Hayden Buckley at Q Faculty on Friday.
Getty Pictures
If the agonizing stress of battling for 5 treasured PGA Tour playing cards wasn’t sufficient, chilly and wind descended on North Florida on Friday, sending all the things sideways on the ultimate stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-Faculty — all the things together with, apparently, a complete bunch of golf balls.
The fundamentals from this weekend’s Q-Faculty are as follows: 171 gamers are competing for 5 PGA Tour playing cards and there are 40 extra spots for Korn Ferry Tour standing up for grabs after that. There are journeymen PGA Tour execs and KFT execs with safe standing who’re right here taking a “free roll” and chasing a type of 5 playing cards to get standing on the large tour. There are children chasing standing for the primary time. And there are dozens and dozens and dozens of proficient execs with various ranges of standing in between.
Given the sphere, then, it was considerably surprising to see the scores that got here by means of on Friday throughout two Ponte Vedra Seashore-area programs.
-The 36-hole lead settled at three below par
-Simply eight gamers have been below par by means of two rounds
-The primary-round chief adopted his 61 with a 76
-The Dye’s Valley course averaged greater than two-and-a-half pictures over par
-Sawgrass Nation Membership averaged greater than 5 strokes over par and didn’t yield a single under-par spherical
As Saturday’s spherical begins there’s a three-way tie for the lead between Alistair Docherty, Corey Shaun and Matthew Riedel.
The chase for that fifth spot is heated, too: 4 gamers are T5 at one below par together with PGA Tour mainstay Lanto Griffin.
There’s additionally a logjam round that top-40 quantity: two over par is T23, which sounds safely in, however 4 over par places you in T52. Play onerous, fellas!
There are some notable names on the appropriate and unsuitable aspect of these numbers, together with PGA Tour acquainted faces Hayden Buckley, Matt NeSmith and Richy Werenski (all T9 at even par), Nick Watney and Austin Cook dinner (T15 at one over) all the best way down by means of Doc Redman (T33, three over), Alejandro Tosti (T65, 5 over), Scott Piercy (T79, six over), Justin Suh (T99, seven over), Chez Reavie (T112, eight over), Sam Bennett (T135, 10 over) and lots extra. Most have some assured standing for 2025, however their presence is a reminder of an more and more aggressive prime of the PGA Tour panorama.
There are names you’ll have by no means heard, too, each participant with a particular dream and a novel story. These weeks develop into sliding-doors moments, introductions to these tales and previews of who you’ll see at PGA Tour occasions subsequent yr and past.
There’s Corey Shaun, who missed a lower in Australia by one shot — in any other case he wouldn’t be right here. He opened with 61 and sits T1 regardless of working into Friday’s situations.
Thomas Longbella is chasing a second probability at big-time standing after wrist surgical procedure lower his promising season quick.
Co-leader Alistair Docherty completed No. 32 on the KFT’s factors record, simply outdoors PGA Tour standing. Now he has one other probability to advance, too.
He’s midway there. The WDs started to trickle in on Friday night; some execs have already seen the writing on the wall and that writing doesn’t embrace a top-five end. However most will stick it out by means of the weekend. That is their huge probability for an enormous break, in spite of everything. And some well-timed birdies can go a lengthy approach.
You may see scores right here. And you may watch the high-stakes motion on Golf Channel on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
