed for overseeding on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, but reopened for play Thursday. The first location of the Austin Country Club, the nine-hole golf course was the first in Austin and is the oldest continuously operated course in the state.

Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek, golf coordinator for the USA Today Network and lives in Round Rock. Adam Schupak of Golfweek also contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Texas A&M golf star Ryan Palmer inducted into Hall of Fame