The Web.com Tour’s Savannah Golf Championship announced that Savannah native and former Savannah Country Day golfer Mark Silvers has been awarded Web.com’s exemption into the 2019 event, set to return to Deer Creek Golf Course at The Landings Club the week of March 25-31.

Silvers, who has six top-25 finishes in 54 career starts on the Web.com Tour, will be making his first start on Tour since the 2016 WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by KraftHeinz. Web.com, the Jacksonville, Florida-based online marketing company, has been the Tour’s umbrella sponsor since 2012, awarding one exemption per tournament to a player who might not otherwise have the chance to compete.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Mark has received the Web.com exemption into our Savannah Golf Championship,” said Tournament Director Cheyenne Overby. “Mark has been a great ambassador for this community throughout his career, and we know the passionate golf fans in Savannah will provide him with tremendous support during tournament week.”

After delivering a standout career at Savannah Country Day, Silvers added to his amateur resume at the University of South Carolina, where he earned “All-America” honors as a senior in 2009 before turning professional shortly thereafter.

Silvers, now 32, competed on various mini-tours throughout the early portion of his pro career before winning Golf Channel’s “Big Break Greenbrier” in 2012, which netted an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s Greenbrier Classic in 2013.

He won on the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada in 2014 before competing on the Web.com Tour full-time in 2015 and 2016. Silvers has spent the past two years playing on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica, where he has posted three top-10s in 24 starts.

“It is such a privilege to be playing in the Savannah Golf Championship this year. As a Savannah native, I can’t think of anything more exciting than playing in front of a home crowd,” said Silvers. “We are a wonderful golf town, and it is so great to see what a buzz this event has created. I’m extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to compete on the Web.com Tour again.”

The Savannah Golf Championship enjoyed a tremendous debut in 2018, with former LSU star Sam Burns earning his first Web.com Tour title. The victory was one of five top-10s during Burns’ rookie year on Tour, which gave way to a second-place finish on the Regular Season money list and a PGA TOUR card for the 2018-19 season. The 22-year-old is currently 67th in the FedExCup standings.

Burns is one of several PGA TOUR rookies who competed in Savannah in 2018, joining the likes of rising star Cameron Champ (who won the TOUR’s Sanderson Farms Championship in October) and Adam Long, who broke through for his first TOUR title last Sunday at the Desert Classic in La Quinta, California.

With 50 available PGA TOUR cards for the following season (since 2013), the Web.com Tour is the path to the PGA TOUR. Twenty-five TOUR cards are reserved for the leading points earners at the end of the 24-event Regular Season. Another 25 are up for grabs at the three-event Web.com Tour Finals that follow the Regular Season in August and September.

Notable rookies on the 2019 Web.com Tour include 2018 Jack Nicklaus and Haskins Award winner Norman Xiong, 2018 Masters Tournament low amateur Doug Ghim and 2018 SEC Championship winner Andy Zhang, who became the youngest player ever to compete in the U.S. Open when he did so at age 14 in 2012.