Tag: Memorial Health Championship

Taylor Moore earns breakthrough win at Korn Ferry Tour’s Memorial Health Championship

Moore set a course record Saturday, then won his first Korn Ferry Tour event Sunday to lock up his PGA Tour card.

They were going low this week at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Memorial Health Championship.

None went lower than Taylor Moore, who set a course record on Saturday at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois, and then finished the job on Sunday for his first win. Moore posted scores of 66-66-60-65 to win by three shots over Erik Barnes. Andrew Novak finished solo third, four shots back. John VanDerLaan and Grant Hirshman tied for fourth, five shots back.

The red numbers were everywhere you looked at Panther Creek, which was playing at 7,244 yards.

Jared Wolfe shot a 61 on Friday to tie the course record. Moore’s 60 the next day set the new benchmark, and, was part of a record-setting day for the tour, as the overall scoring average of 66.908 was the lowest in any single round in tour history. In addition, there were four 62s posted over the four days.

Moore is the second player on the circuit to card a 60 this season. For the week, he had 26 birdies and one eagle. His lone bogey over the four days came on the first hole on Friday.

But that’s not all. Moore is now guaranteed to finish in the top 25 in points on the tour, meaning he has earned his PGA Tour card for the 2021-22 season.

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After career low, Erik Barnes in hunt but he trails Rick Lamb at KFT’s Memorial Health Championship

Lamb led Erik Barnes, of Marion, Indiana, and Chad Ramey by a stroke. Barnes’ 63 tied his career low on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Rick Lamb ended his opening round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS at Panther Creek Country Club a day late but it didn’t prevent him from taking the first-round lead.

Lamb, of Nashville, Tennessee, finished with a 9-under-par 62 on Friday in his two-day round — suspended Thursday due to rain and lightning at 3:29 p.m. Golfers were subjected to rain showers on Friday as well, but play began with the remaining first-round golfers at 8 a.m. Second-round tee times were moved to begin at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, with the last group out at 5:15 p.m.

Lamb had birdies on Nos. 11, 12, 14, 16 and 18 on his first nine holes then finished his 18-hole round with a barrage of birdies on the final four holes to finish with a career-low 62.

“I’ll take four birdies in a row anytime, it’s nice to finish the round that way,” Lamb said Friday morning. “But there’s a lot of golf left and it’s going to be a long weekend with all of this rain, a lot of stopping and starting.”

Last week in Colorado, Lamb missed the cut with a two-day score of 153.

“The game feels good,” said Lamb, a 30-year-old graduate of the University of Tennessee. “Pretty good bounce-back after last week. Last week was weird for me. I thought my game was in a pretty good place and then I went out and played terribly. It’s good to come back strong after that.”

Lamb led Erik Barnes, of Marion, Indiana, and Chad Ramey by a stroke. Barnes’ 63 tied his career low on the Korn Ferry Tour. Barnes is looking for his first win on the circuit.

Ramey, of Fulton, Mississippi, won the Live and Work in Maine Open last year for his only Korn Ferry win.

Charlie Wi, of South Korea, T.J. Vogel, of Hollywood, Florida, John VanDerLaan, of Southbury, Connecticut and Charlie Saxon, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, all finished with 7-under 64s. Wi, Vogel and VanDerLaan were able to finish their rounds on Thursday.

Last year’s champion at Panther Creek, Brett Drewitt, finished his first round 6-under and tied for eighth. No player in the 32-year history of the Korn Ferry Tour has won the same tournament in consecutive seasons.

University of Illinois graduate Nick Hardy shot a 5-under 66 in the first round.

In Friday’s second round, Jared Wolfe, of Ponte Vedra, Florida, tied the Panther Creek course record with a 10-under 61. Chase Wright set the record-low mark in 2018, also in Round 2.