[ad_1]
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Any illusions that the gamers on this week’s PGA Tour Q-College introduced by Korn Ferry would have 4 idyllic days in sunny Florida had been shattered in Thursday’s first spherical.
The wind blew exhausting on the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley. It blew more durable throughout the road on the Sawgrass Nation Membership. And whereas Fxriday’s second may not be any worse, prepare for the weekend: wind and rain, upwards of an 80 % probability on Saturday and Sunday.
“I feel that it’s not going to get any simpler,” mentioned Roberto Diaz, a former Jacksonville resident who now lives in San Antonio. “It’s going to be a grind all week.”
Nevertheless, that didn’t imply a scarcity of excellent scores within the first spherical, particularly on the Valley Course.
Harrison Endycott of Australia, who completed 14 spots out of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall factors record, and Tano Goya of Argentina, a previous DP World Tour winner who has arrange a house base in Ponte Vedra Seashore, each shot 5-under 65s on the Valley Course to take a one-shot lead within the 72-hole match that may decide the ultimate 5 spots for the 2024 PGA Tour season and Korn Ferry Tour standing for the remaining.
Max McGreevey of Edmond, Oklahoma, shot 4-under 66 at Sawgrass and Doc Redman of Jacksonville, Florida, a former Clemson participant, and Hayden Springer, who got here out of TCU, posted 66s on the Valley Course.
It was a day that cried out for the cautious method and that’s what Endycott and Goya did.
“I performed fairly good right now, simply didn’t actually make any errors,” mentioned Endycott, who’s assured Korn Ferry Tour standing for subsequent season and is chasing one of many 5 Tour playing cards. “It was only a day of type of cling in there … don’t get grasping.”
Goya, a 35-year-old veteran of a number of worldwide excursions who has lived within the space for greater than two years, had a objective of hitting the ball, after which discovering it with little bother.
“Hit the ball nice,” he mentioned. “Strong ball-striking received me by way of numerous fairways and greens, in order that was just about the important thing right now.”
Thirty-one gamers broke par within the first spherical however solely seven at Sawgrass.
Native leaderboard
Aside from Goya and Redman, the following highest space gamers on the leaderboard had been former Florida Gator and NCAA particular person champion Fred Biondi, former Jacksonville College participant Raul Pereda, Bartram Path graduate and previous DP World Tour winner Julian Suri and Dawson Armstrong, who’re all tied for thirty second at even-par.
Biondi, Pereda and Armstrong performed on the Valley Course and Suri at Sawgrass.
Two-time PGA Tour winner Patton Kizzire of St. Simons Island, Georgia, started his spherical on the Valley at No. 10, eagled the sixteenth gap, birdied No. 1 to get to three beneath, then bogeyed 4 of his subsequent six holes to complete with a 71.
Chandler Blanchet of Atlantic Seashore, Florida, additionally shot 71 on the Valley and Taylor Funk of Ponte Vedra Seashore had a 74 at Sawgrass.
Diaz catches a break with eye surgical procedure
Diaz had eye surgical procedure in September to take away a pterygium on his left eye. And if hadn’t been such son, it would nonetheless be an issue.
Diaz mentioned he took his father to the attention physician in San Antonio and the ophthalmologist observed the pterygium on Diaz.
“It was a standard process, nothing loopy,” Diaz mentioned. “However it was obstructing a bit of little bit of sight in my left eye. So I had it eliminated and it’s been an enormous distinction.”
Diaz mentioned the primary profit was improved depth notion and seeing extra break and shade modifications on the greens.
“Placing grew to become very troublesome on the finish of the 12 months,” he mentioned. “A whole lot of putts that seemed to me that had been uphill, they had been truly downhill. It was simply robust to guage.”
And now?
“You see extra clear … you see a bit of bit extra shade change,” he mentioned. “I misplaced fairly a little bit of sight in my left eye that I didn’t even discover.”
Previous PGA Tour winners battle
There are 16 gamers within the area have gained on the PGA Tour however have discovered the necessity to play in Q-College. They’re not off to an excellent begin this week.
The low Tour winner within the first spherical was Kevin Tway with a 69 on the Valley, tied for twentieth. Wesley Bryan (Sawgrass) shot 70 and Sung Kang (Valley) had a 71.
Two-time Tour winner Robert Streb shot 72 on the Valley and four-time Tour winner Sean O’Hair struggled to a 73 at Sawgrass.
Previous success no assure
Kevin Chappell gained The Hayt particular person title at Sawgrass in 2007 when he was at UCLA and Brandon Jelley gained it in 2016 when he was at Oklahoma State. However Chappell shot 71 at Sawgrass on Thursday and Jelley had a 75.
It was a lot the identical for previous winners of the Sea Finest Invitational, performed every year on the Valley. Biondi was the co-medalist with Ricky Castillo within the 2023 match and Castillo was the outright winner in 2020 however shot 73 on the Valley on Thursday.
Jon Pak of Florida State gained the Sea Finest in 2019 however had a 74 on Thursday.
Peace within the Valley
Predictably, because it’s adjoining to the Atlantic Ocean, the Sawgrass Nation Membership performed harder within the first spherical than the Valley Course, the truth is, greater than two strokes greater.
Sawgrass averaged 73.099 within the first spherical, whereas the Valley averaged 70.791. Sawgrass had 38 double-bogeys to the Valley’s 32 and eight scores of triple-bogey or greater, to a few on the Valley.
Gamers on the Valley had 227 birdies and 9 eagles, whereas Sawgrass yielded solely 170 birdies and one eagle.
The one eagle at Sawgrass was a hole-in-one at No. 3 by Noah Hoffman, from 193 yards out.
The hardest gap on the Valley was No. 17, at 4.357 strokes. It’s one of many two holes transformed from a par 5 to par 4 for the match. The best gap was the par-5 first, at 4.583.
The largest tester at Sawgrass was No. 18, one other par-5 gap that was made a par 4 for the match. It averaged 4.432. The best gap at Sawgrass was the par-5 eleventh at 4.951.
Flip-flopping throughout A1A
The half of the sector that performed on the Valley Course on Thursday will play at Sawgrass on Friday, and vice-versa. The low half of the sector by way of 36 holes (81 gamers) will compete at Sawgrass on Saturday and the Valley on Sunday and the excessive half performs the reverse of that.
With withdrawals, the sector is right down to 162 gamers. One of many withdrawals was for purpose: Jacksonville resident Carl Yuan, who was 126th on the ultimate FedEx Cup Fall factors standings, was moved as much as No. 125 after the suspension of Jon Rahm, and is now exempt for the Tour subsequent season.
[ad_2]
Source link
