Golf Update: 2010 WNB Golf Classic’s 1st round recap
The 2010 Nationwide Tours’ WNB Golf Classic, which is taking place at the Midland Country Club, has stepped into the second round with some surprising results. Here is a quick recap.
The day started out slow for the player who is still in the qualifying school. Blake Parks took a position to card a birdie at the 4th hole but he failed. He tried again but there were constant failures all the way to the
7th hole. When asked about the missed shots, Parks replied that those failures were a constant source of encouragement, as every time he tried, he went close enough.
When he reached 10th tee, the worst thing happened as Parks raised his driver, tilted his body to give full momentum and nailed his first shot off the tee. The shot went against the expectations and straight into the bunker
to the left. By the end of the11th tee, Parks was left with 5 over par. However, down the lane he birdied the final hole and wrapped up the day with a 3 over par.
Parks was nine shots behind the dyad of Ron Whittaker and Brenden Pappas. Experts believe that Parks is still in the Q- School, which means that he still has a long way to rise to the top. Still, he should be appreciated for keeping
himself calm and consistent even after the series of bogeys, in the presence of professional players.
As a token of knowledge, Blake Parks has advanced to the 2011 PGA Tour after seizing the third spot in the pre-qualifying round of PGA Qualifying School. He delivered 74, 66, 66 and 65 in the four rounds of the tournament at Yankee
Hill Country Club. Ron Whittaker and Brenden Pappas emerged as the leaders of the round. Both of them posted six-under 66 to seize the first spot. Moreover, both carded eight birdies and two bogeys when rest of the field of 84 players could not manage to break
the par.
A little about Whittaker; he is the 2007 Chattanooga Classic winner. However, he managed to make cuts in only seven events out of 17 starts, this year. His best finish was a tie for sixth position at the Rex Hospital Open. Regarding his yesterday’s performance,
he posted four successive birdies in the front nine, including a 40-foot putt at the third hole while a 20-footer on the fourth.
As for Pappas, he is a playing member of the PGA Tour but fell out of contention for the FedEx Cup playoffs after missing 12 cuts in 19 starts. The sole achievement he holds is a 13th spot finish at the Nationwide's Fort Smith Classic in June. Coming to
his performance in the Thursday’s round, he birdied seven of his first 12 holes and pared the rest.
Moving forward, they were followed by Alistair Presnell, Brandt Jobe, Nate Smith, Andrew Svoboda, Major Manning, William McGirt and Gary Woodland. The group posted five-under 67 to take the second spot. Apart from them, three other players also tried seeking
the spot light. These three were Tommy Gainey, Hunter Haas and Martin Piller. Media reports claim that the trio is in the race to claim its third victory of the season.
This is it for the first round of the Nationwide Tour’s WNB Golf Classic which will wind up on Sunday, 26th September 2010. The tournament, carrying a purse of $525,000, has entered the second fold with two leaders while a group of seven players in the third
spot. Although, the weather conditions were terrible with strong winds blowing, but still the players tried to keep themselves on par. Weather forecast suggests that no severe winds will blow today. Let us see what happens next.
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