William McGirt hopeful to land among the first top-10 for the first time in his career – Golf News
After missing two cuts among the three starts on the West Coast swing, William McGirt bounced back strongly with an eight-under par overall score at the end of the second round of the Transitions Championship on Friday, March 16, 2012.
The tournament is being played at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.
McGirt is aiming for the first top-10 finish ever of his career and appears to be in a good position to succeed.
“For some reason, being on the West Coast for so long, I still never adjusted,” McGirt said. “I was still waking up at 4:30 every morning. But you get back into some familiar territory and on grass that you are very familiar with; I grew up on Bermuda grass”.
He was impressive on Thursday as he carded a bogey-free five under par 66 to stand tied for the 10th position on the leaderboard.
During the second round, he surpassed the number of birdies he made on Thursday by making six on Friday.
However, three bogeys that he scored on Friday were the main difference that restricted him to take the midway clubhouse lead in the event.
Yet, his three-under par second-round score was enough to place him tied for the second position, two shots behind the leader, Jason Dufner.
He joined the overnight leader, Padraig Harrington, after Harrington faltered and slipped down the leaderboard with a two-over par 73 in his second round.
McGirt is playing his second straight year on the US PGA Tour. He believes that he failed to play good golf last year because he was not familiar with the venues of the different events that he played.
However, it is a totally different story this year. He has experience on the courses he is playing on, and can make a better judgment while making his shots.
Therefore, he is expecting it to be a better season and is confident to record some good finishes in the end.
“Last year, one thing I tried to do was play practice rounds with veteran guys, and I’ve played a lot of practice rounds with David Duval,” McGirt said.
He added, “Just being able to pick his brain and get some good info helped me a lot. It’s really probably paid off more this year than it did last year”.
The only other Palmetto player to make the cut on Friday was Jonathan Byrd. He finished right on the cut line with two-under par 141.
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