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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Westmoreland stated he wouldn’t have reached the PGA Tour if it had not been for his years on the Air Power Academy and subsequent army service.
However he stated he might need strayed a bit from that sort of psychological and bodily rigor previously yr and desires to regain that sort of focus.
Westmoreland seemed targeted sufficient on the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course on Friday when he birdied 5 of his eight holes and went on to shoot the day’s low spherical of 64 on that course to seize a share of the 36-hole lead within the PGA Tour Q-Faculty at 7-under 133.
Westmoreland is tied with Harrison Endycott (68, Sawgrass Nation Membership) and Blaine Hale Jr. (66, Sawgrass). The trio is one shot forward of PGA Tour veteran Harry Higgs (65, Sawgrass) and Hint Crowe (65, Sawgrass).
Going low with nothing to lose.
With conditional standing already locked in, @HarryHiggs1991 can solely enhance his standing with a top-5 end.
He’s at present T4 after a powerful spherical at Sawgrass Nation Membership. pic.twitter.com/kbNkprVMcc
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 15, 2023
Tied at 5 beneath are Keita Nakajima of Japan (66, Sawgrass), who’s the highest-ranked participant on the earth within the discipline at No. 90, Brandon Harkins (66, Valley) and Hayden Spring (69, Sawgrass).
Higgs and Harkins had bogey-free rounds.
Raul Pereda had a bogey-free 67 on the Valley, and DP World Tour winner Julian Suri, matched that 67 on the Valley. The 2 are tied for fifteenth.
Third spherical will start early; Monday end doable
The remaining discipline of 159 gamers (there have been six withdrawals) will begin an hour early at 7:30 a.m. ET on Saturday to attempt to beat a line of extreme climate predicted to brush by the realm late Saturday afternoon and into the evening.
There are predictions of 2-4 inches of rain and wind gusts as excessive as 50 mph, leaving the timing of Sunday’s ultimate spherical unsure. The Tour is ready to complete the event on Monday.
Within the meantime, gamers took benefit of barely calmer winds on each programs within the second spherical. The sector averaged 69.873 on the Valley Course, greater than a shot lower than the primary spherical, and knocked nearly three photographs off the common Sawgrass rating, going from 73.099 to 70.122.
“There’s nonetheless some wind on the market,” stated Westmoreland, who made a sequence of putts of 15 ft or much less on the entrance, till capping his run with a 40-footer at No. 8. “Particularly right here [at the Valley] you get within the timber and it swirls somewhat bit. My caddie did a terrific job of making an attempt to work by these numbers and making an attempt to take as a lot danger out of it. There’s actually good tee photographs out right here, so I performed some good golf and made just a few putts.”
Westmoreland, a local of Katy, Texas, certified for the PGA Tour off his 2022-23 Korn Ferry Tour end, changing into the second service academy graduate to earn a PGA Tour card following Billy Hurley (U.S. Naval Academy). Westmoreland ultimately rose the the rank of captain and taught “Combative” on the Academy, which he stated invovled boxing and fundamental grappling.
“A glorified PE trainer,” he stated.
Tom Whitney (Air Power) turned the third by ending twenty first on this yr’s Korn Ferry Tour factors record.
Westmoreland admits he wants higher focus. He acquired 32 begins this season however made solely 10 cuts and completed 192nd on the FedEx Cup Fall factors record.
“You discover ways to put together. You discover ways to be disciplined in sort of what you’re going about doing,” he stated of what his USAF Academy expertise taught him. “To be sincere, I’ve fallen brief somewhat bit this yr, sort of getting exterior of my preparation, how I do issues. We’re actually simply making an attempt to concentrate on going again to that. Put together, actually concentrate on doing the issues which can be going to make me higher all through the week. I’m so grateful for my service time. I wouldn’t be right here with out it. However I can at all times get higher.”
Hale, who performed faculty golf at Oklahoma, wants each little bit of standing he can muster as a result of he’s one of many gamers within the discipline who’s ranging from floor zero. He has superior by first- and second-stage qualifying and made simply greater than $5,000 after making a single Korn Ferry Tour reduce final season.
“I’ve performed about all I can to be on this place,” he stated. “Simply preserve placing the ball in entrance of me and preserve going the following couple days. It’s simply validation. It’s validation that I used to be doing the proper factor, validation that I’ve been training the proper means.”
Hale was 5 beneath for the day by 12 holes, stumbled with a pair of late bogeys however righted himself with a closing birdie on the troublesome ninth gap at Sawgrass.
Endycott, an Australian who had the one bogey-free spherical Thursday on both course, lastly made one on the 18th gap at Sawgrass after 26 in a row with no blemish.
He turned and was 1 beneath with no additional harm on the entrance 9.
Different assorted Q-Faculty highlights and lowlights
Spencer Levin shot a bogey-free 64 for the low spherical at Sawgrass and is tied for ninth at 4-under.
Wesley Bryan birdied 4 holes in a row on the again 9 of the Valley, made a quadruple-bogey 8 at No. 17, then birdied 4 of his first 5 holes on the entrance 9 for a 66. He’s additionally tied for ninth.
66 with a quadruple bogey 😮@WesleyBryanGolf strikes to T9 after a wild spherical at PGA TOUR Q-Faculty introduced by Korn Ferry. pic.twitter.com/Tjxnk0WPj4
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) December 15, 2023
Tano Goya, who was tied for the first-round lead with Endycott, was 5-under to start out his Sawgrass spherical and misplaced all 5 photographs by the flip, ending with a double-bogey at No. 9. He then performed the again 9 clear with three birdies for a 72.
Daniel Summerhays had a bogey-free 65 on the Valley and Rob Oppenheim had eight scores of two or 3 for a 65 on the Valley as they each moved right into a tie for fifteenth.
Erik Compton birdied 4 of his first 5 holes at Sawgrass, after which birdied his first three holes on the again 9. However he had double-bogeys at Nos. 8 and 18 for a 68 and a tie for thirtieth at 2-under.
Dillon Board, who went to highschool close by, shot 82 within the first spherical at Sawgrass and knocked 12 photographs off with a 70 on the Valley. He’s nonetheless acquired a protracted option to climb as a result of he rose solely six spots to 157th.
However the largest mover up the leaderboard was by Aldrich Potgieter, a 19-year-old South African and the youngest participant within the discipline by 3 years, 2 months, and 4 days, shaved 15 photographs off his 8-over 78 at Sawgrass Nation Membership with 7-under 63 on the Valley, the bottom spherical of the week on that course. He went from a tie for 156th to a tie for 61st, up 95 spots.
The highest 5 finishers of the Q-Faculty event will earn a 2024 PGA Tour card.
The WDs
The six gamers to withdraw up to now are Kevin Chappell, Scott Piercy, Sam Choi, Zach Bauchou, Fabian Gomez and Brent Grant. Chappell, Piercy and Choi did so throughout the second spherical.
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