PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Any illusions that the players in this week’s PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry would have four idyllic days in sunny Florida were shattered in Thursday’s first round.
The wind blew hard at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley. It blew harder across the street at the Sawgrass Country Club. And while Fxriday’s second might not be any worse, get ready for the weekend: wind and rain, upwards of an 80 percent chance on Saturday and Sunday.
“I think that it’s not going to get any easier,” said Roberto Diaz, a former Jacksonville resident who now lives in San Antonio. “It’s going to be a grind all week.”
However, that didn’t mean a lack of good scores in the first round, especially at the Valley Course.
Harrison Endycott of Australia, who finished 14 spots out of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall points list, and Tano Goya of Argentina, a past DP World Tour winner who has set up a home base in Ponte Vedra Beach, both shot 5-under 65s at the Valley Course to take a one-shot lead in the 72-hole tournament that will determine the final five spots for the 2024 PGA Tour season and Korn Ferry Tour status for the rest.
Max McGreevey of Edmond, Oklahoma, shot 4-under 66 at Sawgrass and Doc Redman of Jacksonville, Florida, a former Clemson player, and Hayden Springer, who came out of TCU, posted 66s at the Valley Course.
It was a day that cried out for the cautious approach and that’s what Endycott and Goya did.
“I played pretty nice today, just didn’t really make any mistakes,” said Endycott, who is guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour status for next season and is chasing one of the five Tour cards. “It was just a day of kind of hang in there … don’t get greedy.”
Goya, a 35-year-old veteran of several international tours who has lived in the area for more than two years, had a goal of hitting the ball, and then finding it with little trouble.
“Hit the ball great,” he said. “Solid ball-striking got me through a lot of fairways and greens, so that was pretty much the key today.”
Thirty-one players broke par in the first round but only seven at Sawgrass.
Local leaderboard
Other than Goya and Redman, the next highest area players on the leaderboard were former Florida Gator and NCAA individual champion Fred Biondi, former Jacksonville University player Raul Pereda, Bartram Trail graduate and past DP World Tour winner Julian Suri and Dawson Armstrong, who are all tied for 32nd at even-par.
Biondi, Pereda and Armstrong played at the Valley Course and Suri at Sawgrass.
Two-time PGA Tour winner Patton Kizzire of St. Simons Island, Georgia, began his round at the Valley at No. 10, eagled the 16th hole, birdied No. 1 to get to 3 under, then bogeyed four of his next six holes to finish with a 71.
Chandler Blanchet of Atlantic Beach, Florida, also shot 71 at the Valley and Taylor Funk of Ponte Vedra Beach had a 74 at Sawgrass.
Diaz catches a break with eye surgery
Diaz had eye surgery in September to remove a pterygium on his left eye. And if hadn’t been such a good son, it might still be a problem.
Diaz said he took his father to the eye doctor in San Antonio and the ophthalmologist noticed the pterygium on Diaz.
“It was a normal procedure, nothing crazy,” Diaz said. “But it was obstructing a little bit of sight in my left eye. So I had it removed and it’s been a big difference.”
Diaz said the main benefit was improved depth perception and seeing more break and color changes on the greens.
“Putting became very difficult at the end of the year,” he said. “A lot of putts that looked to me that were uphill, they were actually downhill. It was just tough to judge.”
And now?
“You see more clear … you see a little bit more color change,” he said. “I lost quite a bit of sight in my left eye that I didn’t even notice.”
Past PGA Tour winners struggle
There are 16 players in the field have won on the PGA Tour but have found the need to play in Q-School. They’re not off to a great start this week.
The low Tour winner in the first round was Kevin Tway with a 69 at the Valley, tied for 20th. Wesley Bryan (Sawgrass) shot 70 and Sung Kang (Valley) had a 71.
Two-time Tour winner Robert Streb shot 72 at the Valley and four-time Tour winner Sean O’Hair struggled to a 73 at Sawgrass.
Past success no guarantee
Kevin Chappell won The Hayt individual title at Sawgrass in 2007 when he was at UCLA and Brandon Jelley won it in 2016 when he was at Oklahoma State. But Chappell shot 71 at Sawgrass on Thursday and Jelley had a 75.
It was much the same for past winners of the Sea Best Invitational, played each year at the Valley. Biondi was the co-medalist with Ricky Castillo in the 2023 tournament and Castillo was the outright winner in 2020 but shot 73 at the Valley on Thursday.
Jon Pak of Florida State won the Sea Best in 2019 but had a 74 on Thursday.
Peace in the Valley
Predictably, since it’s adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, the Sawgrass Country Club played more difficult in the first round than the Valley Course, in fact, more than two strokes higher.
Sawgrass averaged 73.099 in the first round, while the Valley averaged 70.791. Sawgrass had 38 double-bogeys to the Valley’s 32 and eight scores of triple-bogey or higher, to three at the Valley.
Players at the Valley had 227 birdies and nine eagles, while Sawgrass yielded only 170 birdies and one eagle.
The only eagle at Sawgrass was a hole-in-one at No. 3 by Noah Hoffman, from 193 yards out.
The toughest hole at the Valley was No. 17, at 4.357 strokes. It’s one of the two holes converted from a par 5 to par 4 for the tournament. The easiest hole was the par-5 first, at 4.583.
The biggest tester at Sawgrass was No. 18, another par-5 hole that was made a par 4 for the tournament. It averaged 4.432. The easiest hole at Sawgrass was the par-5 11th at 4.951.
Flip-flopping across A1A
The half of the field that played at the Valley Course on Thursday will play at Sawgrass on Friday, and vice-versa. The low half of the field through 36 holes (81 players) will compete at Sawgrass on Saturday and the Valley on Sunday and the high half plays the reverse of that.
With withdrawals, the field is down to 162 players. One of the withdrawals was for a good reason: Jacksonville resident Carl Yuan, who was 126th on the final FedEx Cup Fall points standings, was moved up to No. 125 after the suspension of Jon Rahm, and is now exempt for the Tour next season.
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