Triple bogey haunts Lee as he teeters on edge
Danny Lee’s PGA Tour season is in danger of finishing on a low note.
Lee has opened the Dell Technologies Championship with a four-over par round of 75, perilously dropping him to 72nd in the FedEx Cup playoff rankings.
With just the top 70 golfers progressing to the next playoff event, Lee needs to bounce back and most likely requires a made cut to keep his season alive.
Lee’s round was damaged by a triple bogey on the 13th hole, hampering what was otherwise a fairly steady showing with two birdies and three bogies at the difficult TPC Boston course.
The Kiwi No 1 sits in a share of 75th in the 96-man field, and has now gone over a month without an under-par round following three consecutive missed cuts.
The tournament is led by Dustin Johnson, who backed up his win last week at the Northern Trust with a five-under par 66 to lead by a shot over Kyle Stanley, Marc Leishman, and the Spanish pair of Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm.
Johnson’s victory last week snapped a five month winless drought, and has him confident of retaining his lead in the competitive FedEx Cup race. “When you win, you’re playing well, so it gives you a lot of confidence,” Johnson said. “For me, that was one thing that was probably lacking a little bit the last few months is just the confidence, because I wasn’t seeing the shots that I wanted to see. I wasn’t consistently hitting them. But after last week, I’ve got a lot of confidence now.” Currently, Lee is the only New Zealander assured of playing on the PGA Tour next season, but Tim Wilkinson and Steven Alker are attempting to make the most of their second chance. Both Wilkinson and Alker failed to finish in the top 125 on the PGA Tour, meaning they did not automatically regain their cards, but they still have a chance to do so through the second-tier Web.com Tour playoffs.
The Web.com playoffs consist of four tournaments, from which the top 25 earners who are not already exempt will earn the right to play on the PGA Tour next season.
The pair both successfully used this pathway last season, and have started soundly in the 2017 edition.
Through two rounds, Wilkinson sits in a share of 41st at one-over par, following rounds of 71 and 72. Alker is two shots ahead, tied for 25th after rounds of 71 and 70.