Gavin Hall has tough first round at Turning Stone
Gavin Hall, the 15-year old amateur who received a sponsor exemption to attend the Turning Stone Resort Championship, had high hopes going into the event but didn’t play as well as was expected after his first round on Thursday. With PGA Tour history on the line Hall shot a 6-over 78, but was still smiling when all was said and done.
“It was a good day. It was all right, just a struggle from the first hole as you guys could see," said Hall."But that's going to happen in golf. It was just unfortunate, one of my bad days of golf happened at a PGA Tour event.”
Hall is making his PGA Tour debut at the Turning Stone Resort Championship and if he makes the cut he will become the second youngest player in tour history to make it past a tournament cut.
Hall entered the tournament after a good couple of weeks in the amateur league where he shot a 10-under 62 at the U.S. Junior Amateur two weeks ago.
“But I still have a lot of confidence," the Pittsford, N.Y., high school sophomore said. "I've been having strong finishes the last three or four weeks. I think I can definitely improve on it and post a good number (Friday)."
Hall had the largest fan following, about 200 encouraging faces followed the left handed player around the course. Hall started his round with double bogeys but birdied the par-five fifth. He didn’t get much luck on the back nine however, and bogeyed the 12th and 14th and had a triple bogey on the 13th.
"Middle part of the round was just rough. I wasn't in rhythm," he said, but did manage to walk away with having learned something: "I learned to keep your emotions in control. That's the thing."
Hall’s playing partners were Tim Wilkinson of New Zealand and Cameron Triangle. Wilkinson, also a left-handed player, qualified for the tournament on Monday and shot a five-under 67. He was very impressed with Hall’s performance overall and commended the young player for his skills.
“It's hard watching someone that's a little bit nervous on the first few holes. I think he had a little bit of adrenaline going early on," said Wilkinson. "He hit it over a few greens, but after that he played really well. As long as he has fun and learns from it, he's got a big future in front of him. He's got a good game.”
Hall won the New York State Boys Amateur two years in a row. He passed up the opportunity to defend his title this year after accepting the invitation to attend the Turning Stone, a decision that was “unfortunate” as the tournaments overlapped but also exciting because it was a new adventure.
After setting an all-time tournament scoring record at the U.S. Junior Amateur Hall with his 10-under 62, Hall put up a good fight for the title in a playoff he lost by one shot. Hall also won the Rochester District Amateur Championship for the second year in a row, finishing 13 under par.
Last week Hall participated in the Porter Cup where he finished in second place after a playoff with David Chung, the highest ranked amateur in the world.
Hall’s winning quality is that no matter how he finishes, he always looks for the positive side of things. He is still young and has a lot of time to work on his game. He has had to compete all week in order to win a qualifying spot in this weekend’s main event and it all comes down to how well he plays on Friday.
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