PONTE VEDRA, Fla. – Any illusions the players had that they would enjoy four sunny days in Florida during this week’s PGA Tour Q-School sponsored by Korn Ferry were shattered on Thursday’s opening round.
Wind blew strongly at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley. The wind was stronger at Sawgrass Country Club. While Friday’s second may not have been any worse, prepare for the weekend. Expect wind and rain with a high probability of up to 80% on Saturday and Sunday.
Roberto Diaz is a former Jacksonville resident now living in San Antonio. It’s going be a long week.
This did not mean that there were no good scores on the first round.
Harrison Endycott, an Australian who placed 14th on the FedEx Cup Fall point list of the PGA Tour, and Tano Góya, a former DP World Tour champion who now has a base in Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida, shot both 5-under 65s to take a 1-shot lead at the Valley Course. The 72-hole event will determine five final spots for 2024 PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder.
Max McGreevey, Edmond, Oklahoma shot a 4-under-66 at Sawgrass. Doc Redman, Jacksonville, Florida and Hayer Springer from TCU both posted 66s on the Valley Course.
Endycott’s and Goya’s cautious approach was the right thing to do on that day.
Endycott said, “I played really well today. Just didn’t make any mistakes.” He is chasing a Tour card and has been guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour membership for the next season. It was a day to just hang in there and not get greedy.
Goya, 35, an experienced international tourer who has been living in the area for over two years, set out to hit the ball and find it without much trouble.
He said, “Hit the balls great.” Solid ball-striking was the key to my success today.
In the first round, 31 players were par or better but at Sawgrass only seven.
Local leaderboard
The next area players to the top of the leaderboard are former Florida Gator, NCAA individual champion Fred Biondi; former Jacksonville University player Raul Perera; Bartram trail graduate and former DP World Tour winner Julian Suri, and Dawson Armstrong. They all tie for 32nd place at even-par.
Biondi Pereda and Armstrong played on the Valley Course, and Suri was at Sawgrass.
Patton Kizzire, a two-time PGA Tour champion from St. Simons Island in Georgia, started his round at No. The two-time PGA Tour winner Patton Kizzire of St. Simons Island, Georgia began his round at the Valley on No. After bogeying the first hole to reach 3 under par, he bogeyed his next four holes to finish at a score of 71.
Chandler Blanchet from Atlantic Beach in Florida shot 71 as well at Valley, and Taylor Funk from Ponte Vedra Beach scored a 74 on Sawgrass.
Diaz gets a break from eye surgery
Diaz underwent eye surgery to remove a pterygium from his left eye in September. If he hadn’t been a good boy, this might have still been a problem.
Diaz told the story of taking his father to an eye doctor in San Antonio, where the ophthalmologist noted the pterygium.
Diaz explained that the procedure was normal and nothing out of the ordinary. It was blocking a small amount of my left eye’s vision. It was removed, and the difference is huge.
Diaz said that the biggest benefit is improved depth perception, and seeing more color and break changes on the greens.
He said, “Putting became difficult towards the end of the season.” “Most putts I thought were uphill were actually downhill. It was difficult to judge.
Now?
He said, “You can see better… you notice a slight color change.” “I didn’t notice that I lost quite a lot of vision in my left eye.”
Former PGA Tour Winners Struggle
The 16 players who are in the Q-School field have all won on the PGA Tour. This week, they’re off to a bad start.
Kevin Tway, who tied for 20th place with a score of 69 in the Valley’s first round, was the low Tour winner. Wesley Bryan (Sawgrass), shot 70, and Sung Kang had a score of 71.
Robert Streb, a two-time Tour champion, shot 72 at Valley while four-time Tour champ Sean O’Hair struggled with 73 at Sawgrass.
Past success no guarantee
Kevin Chappell, who was playing for UCLA in 2007, won the Hayt Individual title at Sawgrass. Brandon Jelley took it home in 2016, while playing for Oklahoma State. Chappell shot 75 at Sawgrass and Jelley shot 71 on Thursday.
The Sea Best Invitational is played every year in the Valley. Previous winners have had similar experiences. Biondi and Ricky Castillo were co-medallists in the 2023 event, while Castillo won the tournament in 2020. Castillo shot 73 on Thursday at the Valley.
Jon Pak, of Florida State University won the Sea Best competition in 2019, but had a score of 74 on Friday.
Peace in the Valley
The Sawgrass Country Club, which is adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean and the Valley Course played harder in the first round, by more than two strokes.
The Valley’s average score was 70.791 compared to Sawgrass’ 73.099 for the first round. Sawgrass recorded 38 double-bogeys compared to 32 at Valley and eight triple-bogeys or more compared to three at Valley.
The Valley players had 227 birdies, and nine eagles. Sawgrass only produced 170 birdies, and one eagle.
Noah Hoffman’s hole-in one at No. Noah Hoffman hit a hole-in-one at No. 3 from 193 yards away.
The Valley’s toughest hole was 17. 17, at 4.357 strokes. This is one of two par 5 holes that were converted to par 4s for the tournament. The par-5 hole first was the easiest, with a score of 4.583.
The No. 18 was another par-5 that became a par-4 for the tournament. The average was 4.432. The par-5 11th hole was the easiest at Sawgrass, averaging 4.951.
Flip-flopping A1A
Half of the field who played on the Valley Course Thursday will be at Sawgrass Friday. The lower half of the field (81 players) through 36 holes will compete on Sawgrass on Saturday, and Valley on Sunday. The high half does the opposite.
The field has been reduced to 162 after withdrawals. One of the reasons for withdrawal was good: Jacksonville resident Carl Yuan was promoted to the top spot after finishing 126th in the FedEx Cup Fall final points standings. After the suspension of Jon Rahm he is now exempt from the Tour for next season.
