J.J. Killeen summits the leaderboard at Midwest Classic along with three other players
J.J. Killeen, Nicholas Thompson, Travis Hampshire and Brian Vranesh all four are now in at the top of the leaderboard, sharing the lead of the first round of the Midwest Classic at Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate Overland Park, Kansas.
The day turned out to be a low scoring day as no fewer than 118 players out of 156 field broke par. Leaders pulled in first round scores of eight-under, 63, leaving the leaderboard crowded at the top.
Will Dodson and Chris Thompson both shot seven-under, 64 to settle for a joint fifth, although both have managed to be part of the current Nationwide Tour event through the qualifying rounds on Monday commonly known as the Monday Qualifiers.
Another nine players are contending for the seventh spot including Jin Park, James Sacheck, Richard T. Lee, Won Joon Lee, Scott Weatherly, Jason Kokrak, Aaron Goldberg, James Nitties and Brock Mackenzie with their respective first round scores of six-under,
65.
Killeen, who has already won two events on the Nationwide Tour in the current season, is all set to pull in a third victory on the tour.
“It'd be great to win again. I've got the same mentality I had for the other events,” said Killeen. “Everybody's goal out here is to move on to the PGA TOUR and knowing that you're already doing that does feel like you're playing with 'house money' and so
you're a little calmer.”
Killeen is now all set to move to the PGA Tour after he soared to number two on the Tour Money List.
“I really have played well the whole year. It's just that right now all parts of my game are really sharp,” said Killeen who became only a few of the lucky players on the tour who won back to back events including the Utah Championship followed by the COX
Classic on Nationwide Tour.
Killeen has missed just two cuts in the BMW Charity Pro-Am and last week’s Price Cutter Charity Championship in his 16 starts in the season.
The $550,000 event will now move to the second round in the weekend and has a winner’s prize share of $112,500.
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