Cam Davis didn’t envision a 62 at Waialae Country Club in his future Thursday.
HONOLULU – Cam Davis didn’t envision an 8-under 62 at Waialae Country Club in his future Thursday. But he didn’t mind signing for one to take a two-stroke lead when play was suspended due to darkness with 19 players left to complete the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
“I think when I was standing on the first tee staring into a 30-mile-an-hour wind on a 500-yard, par-4 I was thinking, well, pars are good today,” he said.
On a windswept afternoon, the 28-year-old Aussie birdied five of the last six holes to card a career low and build off a final-round 8-under 65 at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course at The Sentry.
“I thought, well, as long as I can build off that round and continue that on to this week and next week, that is the sort of momentum I was looking for,” he said. “It was very cool to back it up with a really good round.”
Davis made nine birdies in all – his lone bogey came at the fifth, which played the toughest on the day – and his putter heated up even as the temperature dipped below 70 (and felt like 50) on this island paradise.
“I was seeing the green reads pretty well for some reason today. Sometimes they don’t come too clearly, but today I felt like I was seeing them well and putting decent speed and just hitting good putts on top of that,” said Davis, who canned a 37-footer on No. 13 and a 21-footer at 15. Yet he was proudest of the 5-foot par putt he sank at 17.
“Made a lot of really good putts today,” he said. “That one on 17 just to keep the score moving forward was really nice.”
All round long, he had his wife’s family visiting from Seattle following his group and he gave them plenty to cheer about.
“They cheered for a couple pars as well,” he said. “A lot of them haven’t seen a golf tournament before and it was really fun to put a good round together in front of them.”
Here are four more things to know from the first round at the Sony Open.
Tyler McCumber posted the 50th score of 60 or lower in PGA Tour history at the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — It wasn’t a 59 but Tyler McCumber posted a 60-for-50 on Sunday during the final round of the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Club Seaside Course.
McCumber skirted the left side on the cup at the ninth green, his 18th hole, on a putt of 53 feet, 6 inches for a chance to shoot 59 but settled for the 50th score of 60 or lower in PGA Tour history.
McCumber made five birdies in a row before his closing par. He had an eagle putt of 48 feet, 9 inches at No. 15 but his eight birdie putts were all 10 feet or less.
McCumber, 30, broke his previous Tour low of 63 (the most recent last summer during the first round of the Wyndham Championship) and also finally got the family record: the lowest round for his father, 10-time Tour winner and 1988 Players Champion Mark McCumber, was a 63 at the Texas Open.
“I have a long way to go in [his father’s career] to match that, but I’ll hold 60 over his head tonight over a beer,” McCumber said.
His father, who walked all 72 holes with his son this week, didn’t mind a bit, especially in watching his son rally from going to 6 under through 11 holes on Thursday, only to stumble home with a 69 at the Plantation Course, then have to birdie two of his last four holes to make the cut on Friday.
“He showed so much heart Friday afternoon the way he made the cut, and [Saturday, an even-par 70] he played almost as good as today and made nothing, it was so hard to putt with the wind. I knew he was committed and his attitude great when he ripped his drive down the middle at [No. 10] and then made his first birdie at a tough par-3 [No. 12]. He never looked back. He was never in trouble, never had to fight to make par.”
At the time McCumber finished, he was three shots off the lead and in a tie for third behind Talor Gooch, one of his playing partners in the first two rounds. Gooch eventually shot a bogey-free 64 to win, beating Mackenzie Hughes (62) by three shots at 22-under 260, while McCumber tied for fourth.
McCumber posted the second 60 this week, matching Sebastian Munoz in the first round at Seaside. They tied 2012 winner Tommy Gainey for the tournament record.
Tyler McCumber reacts after finishing his final round with a 60 at the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. Photo by John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
McCumber will take some momentum into the Tour’s six-week break after a fall in which he missed the cut in four of his first five starts. But it was a deceptive run of missed weekends: McCumber missed three cuts by a total of four shots, and expressed some frustration to his father, especially since he was coming off a promising rookie season, making the FedEx Cup playoffs, posting five top-25s and notching his best career finish with a second to Hudson Swafford at the Dominican Republic.
“He said, ‘Dad, when is this going to turn?’” McCumber said. “We talked a lot and I told him to stay in the process, and you can get momentum.”
McCumber seized it on a sunny day with diminishing wind. After his 8-footer for birdie at No. 12, he drained an eagle putt of nearly 50 feet at No. 15, dropped a 4-footer for birdie at No. 16, turned and birdied No. 1 from less than 3 feet and No. 4 from 10 feet.
Then he got really hot. Attacking the pins with his iron shots, McCumber birdied his next five holes, with the longest putt coming from 10 feet at No 6.
He admitted to thoughts of 59 – one shot off the Tour record held by Jim Furyk – when he approached his 16th hole, the par-5 seventh.
“I came off a couple birdies in a row and just trying to find a head space that kind of kept the pedal down versus coasting in,” he said. “Just wanted to try to have a goal to birdie every hole or make an eagle coming in.
He set up his final chance with a pair of 6-foot birdie putts at Nos. 7 and 8. After pounding a 3-wood down the middle of the ninth fairway, McCumber had 144 yards to the hole and selected a 52-degree wedge, trying to account for the fact that he might have a bit of adrenaline flowing.
“I had a good number to that back-right pin,” he said. “I had a little bit of a hanging lie and I was playing for about 4 or 5 yards of adrenaline to about 3 or 4 yards short of the pin just in case you get a little help or a little gust. I figured an eight- to 10-footer right below it would be perfect, pretty makeable. I caught it a degree low and came up just a hair short and had a little longer putt than I wanted for 59.”
He gave the putt a chance, reading a break early in the roll and sliding it past on the high side.
“It looked great the entire way,” he said. “The guess was sort of in the beginning of the putt. It was a grain change. It was right-to-left grain and then right-to-left and down. I knew if I got it to the one point at the grain change, I knew what it was going to do. So obviously you’re hitting it hard from 53 feet. Just wanted to have really good speed and I felt like I had the right speed. Just hung out there a little longer than I needed.”
McCumber was cheered on during the round by a band of friends and family that have dubbed themselves, “Tito’s Banditos” — a play off his childhood nickname of Tito.
“Really an awesome support group and I’m pretty glad and fortunate to have that out here this week,” he said.
McCumber wasn’t the only one =who had a nice Sunday stroll at Sea Island. Cameron Smith had a 64 to tie for fourth with McCumber at 15-under.
It was Smith’s fourth consecutive finished among the top-15, dating back to the end of last season and his fourth top-10 in six starts, counting a tie for 10th when he played for Australia at the Olympic Golf competition.
“My Dad [10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber] told me many times that I had to learn more patience.”
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA. — Tyler McCumber admits there was a time in his life where he wasn’t the most patient person.
“I didn’t have any,” he said on Wednesday, prior to playing in the RSM Classic Pro-Am at the Sea Island Club’s Seaside Course. “My Dad [10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber] told me many times that I had to learn more patience.”
But the 30-year-old second-generation PGA Tour player has shown that attribute in abundance since turning professional in 2013.
Few players with current PGA Tour status paid more dues and traveled more of the world to do it than McCumber.
He got a Korn Ferry Tour card two years later when he finished third on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica, but then lost it in one season, the product of 12 missed cuts in 20 starts.
McCumber regained his Korn Ferry status in 2018 by winning the Mackenzie Tour-Canada Order of Merit, with three victories and he only lasted one year again — but for the right reason, coming in 22nd on the 2019 money list to earn his PGA Tour card
He then retained it by finishing 99th on the 2020-21 FedEx Cup points list, with two top-10s and five top-25s.
“I feel like it was a big learning year,” he said. “Learning all the courses, getting comfortable on Tour … it’s such a fun process, but there’s a lot to take in. Having this sort of weird, hybrid rookie season, with two years under my belt, I’m going to take a step back this offseason and go over what I’ve learned, make a plan for going forward and make the necessary adjustments. But also, sort of soak it in. It was a big year-and-a-half.”
It was an odd situation for everyone. The Tour suspended play because of the pandemic in March of 2020, just two weeks after McCumber posted a 20th-place finish in Puerto Rico. When play resumed in June, he missed six cuts in a row and had to withdraw from another tournament as he battled through a prolonged bout with a stomach virus.
In February, McCumber nearly withdrew from the Genesis Invitational after cutting his finger on a sliding glass door. He shot 67-68 in the first two rounds to get a spot in the final group on Saturday but then shot 77-74 on the weekend and tied for 52nd.
The good news is that the Tour froze the membership status for another year and McCumber was able to rally with a series of strong finishes.
That included a tie for 22nd in The Players Championship, the tournament his father Mark won 33 years before, and a second in at the Tour’s event in the Dominican Republic when Harris English birdied the final hole to win by one shot.
McCumber hasn’t gotten off to the best start in 2021-22. He’s missed four of his first five cuts entering this week’s RSM Classic but he said he’s at peace with the process.
His pattern has been to miss cuts in bunches but rebound quickly. In early 2021, he missed four cuts in a row but rallied at The Players, then tied for 33rd at the Honda Classic and tied for 12th in the Dominican Republic.
After six missed cuts in a row, he tied for 15th at the Wyndham Championship.
“I don’t know why, other than it’s kind of my pattern,” he said. “I’m trying on every shot. Golf is a wild game. There are a lot of variables that are out of your control. I try to focus on what I can control and give my best every shot. But missing a few cuts and then coming back to have chances to win is not a bad pattern. I hope I can flip the script and go in the right direction.”
Paying dues is sort of a family tradition. McCumber’s father needed eight attempts at the PGA Tour qualifying school under the old system to get his card, won his first tournament at the age of 28 and won The Players at 36.
McCumber doesn’t regret the road he’s taken through Canada and Latin America to get to the PGA Tour. Indeed, he’s an avid outdoorsman and surfer and once spent six weeks hitch-hiking in New Zealand and Australia with nothing but his board and his backpack.
He also remains the answer to a trivia question: he’s the only player to earn Korn Ferry Tour status off the money list of two of the three PGA Tour’s international circuits.
“I think golf demands patience and perseverance,” he said. “The path to the PGA Tour took that, plus a strong belief in myself. I’m still figuring out what works but I have a pretty good formula in mind and I’m going to play with that plan and trust and believe it.”
Russell Henley’s goal of winning this season on the PGA Tour is within his grasp despite a scratchy, grind-it-out round on Saturday.
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Russell Henley’s goal of winning this season on the PGA Tour is within his grasp despite a scratchy, grind-it-out round on Saturday.
“I’m not always going to shoot 62 or 64,” said Henley, who did just that the first two rounds en route to shooting a 54-hole total of 15-under 195. “I feel thankful to be under par today.”
On another scorching-hot day in the Gate City, Henley canned a 33-foot eagle putt at the par-5 15th to shoot 1-under 69 at Sedgefield Country Club, and maintained his lead after three rounds of the Wyndham Championship.
“I was just a little bit tentative, maybe a little bit nervous,” Henley conceded. “I’ve never had a four-shot lead, so just kind of dealing with all the thoughts that are not wanted in my head and just trying to focus on what I want to do.”
Henley’s lead was trimmed to three by Tyler McCumber, who fired a bogey-free 66.
Russell Henley gestures to the crowd after making an eagle on the fifteenth hole during the third round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament. (Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports)
Henley, 32, who talked about his phone alert that reminds him he’s a great putter on Thursday, didn’t make nearly as many putts on Saturday, including suffering a 3-putt bogey at the last from 52 feet. He made a 2-putt birdie at the par-5 fifth and a bogey at 11 and his lead was trimmed to as little as one before he drilled the long eagle putt. (He made a total of 73 feet of putts for the day and 33 of those were on one putt.)
“I hit it a little too hard so I was glad it hit the hole,” he said.
Henley’s short game picked up the slack. He rescued pars at Nos. 12 and 13 that set the stage for his eagle heroics. For the week, Henley has successfully scrambled on 12 of 14 attempts. None were better than the one he made at 13 from the downslope near a bunker to the right of the green.
“If I ground my club, I think my ball would have rolled in the bunker, so I couldn’t really put my club down all the way,” he explained. “I had a ton of green to work with and I just judged it with the correct wedge and the right flight and got that up and down. That was a confidence booster under that circumstance.”
Henley said he’s worked hard to improve his short game the past few years, including practicing regularly with former Masters champion Larry Mize, and gaining structure in his practice routine from his putting coach Ramon Bescansa.
“I still don’t feel like I’m the best chipper out here or anything, but I feel a little more comfortable because of the work I’ve put in,” Henley said.
McCumber, 30, is seeking his first PGA Tour title. The son of former Players Championship winner Mark McCumber entered the week having missed six straight cuts but said he’s sticking to “his same recipe.”
“I’ve been playing great,” McCumber said. “Golf doesn’t always give you the results you want. You’ve got to stay in the process and I feel like I’ve been doing that pretty well and getting rewarded for it through the first three rounds this week, so taking that momentum into tomorrow.”
He’ll play in the final group alongside Henley and South Africa’s Branden Grace, who trails Henley by four strokes after shooting 64. Tee times were moved up to the morning with hopes of avoiding inclement weather forecast for later in the day. Overnight rain could also change the complexion of the tournament as Henley tries to become the first wire-to-wire winner this season on Tour. (Sam Burns at the Genesis Invitational, Louis Oosthuizen at the British Open and Harris English last week at the WGC FedEx St. Jude all failed in their attempts.) Twice previously this season, Henley has held or shared the 54-hole lead and both times – at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek and U.S. Open – he failed to convert.
Lurking within striking distance are some notables familiar with visiting the winner’s circle, including Webb Simpson (-10), Justin Rose (-10), Adam Scott (-10) Kevin Kisner (-11) and Kevin Na (-11). Said Kisner, who climbed to within a stroke of the lead before bogeys at the final two holes: “I’ve got to shoot something silly tomorrow to have a chance.”
Henley’s been around long enough to know someone just might shoot something silly at Sedgefield.
“Guys could shoot 10 under or they could shoot 2 over here,” said Henley, who hasn’t won since the 2017 Shell Houston Open. “I don’t feel like I’m in a position where I can lay off the gas.”
Mark McCumber’s road to The Players is the result of a lot of paid dues, on the Korn Ferry Tour and two of the international circuits.
Tyler McCumber didn’t see his father Mark win the 1988 Players Championship: he wasn’t born until three years and one week later.
But he’s watched archived video supplied by PGA Tour Entertainment of his father mastering the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass that week, firing that was then the course record of 15-under-par 273 and playing 32 holes on Sunday (there was a rain suspension the day before) and not making a bogey until the final hole, when he had a five-shot lead on the 18th tee.
“He was in total control of his game,” Tyler McCumber said. “What struck me were the number of holes he went without a bogey, on that course, against those players. He loved the pressure. He thrived on being the hometown guy wanting to win his hometown tournament.”
He will get a taste of that this week as the family business at The Players Championship starts a new chapter on Thursday in the first round.
Tyler McCumber will make his first career start after qualifying for the tournament through his FedEx Cup points of the last two seasons (he’s 57th entering the week) and the Nease High and University of Florida graduate will complete the eighth father-son pairing in Players history.
Mark McCumber of Jacksonville celebrates his 1988 Players Championship victory with family members. His son Tyler, who is in the field for this week’s Players Championship, was born three years later.
Mark McCumber — a Jacksonville native who grew up playing the game at Hyde Park, graduated from Lee High School, won 10 times on the PGA Tour and went on to design a half-dozen First Coast golf courses — isn’t sure if he will be more nervous when his son steps to the first tee in the first round than he was fending off World Golf Hall of Fame members such as Payne Stewart, Lanny Wadkins, Greg Norman, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Bernhard Langer on the weekend 33 years ago.
“It took me a while to get comfortable in this tournament,” Mark McCumber, said referring to his first eight Players starts in which he missed four cuts and finished no higher than a tie for 35th until he tied for 12th the before he won, kicking off a streak of five top-13 finishes in a row.
You grow up in this town, with all the distractions of playing in front of your family and friends, and it’s not easy. People think you have a home-field advantage but you press a little bit. But I think he’s more prepared for that than I was. He’s incredibly strong, emotionally, and I think he excels more when it matters. Bert Yancey [McCumber’s mentor as a young pro] always told me, ‘it’s good to be nervous. If you can’t spit you’re having fun.”
Tyler McCumber isn’t cruising into the tournament with a ton of momentum. He missed the cut last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational with rounds of 79-75, and since his two best combined weeks on Tour last fall, when he was solo second in the Dominican Republic and tied for sixth at the Sanderson Farms Championship, McCumber has missed six of nine cuts and finished no higher than a tie for 40th.
But he’s still learning to put four good rounds together on the PGA Tour. McCumber was in the final twosome for the third round of the Genesis Invitational with opening scores of 67-68 — just two days after he bashed his finger in a sliding glass door at his hotel and needed to have his nail removed.
Tyler McCumber lines up his putt on the 11th hole during the first round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Doctors advised him to withdraw. McCumber played on.
“Last week … was just a matter of being on a hard course with a couple of swings that were two-shot penalties,” he said. “I still feel like I’ve got a lot of positives going for me. I think I’m fighting the ball really well in my windows, my short game is very sharp and that can come in pretty handy at the Stadium course. I’m working on tightening up my iron play and I’m driving it well.”
His road to The Players is the result of a lot of paid dues, on the Korn Ferry Tour and two of the PGA Tour’s international circuits. McCumber was the first player to get his Korn Ferry Tour card through two of those tours, PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Mackenzie Tour-Canada.
He won three times on each tour and has 45 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour.
McCumber got his PGA Tour card by finishing 22nd on the Korn Ferry Tour money list in 2019, highlighted by four top-10 finishes.
Tyler McCumber has played the Stadium Course dozens of times, from late afternoon rounds with his father to junior tournaments, college events with the University of Florida and amateur events.
One thing he does know: the course that the rules staff and TPC agronomy staff will present to the players will be nothing like he’s seen before.
“I’ve played this course in every kind of condition, weather, wind direction — except under PGA Tour conditions,” he said. “But I think I have a good database of knowledge that will help me. It’s a chess game. Be aggressive when you have the opportunities but know when to respect the course and its teeth.”
Mark McCumber, shown here following through his shot during the 1989 Doral Ryder Open, was a winner at TPC-Sawgrass and admitted this will be an emotional week. RVR Photos-USA TODAY Sports
Mark McCumber said the shock to the system of young pros who compete in The Players for the first time is a combination of green speed, firmness and hole locations.
“Any rookie or first-time player in this tournament can’t really know what the course is like until the week of the tournament,” he said. “They will see hole locations they’ve never seen. You don’t normally hit into greens that are firm, rolling 13.5 [on the Stimpmeter] with the hole cut three paces from the edge. The patience he and the other young guys will need, their ball-striking, short game, putting and emotional control will test every single aspect of their game.”
Mark McCumber didn’t deny one other thing: his emotions will be tested watching his son play the same course he conquered in 1988. He’s followed his son in hundreds of amateur and professional golf tournaments and said he eventually learned something.
Practice what he preached.
“I’d tell Tyler about being patient, but then I’d be like any other parent watching their kids at a dance recital or soccer game, anxious for them, wanting them to do good,” he said. “But I catch myself being so nervous that I’d have to tell myself, ‘you’re always telling him to do all you can to prepare, totally commit yourself, and then you can live with the results. I needed to be confident in what he was doing.”
But Mark McCumber said the main emotion that will be running through him when Tyler tees off will be sheer joy.
“His mother and I and his entire family will be really happy for him,” he said. “Not many people get to play on the PGA Tour and only the best players in any given year got to be in this championship. It says a lot about his hard work paying off.”
Tyler McCumber required surgery to remove a fingernail so he could play at the Genesis Invitational, and he’s contending early.
No pain, no gain for Tyler McCumber.
The 29-year-old former Florida Gator shot a bogey-free 4-under 67 at Riviera Country Club in the opening round of the Genesis Invitational just days after smashing his hand in a sliding window door and having surgery to have the fingernail removed.
“Tuesday morning I was coming out to the course and I went to open the windows to cool off the hotel room before I left,” he explained. “It went underneath the back of the nail bed and lifted half of the back of the nail up.”
McCumber booked a flight back home to Florida Tuesday night figuring he wouldn’t be able to play, but visited the Tour’s on-site doctor on Wednesday, and the emergency surgeon happened to be a hand specialist.
“He said, ‘We can bandage it up, obviously you can’t play because it’s just too painful, or we can do a procedure where we just rip off the nail, but half of the nail is still intact.’ So, he numbed the finger and ripped off the nail,” said McCumber, who videoed the procedure and said, “watching the video is almost more gross than in person.”
McCumber hit five balls on the range after the procedure.
“Basically, I was able to kind of see if I could hit balls that next day and I was. I just kind of altered my glove and kept this on all day and putted with it on,” he said. “It’s just gone numb. It hurt this morning a little bit. It’s a lot less without the fingernail on there, but you can tell it’s just kind of bleeding all the way through this bandage. Yeah, I mean, Riviera will take your mind off the pain.”
So much so that McCumber shot one of only two bogey-free rounds on Thursday.
Tyler McCumber’s 2020-21 PGA Tour season began impressively. He’s in contention through 54 holes at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
The new season looks good on Tyler McCumber.
The 29-year-old is continuing to build off the best PGA Tour finish of his career with some momentum in the third event of the 2020-21 season. McCumber shot 6-under 66 Saturday to sit four shots off the lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
With 18 holes left to play at Country Club of Jackson, McCumber sits at 11 under, in contention for his first Tour title.
Coming off a second-round 69, McCumber started his day with three birdies and a bogey on the front nine to make the turn at 2 under. On the back nine, McCumber had a five-hole stretch that boosted him up the leaderboard going birdie-birdie-par-birdie-eagle on Nos. 11-15. McCumber’s eagle putt on the par-4 15th, his shining moment of the day, measured 60 feet, 10 inches.
McCumber also made an eagle in the first round on No. 11. He is the only player with two eagles in the tournament.
“I had to kind of hit a high soft driver in there because it was downwind, kind of playing firm, as well, and I hit the driver just right how I imagined it, landed soft, kind of near that front, I think just short, bounced up, and obviously from that distance you’re just trying to get the speed perfect, and I happened to get the line, as well,” McCumber said.
He ended his round with his second bogey of the day on 17 before finishing his round with a par on 18.
McCumber finished the day tied for the second-lowest round of the day, behind Cameron Davis who carded 9-under 63.
McCumber is in the midst of the hottest streak of his Tour career. The former University of Florida golfer missed the cut at the Safeway Open but bounced back in the Dominican Republic, finishing second at last week’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, one shot behind winner Hudson Swafford. There’s something special about the event for McCumber. Last week’s finish was his first top-10 on Tour. His previous best result was a T-19 at the 2018 event, his first career start.
Since missing the cut at the Safeway Open, McCumber has carded rounds of 65-71-69-66-70-69-66. Playing with an active hot streak is something he’s learning to navigate this week in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Yeah, obviously last week takes a lot of energy out of you, in a good way, so always I’ve noticed it is kind of tricky the next week navigating sort of energy and focus,” McCumber said Saturday. “But I tried to enjoy it but not ride the high too much in regards to getting energy back and focus for this week.”
Last season on Tour, his first, McCumber played in 20 events, made the cut in 10 and his best finish was a T-20 at the Puerto Rico Open. In the sevens events he played after the Tour resumed from the 13-week coronavirus break in June, McCumber missed five cuts, withdrew from the 3M Open with a leg injury and placed T-29 at the Barracuda Championship. He also has three career wins on the Latinoamérica Tour.
McCumber, the son of 10-time Tour winner Mark McCumber, earned his PGA Tour card after finishing the 2018-19 season on the Korn Ferry Tour in the top-50 finish.
While he’s in a nice groove on the course, McCumber isn’t getting ahead of himself headed into Sunday’s final round.
“Yeah, absolutely, (there’s) a lot of work left,” McCumber said. “The course is getting so perfect. The greens are probably the best greens I’ve ever putted on. Obviously come out and stay patient and aggressive and kind of just try to do the same thing I did today, make a lot of birdies.”
Hudson Swafford lead the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship after 36 holes by two shots in the Dominican Republic.
A hornet sting between his fingers couldn’t stop Hudson Swafford from taking the lead in the Dominican Republic on Friday.
The former University of Georgia golfer finished the second round 5-under 67 to hold a two-shot lead at 12 under heading into the weekend at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.
Swafford, who started his second round on No. 10, carded birdies on Nos. 12 and 14 and suffered a hornet sting on No. 11 in the joint of his pinky finger to start his round and make the turn at 2 under.
The punches kept coming. His next nine was a bit of a roller coaster. After a bogey on No. 1, Swafford went par-birdie-birdie-bogey to get back to 2 under on the round, then ended with three consecutive birdies.
Swafford, coming off a first-round 65, co-led after 18 holes at Corales Golf Club alongside Scott Harrington, Tyler McCumber and Sepp Straka.
“The wind was a little different today, so definitely the front nine played a little harder I would say after the first four holes kind of being some help wind,” Swafford said. “The last few were back into the wind right there in the middle, so made covering some bunkers a little more difficult with driver and fairways got a little smaller.
“Made a mistake on maybe 5, I guess, but other than that I honestly played pretty good. I gave myself a lot of chances, that’s all that we were trying to do because I feel like I’m rolling it good, I feel like I’m seeing lines pretty good, so just trying to get on the green as fast as possible.”
Swafford said he did not seek medical attention for the sting, but iced it for his first few holes. The sting might have even been a blessing, he said, forcing him to not overthink during Friday’s round.
“I guess it kind of just cleared my mind of the golf thing and just let me focus on something else,” Swafford said.
The 33-year-old is coming off a T-56 finish at the Safeway Open in Napa, California. Last season on Tour, Swafford competed in 10 events, making five cuts and earning one top-10 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. His lone Tour win was in 2017 at the CareerBuilder Challenge.
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Finishing two strokes behind Swafford were Luke List, Sean O’Hair and Justin Suh at 10 under.
List shot a bogey-free 65, tied with Adam Long for the second-lowest round of the day behind Graham DeLaet’s 64. O’Hair finished the day with a 5-under 67.
Suh, 23, carded five birdies Friday to finish but his most impressive moment of the day was his long par putt on No. 18 to finish the day with his second-straight 67.
Tied for fifth at 9 under are Mackenzie Hughes, Long, Straka and Xinjun Zhang.
Entering the weekend T-9 at 8 under with six other players, including Kelly Kraft, was Patrick Rodgers, who made six consecutive birdies Friday on Nos. 7-12 for the longest consecutive birdie streak in a round of his Tour career. Rodgers finished his round 3-under 69 after bogeys on Nos. 13, 16 and 17.
Notable players to miss the cut at were Jhonattan Vegas, reigning champion Graeme McDowell and Charles Howell III.
The 156-player field for next week’s King & Bear Classic is set.
The 156-player field for next week’s Korn Ferry Tour King & Bear Classic is set, with two notable additions who were not in the field at Dye’s Valley this week: Tyler McCumber of Ponte Vedra Beach, who has PGA Tour status and is not in the field for the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, S.C., and four-time PGA Tour winner Chris Kirk.
The event will be held at World Golf Village in St Augustine, Florida.
McCumber qualified for the PGA Tour off his money list standing on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour. Entering the Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, he had made nine of 12 cuts this season.
Also playing at the King & Bear is past Tour winner Johnson Wagner. Mike Weir, an eight-time winner, did not enter.
The tournament will begin on Wednesday and conclude on Saturday, giving players an extra travel day to Utah for the next tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule.
